62 stories by "Lisa Buscani"
RECOMMENDED Most family dynamics are difficult; they're even tougher when family members are flawed beyond redemption. Playwright Rhett Rossi explores the difficulty of forgiveness, capturin…
Benjamin Franklin once said "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days"; that's the premise of Larry Shue's critically panned but popularly acclaimed annoying-guest-comes-to-dinner …
RECOMMENDED There's nothing wrong with living a driven, goal-centered life, unless the people in your life don't share your goals. Julia Brownell offers a compelling look at a family that no…
RECOMMENDED The capricious nature of the insect world provides an excellent metaphor for our society's savagery in Steep's compelling look at a family in crisis. The fragile ecosystem of bee…
RECOMMENDED There's nothing like a good plague scenario to set our imaginations whirring: we all wonder how we'd survive the zombie invasion or the next Black Death. Carrie Barrett's new sol…
RECOMMENDED Just in time for Pride and the death rattle of DOMA, Bailiwick Chicago offers a heartfelt portrait of a family redefining itself after a loss as its members fail to connect. It's…
RECOMMENDED Director Shane Carruth's 2004 movie “Prime” discusses the hazards and pitfalls of time travel, as two engineers voyage into the future to enhance their fortunes and b…
RECOMMENDED As the gay community inches toward legalized marriage in the Illinois legislature, it cannot escape the fact that no amount of social sanction will save it from the melancholia o…
The tortured artist is a cliché for a reason. Creators have exorcised their demons through their chosen disciplines since art's beginning. But "Reverb" playwright Leslye Headland's script l…
RECOMMENDED Full disclosure: I, Lisa Buscani, am the 1982 Ohio State Duet Acting Champion, a card-carrying, pin-wearing member of the National Forensic League. Hold your applause. I took it …
RECOMMENDED There's no tragedy like a Greek tragedy; outsized bad decisions from deeply flawed characters, combined with unknown information make for eye-popping, head-spinning catastrophe. …
RECOMMENDED Playwright Nina Raine is very good at investigating tangents. Her characters have mean fun with each other, exploring gender differences, mocking each other's vocational directio…
RECOMMENDED As honorable as it may be, most of us could never submit to the punishment that is military service. Imagine then, being forced to submit to that part of military service that is…
RECOMMENDED Equal parts humbug and dazzling accomplishment, P.T. Barnum's life was so extraordinary, it's amazing someone didn't think of setting it to music before 1980. And since then, one…
RECOMMENDED The kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby remains one of the media's "trials of the century," a hype fest that turned an outrage into a freak show. Â But the tragic crime is …
RECOMMENDED Sherry (Jessica Saxvik), the ninth victim of serial killer The Marrying Man (Robert Montgomery), attempts to distract her assailant with a series of stories that sample numerous …
Andrew Bovell revamped "Speaking in Tongues"(1996) and brought it to the screen as the critically praised and popularly well-received "Lantana" (2001). The film corrected much of what the pl…
RECOMMENDED As an instructor in DePaul's College of Computing and Digital Media, I chafe when I see "computer geeks" dramatized for the stage. They never resemble the folks I work with. My c…
RECOMMENDED The barbaric Sandy Hook shootings left us all wondering, "when will it stop?" "columbinus," Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli's updated dramatization of the Columbine massacre, driv…
As the wars wind down, American servicemen and women will return and assimilate into a peacetime society. Ethan Lipton's script attempts to examine whether we're ready for that eventuality, …
RECOMMENDED When Terence Rattigan's chronicle of the lives and loves of British airmen debuted in 1942, England had been at war with Germany since 1939. While American audiences might view t…
Brecht's parable looks at class warfare, loyalty and the then-revolutionary idea that an adoptive parent might be more suitable than a biological one. Unfortunately, Promethean Theatre Ensem…
RECOMMENDED It isn't easy to dramatize what can't be dramatized on stage; a horseracing play can't rely on the nags to get the point across. But Carter Lewis' script captures the energy of T…
RECOMMENDED Amnesia victim Claire (Kathryn Bartholomew) wakes each morning to a new reality; she can't remember her old one. Husband Richard (Giuseppe A. Ribaudo) and son Kenny (Kevin Lamber…
RECOMMENDED "Why is everyone always cryin' at your house?" asks Pale (Ryan Kitley) in "Burn This." Because it's a Lanford Wilson play. Everyone's always crying, circumstances are always cata…
