Features

How To Gain 600 Pounds In Five Minutes: Gablestage’s The Whale

A five-foot tall assembly of beige bags hangs in the corner of Gablestage’s cramped communal dressing room, vaguely shaped like a tan version of the marshmallow monster from Ghostbusters. No one has yet christened this fat suit created for The Whale, but even without actor Gregg Weiner inside it, it feels like it’s a character.

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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H2OMBRE Immerses Arsht Financially And Creatively In Immersion Theater

Despite the more headline-grabbing 6,000 gallons of water, the significance of the Arsht’s H2HOMBRE is that the public-private venue is cementing its commitment to a brand of imagistic, sensory-laden and non-traditional performance art that has been mounted in South Florida before, but not on this double-or-nothing scale.

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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PPTOPA Aims To Win Added Respect with Massive Les Miz

Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts is laboring to make its massive and expensive production of the epic Les Miserables a rebuke to silence those who dismiss community theater sight unseen.

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Talkin’ In The Green Room With…. Nick Duckart

Three-time Carbonell winner Nick Duckart has been a rapping Dominican-American bodega owner, a Palestinian terrorist, a Polish-American assassin, and the Egyptian Pharaoh in Joseph and the… well you know. One agent called him “ethnically ambiguous.” He dances the merengue, owns every episode of I Love Lucy and spills some secrets including recalling a disastrous nude scene.

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Veteran Actor William Parry Embraces Zorba In Palm Beach Dramaworks Staged Concert

As he relates the philosophy of his title character in the musical Zorba, William Parry’s acting chops are so second-nature that he probably doesn’t realize that a slight Greek accent is slipping into his warm deep baritone and a brio is filling the small, hot conference room at Palm Beach Dramaworks.

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Our Too Late For The Tonys Not-Trivia Quiz (Florida Edition)

Okay, the Tony Awards are over but there’ still some afterglow for those who cannot get enough. Just how much of a Tony-holic are you? There are a few in here just for South Floridians including one with Andrew Kato who is disqualified from playing.

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Don’t Peek: The Answers To The “Too Late For Tonys” Quiz

Wait! Shouldn’t you think a little harder? You can do this. No? Okay, scroll down below.
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Posted on June 12, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Religious Intolerance Is Issue In MTC’s New Show “For Children”

“Learning to work through inbred intolerance” is not the kids’ stuff of an ABC Afterschool Special, but Miami Theater Center’s vision has always differed radically from what is often dismissed as children’s theater. Its world premiere, Everybody Drinks The Same Water, opening next week, is a thematically ambitious project designed to entertain and educate audiences ranging from students to their grandparents.

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Humana Festival’s New Plays Glimpse What May/Should Come To South Florida Theaters Soon

If you’re seeking safe, predictable mainstream theater, avoid the annual Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. If you seeking “thought-provoking, edgy new work,” this is the mecca for South Floridians who want to glimpse what theater is evolving into during the coming decades.

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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Curtain Rises Monday For Carbonells’ Theater Prom

If the 38th annual Carbonell Awards honoring theatrical excellence in South Florida are considered a mirror by some, the nominations provide some interesting material for observers to chew over.

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Bill Hirschman
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