Author Archives: Bill Hirschman
Veteran Playwrights Gather For Seminars At CityWrights
Playwrights Tina Howe, Lauren Gunderson, Robert Caisley and Steve Yockey are the headliners among an experienced group of speakers this weekend in Miami at the annual CityWrights conference for professional and aspiring playwrights as well plus entertainment lawyers and arts educators.
GableStage Season Features McCraney’s Antony & Cleopatra, and Durang’s Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike
GableStage’s 2013-2014 slate includes the just- coronated Tony winner for best play, Christopher Durang’s hilarious Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Equally notable is the debut of hometown hero Tarell Alvin McCraney’s reinterpretation of Antony and Cleopatra in a joint production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Public Theatre in New York City that is likely to attract international attention.
Breaking News: TTOPA Evicted After Current Show Closes
Tamarac Theatre of the Performing Arts will shut down, at least temporarily, after the end of its current show June 30 because its landlord is evicting the company after 13 years, said General Manager Bill Schmookler.
Women’s Theatre Project Celebrates Lesbian Themes With Girl Play Festival
If, as La Cage aux Folles’ Zaza suggests looking at life from a different angle, The Women’s Theatre Project’s annual Girl Play series of staged readings June 21-23 examines life from yet another point of view. Girl Play is comprised of three programs featuring readings of 16 short plays with lesbian themes, by straight and lesbian playwrights.
Think Tickets Cost Too Much? How About Free?
Members of the South Florida Theatre League are donating pairs of tickets in a revival of the Free Night of Theater lottery program this summer that encourages people to investigate theaters and/or shows they might not try on their own dime.
Summer Shorts Is, As Usual, A Daffy, Uneven, Goofy Smile
By Bill Hirschman Sometimes for actors, especially playing comedy, the only option is to jump off the cliff and see if you can fly. The miracle is that sometimes, as in City Theatre’s Summer Shorts, is that, indeed, they soar. …
Playing A Dolphin, Dracula and Mothra In Same Show: Everyday Challenge At Summer Shorts
Imagine you’re Ken Clement in City Theatre’s Summer Shorts opening this week. One minute he’s a dolphin, a few minutes later he;s Dracula and still later he has to find his inner Mothra. Performing in the annual festival of short plays, a rite of summer now in its 18th edition, requires talents they don’t dwell on in drama school.
Broward Stage Door’s Brighton Beach Memoirs Stumbles A Bit, But Is Genuinely Touching
Acknowledge that Broward Stage Door’s revival of Neil Simon’s thirty-year-old warhorse Brighton Beach Memories is uneven and stumbles. Then acknowledge, at least this critic will, that Stage Door’s edition frequently reaches into that moldy storehouse of decades-old memories of family relationships — and makes the throat close up, the eyes mist and starts a sudden epidemic of sniffling around the auditorium.
Theatre At Arts Garage and Dramaworks Stage Concert Musicals This Summer
If this seems to be a summer jammed with play readings across the region (at least 18 set so far and we have more to announce over the next few days), musical theater fans will be penciling in dates on their calendars as well, as early as tomorrow night. Palm Beach Dramaworks and the Theatre at Arts Garage are mounting “concert versions” of musicals – classics in Dramaworks’ case and new works at the Garage in Delray Beach.
Summer Theatre Fest Readings Every Monday Across Region
Get an early look-and-listen to works in progress by local playwrights every Monday night for 18 weeks beginning June 3 at theater across four counties through the South Florida Theatre League/WLRN ‘s Summer Theatre Fest Reading Series.
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