128 stories by "Christopher Rawson"
Take the exploitation of black America during Reconstruction, structure it with metaphoric parallels to the science of mechanics, interweave quotations from dozens of contemporary sources, t…
"And thus," says Feste, the professional fool presiding over the "Twelfth Night" festivities, "the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."
NEW YORK " Frederick August Kittel, Jr. always said "my father very rarely came around." He grew up in the cultural environment of his mother, Daisy Wilson, which is why, when his father die…
As the title initially suggests, "Lungs" has a lot of words. Director Spencer Whale starts it with a silent interpretive dance that in hindsight you realize epitomizes the story's general ou…
Which of your senses would you give up first? Granted, the five enhance each other. But taste " that would be first to go, right? Then feeling " even with all the physical danger that would …
With more wit and thought than puns and pratfalls, this is what's meant by "high comedy." But for all its delicious dialogue, Ivan Turgenev's play is never arch. Not Noel Coward, it's earthi…
NEW YORK " For its 46th annual induction, the Theater Hall of Fame gathered theater professionals, families and friends to celebrate eight additions to the 536 already adorning the upper lob…
He's a Texan, Pittsburgher and New Yorker, but mainly, actor-playwright Eugene Lee is a native of the stage.
Why now? Why Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in 2016? Because money still trumps love. Because racism and anti-Semitism flourish. And because the quality of mercy is indeed strained "…
We love our children, but do they love us? (Did we love our parents?) Peter Ustinov put it this way: "Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth." Children necessarily win i…
Yes, "Hand to God" is just as funny as you've heard, and if you haven't heard, you must live too far away from the South Side to hear the gales of laughter. But "gales" isn't strong enough "…
Something old and something new: Quantum Theatre's shows are rarely conventional or predictable, but Lope de Vega's "Peribanez" plays with conventions in surprising ways, while its ending is…
Summertime, and the theater is easy . . . except that it isn't always, not when it's Samuel Beckett.
What fun! But first, some history.
For the 12th annual version of its signature Theatre Festival in Black & White, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre mixes and matches its one-act plays with a difference. Rather than grouping…
The New Horizon Theatre has done us a favor by reviving "The Old Settler," partly because it's a reminder of the playwright, John Henry Redwood (1943-2003), who had substantial ties to …
When is a cabaret not a cabaret, or a play not a play?
It's as if Mike Bartlett's play isn't wearing any clothes, and I exited thinking, in the hyperbole of fresh enthusiasm, why aren't all plays like this?! Who needs furniture, props, eve…
For years, the house at 1727 Bedford Ave. in the Hill District has sat as a rebuke to Pittsburgh " derelict, crumbling, the windows rotting. Visiting theater artists and other pilgrims …
The one thing everyone seems to know about "The Flick" is that it's long " and it turns out to be longer than you've heard, because it's three hours plus the intermission.
An African American, a Jew and a WASP walk into a bar . . . That's how the joke might begin, except in this case it isn't a bar, there's also a Muslim-American, and "Disgraced" isn't (as its…
The eighth annual August Wilson Monologue Competition had a special guest last night at the August Wilson Center: Denzel Washington, in town preparing to direct and star in a movie of Mr. Wi…
Shakespeare's comedies are supposed to be fun, and pruned and reinvented with more than a touch of improv, this Filter Theatre version of "Twelfth Night," direct from London to the Byham The…
On the stage, just five actors, because that's what the economics of new plays demands. But projected on a soaring rear wall suggesting filing cabinets or concentration camp concrete, a visu…
NEW YORK " That medium-large island off the coast of Europe continues to exercise considerable fascination on our stage. Here are two bold British imports causing a stir on Broadway, "K…
