Author Archives: Bill Hirschman
Mosaic’s Madman Blessed With Ken Clement’s Tour De Force
The deteriorating orbit into insanity is tracked with impressive skill and infinite variety in Ken Clement’s bravura tour de force as the government drone Poprishchin under Richard Jay Simon’s direction in Mosaic Theatre’s 12th season opener, The Diary of a Madman.
Reading(s) Is (Are) Fundamental
Part One More than a few people were disappointed when the Caldwell Theatre closed its doors last spring before producing the final play of the season, Our Lady of Allapattah by Miami playwright Christopher Demos Brown. But perseverance pays off. …
Peek Behind The Curtain: Season Preview 2012-2013
The 2012-2013 season of South Florida theater promises a continued arc toward more new works and thought-provoking titles ripped fresh off the New York stages, sprinkled with enough perennials and confections to remind us that theater is as much about entertainment as catharsis. Check out our season calendars (click here and here) which document about 250 of the even larger list of offerings.
Talkin’ in the Green Room With: Amy London
For nearly two decades, Amy London has been a fixture of South Florida theater: behind the director’s table, wearing a stage manager’s headset, acting, leading the Fort Lauderdale Players, hostess at various backyard get-togethers and executive director of the Carbonell Awards. In this edition of the Green Room we find out how she helped piss off the Ku Klux Klan and what she does in the stage manager’s booth when there’s a call of nature.
Andrews’ Steel Magnolias Touches Hearts With Pathos, Fails To Nail Whipcrack Humor
What continues to enchant critics who have to see more productions of Steel Magnolias than most civilians is what a truly funny, finely observed and genuinely touching script that Robert Harling constructed back in 1987. What’s different about Andrews Living Arts Studio’s uneven new production is that, atypically, it’s the pathos that works far better than the comedy.
News Briefs: Two Late Additions Plus GableStage’s Fundraiser That CostsYou Nothing
Last Minute News: Two Shows M Ensemble Company is launching a new play series this weekend only with Hate! An American Love Story, a one-woman piece written and performed by local actress Christina Alexander and directed by Karen Stephens. No …
Chance Remark At Stage Door Holocaust Play’s Intermission Leads To Moving Surprise
Two Florida men who by chance sat next to each other at the Holocaust play at Broward Stage Door, A Shayna Maidel, discovered they had been in the same forced labor camp during World War II.
AAPACT Dutchman Starts Too Slowly; Finishes In Blazing Anger
The script of Dutchman, Amiri Bakara’s classic 1964 play of racial and sexual politics, crackles with the explosive rage that Langston Hughes’ predicted in “A Dream Deferred.” The fact that this production doesn’t find that passion or electricity until two-thirds of the way through the 40-minute play doesn’t prevent the audience from appreciating Bakara’s themes or enjoying the laudable aspirations of the ambitious production.
News: The Mormons Are Coming and Violence In Theater
Stage Combat Violence, the ultimate expression of dramatic conflict, has long been a staple of theater, going back to the days of Og the Caveman retelling his war exploits around the fire. The way violence is represented in theater is …
GableStage’s Ruined Is Powerful Tale of Atrocities and Suvival
GableStage’s powerful Ruined examines our species’ simultaneous capacity for a bottomless cruelty absent in animals and an inextinguishable humanity that borders on divinity. This engrossing rendition of Lynn Nottage’s play about people struggling to survive the hellish civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also has a duality. It is one of the finest pieces of local theater seen this season, featuring superb acting, notably from Lela Elam as an indomitable owner of a bar/brothel.
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