Tag Archives: Gaby Tortoledo

Which Way to the Stage at Island City Stage.

By Aaron Krause You’ve got to admire and respect actors: For them, gigs can be few and far between. And that means they must often work odd jobs to pay the bills, while continuing to practice their craft. When actors …

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Theatre Lab’s Refuge Examines Immigration Through Mysticism, Magic and Theatricality

Embracing the eloquence of imaginative theatricality, Theatre Lab’s Refuge depicts a deeply moving journey through the immigration crisis viewed not as a political issue, but a complex human one. It melds music, drama, humor, puppetry, and speeches in Spanish, resulting in a campfire story told through magical realism and mysticism.

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Delightful Honeymoon In Vegas Is Classic Musical Comedy

From Slow Burn Theatre Company’s brass-unleashed overture with a live band, to an ebullient cast, to winning music and witty lyrics, this musical version of the film Honeymoon in Vegas is the kind of full-fledged fully-entertaining classic musical comedy you thought no one wrote anymore.

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Murder on the Orient Express Reimagined as Comic Trip

Do not go to Actors’ Playhouse’s Murder on the Orient Express expecting the grim locked-room mystery at the heart of the films or the novel. This 2017 edition is penned by the playwright of Lend Me A Tenor. If you can wipe the tone of those earlier efforts from your mind, you will likely find yourself chuckling much of the night at these theater veterans turn the Christie classic into a cute, often quite funny two-hour comedy sketch.

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PPTOPA’s Cabaret Once Again Warns Of Current Dangers

PPTOPA’s earnest, merely passable production of Cabaret is notable for a few solid performances, but especially for the script which, decade after decade, becomes an increasingly relevant warning. Even more than the original stories, Masteroff’s 1966 “book” warns of an everyday populace willing to accommodate the rise of a totalitarian regime that promises answers, even to the point of self-inflicted blindness to its dangers.

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Despite The 10-Foot Star, ‘Mastodon’ Not Just Child’s Play

Yes, there is broad humor, over-the-top characters, cartoonish sets, a fairy tale vibe and a 10-foot tall puppet, but Theatre Lab makes it clear that Rachel Teagle’s world premiere script of The Impracticality of Modern-Day Mastodons is not children’s theater, but an adult evaluation of dreams.

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Studying Themselves Instead Of Lines, SoFla Artists Look At Lessons From Pandemic

Many artists define themselves by a calling that relies on faith that their art form will always be there. But in 2020, the foundation of their sense of who they were and what they believed made their lives worthwhile vanished. They were forced into introspection about the primacy of their profession and their art in their lives. Here, they reveal what they learned about South Florida theater and especially themselves.

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Island City’s “Compensation” Pregnant With Potential

Every emotion associated with pregnancy and pending parenthood is present in the 95 minutes of Hannah Manikowski’s smart and promising play Compensation. In fact, most of them appear on the playbill cover photo for Island City Stage’s world-premiere production, an image that encapsulates the disconnected expectations that propel the drama.

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Theater Artists Struggle With Unique Fears, Fallout And Uncertainty From Virus Drama

Six months into the pandemic, theater artists are struggling with a profoundly damaging dimension particular to their purgatory-like limbo: The calling that gives their lives meaning requires interaction with other people in the same room. Late this summer, 33 South Florida storytellers agreed to draw back the curtain on their backstage battles that form the spine of an all too real three-act drama.

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Ideals Prevail Over Darkness In MNM’s Man Of La Mancha

When Man of La Mancha is performed as well as MNM Theatre Company’s production, then the magic is savoring how the innate worth of ideals ultimately prevails over an all-too-recognizable world of violence and evil. Its message does not ignore the profound power of darkness, it avers that its virtues can transcend the darkness, and that their pursuit is an informed choice.

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