What is there to hold onto in the darkest of times? Music, laughter, friendship, and stories sustain Lisa Jura as she leaves her family in Vienna, Austria to escape Nazi persecution. Her tru…
Voltaire once wrote, "We should be considerate to the living; to the dead we owe only the truth." Playwright Lauren Gunderson has done exactly this with a fascinating trip through time an…
Nearly 20 years ago, a 21-year-old gay college student named Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, robbed, beaten, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyomi…
It's not often that a performer has a biopic written for him while he can still go view it. The pioneering comic and civil activist Dick Gregory had the chance to do just that last year in N…
Before the "Hamilton" craze of the historical musical with unapologetically anachronistic elements, "Spring Awakening" triumphed as an innovative rock musical in 2005 with its Broadway debut…
In 2017, a writer on “Odyssey” named Julia Cooper wrote a short article titled "Satire Isn't An Excuse for Bad Writing." It may have been obscure and likely touched a few raw ner…
On a rainy Saturday in September, I was delighted to be invited to a production at the Church Hill Theatre, one of the few theatres in the area that I had never visited. Intimate yet comfort…
“There are few people in the world whom I love, and even fewer of whom I think well.” These sentiments, expressed by Austen heroine Elizabeth Bennett, accurately describe the com…
"Chess" is a musical notorious for its many varied adaptations and revivals, including a recent West End revival; the Tidewater Players' production, directed by Mark Briner, was the Maryland…
1. 'R & J' at Vagabond Players. “Please don't miss this show. We owe it to ourselves to enjoy 4 hard working actors make magic on the stage.” – April Forrer. READ re…
I went into this production knowing nothing about it. I knew it was based on William Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" and that this classic story is reimagined by Joe Calarco and it is set…
What would cause a barber named Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, and a restaurateur named Mrs. Lovett to go bloody mad in modern day East London? Was Sweeney Todd born a demon or did so…
Maryland Concert Series Season Opening Gala featuring the “Bad Boys of Ballet” has a little bit of something for everyone. The twenty-five piece show demonstrated the talents of …
Drawing laugh after laugh from an engaged audience, The Colonial Players open their 2018-19 season by celebrating the legacy of the great Neil Simon with an uproarious production of “R…
Mark Briner is currently directing “Chess” at the Tidewater Players, now playing through September 16, 2018 at The Historic Havre de Grace Opera House. Mark is a graduate of T…
“Gloria” is a really, really good comedy. And it is a really, really good drama. The reason it's so good? It doesn't go for the easy laugh or the obvious guffaw; although some of…
In Ballybeg, a fictitious town in Ireland, in late summer of 1936, a memory flowing with the interconnected stories of five sisters unfolds that concedes a bittersweet picture of inevitable …
Olney Theatre Center is currently producing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless musical “South Pacific,” featuring a first-rate cast that will keep you engaged and enchanted…
Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu once said, “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.” Six strangers take a journey towards both in the delightful dramedy …
Inspired by the work of outsider artist, Nukain Mabuza, South African Playwright, Athol Fugard offers the audience an intimate look into the stories of three South Africans whose lives, by v…
Martin Grams is an American historian who has written extensively on radio, television and films. Grams has provided audio commentary for commercial releases of DVDs and BluRays, written hun…
It was only one act–the first act. And that wasn’t nearly enough. This delicious, thought-provoking, fiery new musical by Britt Bonney, a composer and lyricist, music director, a…
The 1994 musical “Passion” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine won the Tony Award that year for best musical. It was inspired by the film 'Passione d'Amore' which was based on t…
Join more than 60 D.C.-area theater companies at the Kennedy Center for a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals in development by local, regional, and national pl…
What do Elvis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix have in common? To start, you more than likely know their names and signature musical styles. Perhaps you own an album or two. You…