62 stories by "Lisa Buscani"
When it comes to piano cabaret, I'm spoiled; I've attended the last several years of Justin Hayford's informative, charming cabaret series at Davenport's. Hayford's a compelling storyteller …
RECOMMENDED Modernist composer Charles Ives may be one of the most famous unknown composers in American music. Largely ignored during his lifetime, Ives' innovative work continues to influen…
RECOMMENDED Before writing his breakout hit, “The Glass Menagerie,” in 1944, Tennessee Williams also worked on another memory play, one that he wouldn't finish until 1977. “…
RECOMMENDED Marriage is challenging; a marriage between two people whose belief systems are fundamentally different might be doomed. Yet Charles Darwin and his wife Emma managed to overcome …
RECOMMENDED Hungarian-born playwright Ferenc Molnar loved this country enough to begin citizenship proceedings. But he had no love for capitalist deal-making; his sharp criticism of American…
RECOMMENDED The World War II massacre in Jedwabne, Poland was long considered to be one of the worst Nazi war crimes; hundreds of Polish Jews were trapped in a barn and burned alive. But whi…
RECOMMENDED Creators want the best for the things they make; every song composed should win a Grammy, every book can be the great American novel. Given that artists always dream big, it's a …
RECOMMENDED When it comes to community and contact, city dwellers take our myriad options for granted. We surround ourselves with like-minded people, and when our minds fail to meet, we move…
RECOMMENDED Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?"Â We can never really know what the "truth" is where history's concerned; maybe it's just a fanciful strip of ter…
RECOMMENDED Eleanor Marx (Dana Black) is the heir to her father Karl's throne, if such a thing is possible in socialism. She translates her father's work and travels the lecture circuit, …
RECOMMENDED Sexual orientation is all too often reduced to an either/or binary"straight or gay, one or the other. Bisexual or pansexual people are presented by both straight and gay communit…
Half of the genius of talent is an artist's ability to get others to support his work. Despite his stunning musical ability, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart failed to cultivate patrons who could sup…
Ain't no doubt, it's a rough world out there. We're surrounded by horrific events on a daily basis; it's enough to make us permanently crawl under a rock. But we don't; we find comfort in…
RECOMMENDED The well-intended cliché "God never gives you more than you can stand," offers precious little comfort for the world's atheists. Stephen Karam's latest deftly examines the n…
Things may not change quickly out in Colorado, but its citizens know how to adjust when it makes their community more livable; witness the state's recent pot legalization. Eric Schmiedl's ad…
Photo: Lee Miller RECOMMENDED In 1968, eleven-year-old Mary Bell was convicted of strangling two toddlers, shocking the English public and forcing them to re-evaluate their attitudes toward …
In his writings on punishment, German philosopher Immanuel Kant stressed that punishment must fit the crime and that the criminal should not be used as a means to the state's end. If left…
RECOMMENDED Each new scene in Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins' chronicle of family dysfunction and racism is greeted with the progressively louder sound of cicadas, the insects that rise to the surfa…
RECOMMENDED Adaptations are tricky. The choices are endless: what to leave in, what to leave out. The 1861 Charles Dickens novel, which received mixed reviews when first published, remains a…
RECOMMENDED When I reviewed “500 Clown and the Elephant Deal” four years ago, I remember wishing I knew more about Madam Barker, the sexy, charming "vocalist of the apocalypse…
I waited for it, and I wasn't disappointed. I knew Neil LaBute's latest could not be just a simple story about a man’s love for his late wife. There had to be a nasty wrench in there s…
RECOMMENDED The insanely prolific, Pulitzer prize-nominated Theresa Rebeck, she of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” fame, tries her hand at Greek tragedy. And while Rebeck captur…
RECOMMENDED After careening from the elegant wit of Wilde to the absurdist work of Beckett, Irish theater of the 1990s saw radical changes. Ensembles focused on gritty, darkly humorous urban…
Hero cops Alex (Nick Mikula) and Hal (Mark Pracht) face investigation over rape charges filed by Hope (Kate Black-Spence). Barbara Lhota's script careens back and forth between the two cops'…
RECOMMENDED More than 16 million Americans served in World War II; in contrast, United States forces in Iraq numbered 112,000 in 2010 to 2011. While we may still be mired in conflict, we are…
