All posts by Amanda N. Gunther

A full-time theatre reviewer in the Baltimore, Washington, and surrounding areas; Amanda holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Maryland Baltimore County as well as a minor in Creative Writing. Having spent two of her five years at college studying abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, she has learned a great deal about improv, devised work theatre, and interpretive movement pieces. Striving to promote theatre of all types, she can often be found in a theatre of some type, even on her nights off.

Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Fester: An Interview with the first Female Uncle Fester

Interviews May 1, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s creepy and it’s kooky! Mysterious and spooky! All-together ookey, that’s The Addams Family! Now a major hit musical that is playing absolutely everywhere, it’s settling into Dundalk Community Theatre for a brief two weekend spring run. But DCT has something unusual, something unique, something very Addams. The line that describes Uncle Fester in this musical, “what could a fat bald person of no specific sexuality know about love?” And DCT has taken a leap on that line,

The cast in its entirety of 1776 at Toby's Dinner Theatre

Vote Yes: Inside Independence Hall with Co-Director Jeremy Scott Blaustein

Interviews April 29, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Somebody opened up a window over at Toby’s Dinner Theatre and all of the thrilling behind-the-scenes details of their current production of 1776 have come freely flowing out into the open. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview series entitled Vote Yes: Inside Independence Hall we sit down with the cast and creative team of the production to find out just what it’s like to mount this iconic historical event as a musical this season.

Review: Fox on the Fairway at Reston Community Players

Reviews April 27, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Golf if not a game. It’s a way of life. And for the spring season at the Reston Community Players, golf is all the rage as they present the hysterical Ken Ludwig comedy Fox on the Fairway. Directed by Adam Konowe, this uproarious farcical piece of comic greenery will chip away at your funny bone for the full 18 holes of the course. With outrageous characters,

Review: Closetland at Factory449

Reviews April 27, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

How do you shut a mind? Factory449 will expose you to senseless charges, baseless allegations, and brutality in their strikingly disturbing staged adaptation of Closetland written by Radha Bharadwaj. Directed by Rick Hammerly and featuring company members Sara Barker and David Lamont Wilson, this shocking and gut-wrenching political drama permeates deep into the darkened territory of psychological torture. An unforgiving and abrasive script begging to be set in the theatre,

The New Play Festival at Young Playwrights’ Theater: Middle School Plays

Reviews April 22, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

“Live to inspire and to be inspired.” A powerful quote that surfaced in one of five incredible plays performed at the secondary night of the Young Playwrights’ Theater’s New Play Festival on Tuesday night April 21, 2015. The second of three nights for this festival featured five different plays from the middle school category of plays. YPT, as they’re known around the district, is celebrating its 20th year of supporting young writers in and around Washington DC with this incredible opportunity.

Review: Side by Side by Sondheim at Vagabond Players

Reviews April 19, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight! Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company! Does anyone still wear a hat? Vagabond Players is wearing a sensational hat of many flavors, providing you all the company you could ask for and giving you a comedy, with hints of heart-melting sorrow, with their production of Stephen Sondheim’s Side by Side by Sondheim. A truly one of a kind Sondheim musical revue, everything’s coming up Shannon, as Director Shannon Wollman makes her directorial debut with the company’s second musical of the 99th season.

Review: Eat the Runt at HCC Arts Collective

Reviews April 17, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Outrageously delicious satire is being served hot as the main course over at the Howard Community College Arts Collective this spring as they present Avery Crozier’s Eat The Runt. Directed by S. G. Kramer, this zany upended play without pronouns is a brand new breed of comedic chaos that features a different cast every night! You read correctly: eight actors, eight characters but no two shows are quite the same! With a scintillating whirlwind script this installation of theatrical insanity ensures a night of rip-roaring comic displacement that will have you wriggling to the edge of your seat.

Side by Side by Shannon: An Interview

Interviews April 17, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

While Into the Woods may be all the rave in the world of Stephen Sondheim right now, the Vagabond Players takes a step back to a simpler time in the musical master’s history. The earlier works all bound together in a magically enchanting evening; one musical revue to thoroughly enjoy an evening of intimate musical theatre is now opening on the stage as the second musical show in their 99th season.

Review: The Mesmeric Revelations! of Edgar Allan Poe

Reviews April 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Are you asleep? Good. Let us begin. A vestibule awaits your arrival inside the doors of the Enoch Pratt House; a house preserved in time and seldom available to the public. Instructions await you from one of the house’s many stewards— exploring is encouraged, speaking unless spoken to is prohibited, unearthly events may occur. An intensely immersive theatrical experience like no other in Baltimore, Washington, or any of the surrounding metropolitan areas, The Mesmeric Revelations!

Helen Hayes 2015: A recap

News April 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The dust has settled. A week gone by. And it all seems like some vaguely fantastical theatrical dream. The 31st Annual Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony has just passed us by and the heads of thespians, artists, and theatrical natured people all across Washington DC are still spinning in a blissful blur from the evening’s events. Celebrating the finest in Washington DC Theatre this year was the first year that the treasured awards ceremony executed its new adjudication system resulting in more recognition and more awards across the board for over 50 theatres being recognized throughout the evening’s events.

Review: The Language Archive at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

What is language if not an act of faith? Take a leap into the language of the theatre and you’ll find yourself pleasantly pleased with Silver Spring Stage’s current production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive. Directed by Joseph Coracle, this tender tale of words and love finds the soft spot of your heart and whispers the language of true understanding. A carefully crafted touching drama with an exceptional cast guiding the story through an ocean of linguistics,

Move Toward the Darkness: Part 7 Meet Gomez Addams

Interviews April 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s family first and family last and family by and by! When you’re an Addams? You do what Addams’ do or die! Finishing out the Move Toward the Darkness interviews, we bring the series to a close with the patriarch of the family, Gomez Florencia Addams. Toby’s Co-Artistic Director is back to the stage after nearly a year’s acting hiatus and is loving every minute of what this creepy and kooky papa character has to offer.

Review: The Elephant Man at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews April 13, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Artists make illusions of illusions of heaven and the artists dreaming with the voices loud as thunder in the minds at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre have fabricated an illustriously dark and decadently dark distortion of heaven in their current production of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man. Directed by visionary and company member Julie Herber, this nightmarish dreamscape of fascination entreats the senses, tugs at the heartstrings and ensnares the soul in a fashion most mesmeric.

Imaginative Interviews: Habit Forming Nunsense with Reverend Mother

Interviews April 11, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

She’s holier than thou! Supreme chief nun, as it were, the big momma in charge! Finishing out the TheatreBloom exclusive interview series (a part of Imaginative Interviews featuring characters from musicals and plays) with the Little Sisters of Riverdale is Revered Mother, Sister Mary Regina. And she has some explaining to do about those poor nuns stuck in the freezer!

Mother Superior? Reverend Mother? What should we call you?

Reverend Mother: My name is Sister Mary Regina,

Imaginative Interviews: Habit Forming Nunsense with Sister Hubert

Interviews April 11, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Second in command does not necessarily mean second best! Sister Hubert is definitely top notch when it comes to keeping things going at the convent! In the penultimate piece of the TheatreBloom exclusive interview series (a part of Imaginative Interviews featuring characters from musicals and plays) with the Little Sisters of Riverdale, we sit down and talk shop with Sister Hubert.

Thank you for sitting down with us, Sister Hubert. What is your role here at Little Sisters of Riverdale?

Sister Mary Amnesia's forgetful shower days helps promote the show!

Imaginative Interviews: Habit Forming Nunsense with Sister Robert Anne

Interviews April 10, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Making our way down convent row in the TheatreBloom exclusive interview series (a part of Imaginative Interviews featuring characters from musicals and plays) with the Little Sisters of Riverdale, we have a quick chat with Sister Robert Anne, who drives the car, and has lots and lots to say.

Sister Robert Anne, can you tell us how you came to be with the Little Sisters of Riverdale?

Sister Robert Anne: Well,

Review: The Sorrow Message at Dreams and Nightmares Aerial Theatre

Reviews April 10, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

There is a blurry shadow that exists between this world and the next. Dreams and Nightmares Aerial Theatre lives up to their company’s namesake as they explore this veil of death and humanity with a dark and cautionary, but exquisitely beautiful fairytale. Crafted from a dream, Baltimore writer Annelise Montone brings language to the sleepy vision of the company’s Artistic Director Kel Millionie. Directed by Millionie, this phantasmagorical performance blends the lines of dreams and nightmares to create a unique and emotionally evocative experience that plagues the mind with curious questions.

Review: 4,000 Miles at Centerstage

Reviews April 9, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s a long road, but a good one; the journey through The Herzog Festival at Centerstage this spring. At least, the back end of the road is worth the journey. Debuting as the second half of the repertory cycle, 4,000 Miles, makes a more lasting impression and is overall more tolerable and enjoyable as a production than its counterpart, After the Revolution. This work, though it is unclear as to where it sits in time in regards to the aforementioned play,

Move Toward the Darkness: Part 6 Meet Morticia Addams

Interviews April 6, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Oh she of skin so pale, eyes so black, and dress cut down to Venezuela; Morticia Addams is muddling through plums as she discovers that not each husband is a gem! Fortunately, death is just around the corner and she’s happy being both the mourned and mourner! Settling in for the penultimate piece of the Move Toward the Darkness interview series, we sit down with Priscilla Cuellar and discover what life is like as Morticia Addams in the Toby’s Family Household.

Imaginative Interviews: Habit Forming Nunsense with Sister Leo

Interviews April 6, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It is always unfortunate when a sister comes down with an illness! Thankfully Sister Leo did not come down with a case of death like the other 52 sisters at the Little Sisters of Riverdale after the incident! Unfortunately, when TheatreBloom visited the convent to call on the sisters, Sister Leo was taken out with a case of extreme dancer’s shingles and could not be seen at the time. However, through special arrangements with the ecumenical council,

Imaginative Interviews: Habit-forming Nunsense with Sister Mary Amnesia

Interviews April 6, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The next stop down the line of discovering just what happened to those poor unfortunate Little Sisters of Riverdale, in the TheatreBloom exclusive interview series (a part of Imaginative Interviews featuring characters from musicals and plays) is with an unusual nun, Sister Mary Amnesia, a very special sister who just can’t remember who she really is.

Thank you, Sister, for taking a brief moment out of your rehearsal for the talent show to sit down and speak with us.

Imaginative Interviews: Habit-forming Nunsense with Sister Julia, Child of God

Interviews April 6, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Nunsense! It’s habit forming! It’s hilarious! It’s a last ditch effort to get those poor nuns out of the freezer and into consecrated ground where they belong! A new group of characters comes along to the “Imaginative Interview” series. This time TheatreBloom is going to get to the bottom of what’s happening with the Little Sisters of Riverdale (generously hosted by the Wolf Pack Theatre Company in their current production of Nunsense) and hear all about how those unfortunate nuns ended up in the freezer and just exactly how they’ll be gotten out.

Anne Shoemaker in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Review: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Reviews April 3, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Shakespeare’s gone wild! It’s exactly like it sounds— crazy women, 37 plays, and a whole lot of vomiting! What could make for a better evening of hysterical gut-busting entertainment than the Fells Point Corner Theatre’s production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)? Which, they are totally proud to present? Directed by Howard Berkowitz, this laugh-a-minute comedy will crack your funny bone wide open and unearth the Bard like you’ve never seen him before.

Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews March 30, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The more insane a man is, the more powerful he becomes. To experience the ultimate theatrical power in action join the Psychoceramics— humanity’s crackpots— at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre for their production of Dale Wasserman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Directed by Greg Bell, this gripping off-kilter psycho drama, adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey, delves deep into the human psyche and confronts the inner pollutions of the minds of society’s outcasts: the insane.

Review: After the Revolution at Centerstage

Reviews March 26, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

You can’t fight for change and be nice. But how will you feel at the end of your days when you look back to see how your time was spent? Will you be proud, or will the blanket coverall statement of “we did what we had to do” come to mind? An evocative, albeit esoterically focused, drama kicks off The Herzog festival at Centerstage this spring. After the Revolution, written by Amy Herzog and Directed by Lila Neugebauer,

Review: God Don’ Like Ugly at Venus Theatre

Reviews March 23, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

There are no such thing as accidents. In tarot cards. Nor in theatre; particularly not when a fierce and evocative play finds its way to the Venus Theatre stage. Bursting into Feral 15: Feminist Fairytales, No Strings Attached, Artistic Director Deborah Randall sets the season’s bar exceptionally high with the world premier of Doc Andersen-Bloomfield’s God Don’ Like Ugly. A visceral and poignant tale that struggles to find rays of hope and light among the bleakness of a tragic and violent reality,

Review: That’s BaltAmoŕe! A Fairytale on Wheels at Fluid Movement

Reviews March 22, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie— That’s BaltAmoŕe! Literally a Fairytale on Wheels, this exciting and unique production comes forth from Fluid Movement— a Baltimore-based performance art group that juxtaposes complex subject matter with delightful and unexpected mediums. Known for their summer-time water ballets and roller-skating shows throughout the year, the company sets out family friendly entertainment that is accessible to everyone. This uniquely fractured fairytale,

Review: Almost, Maine at The Ruxton Players

Reviews March 21, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Jeezum Crow! Why aren’t more of us living life like the nice folks up in Maine? You know, the way life should be? Well, the good folks of The Ruxton Players are doing just that. Back on their feet with an impressive production of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, the community theatre is embracing love in all its formats with this heartwarming series of stories. Directed by Bill Kamberger, these eight interwoven vignettes reminds us all that love is a powerful entity and that we should embrace it every chance we get,

The Revelation of a Playwright: An Interview with Rich Espey

Interviews March 21, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

An inconvenient truth always beats a pretty lie in the long run. The central conceit— and cleverly coined phrase— of Baltimore playwright Rich Espey’s new work The Revelation of Bobby Pritchard. Making its world premier at Iron Crow Theatre, this engaging and compelling drama reveals a great many truths which are in need of being told. In a TheatreBloom exclusive, we sit down with the playwright to talk about the inspiration behind the story and just how it all came to fruition.

Review: Freedom’s Song: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War at Ford’s Theatre

Reviews March 19, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

We cannot escape history; the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly. 150 years ago on April 14, 1865 one of the greatest forefathers of our country was assassinated inside of Ford’s Theatre while attending a production of Our American Cousin. Commemorating this national event that helped shaped the nation as we know it today, Ford’s Theatre has commissioned a brand new musical Written by Frank Wildhorn, Gregory Boyd, and Jack Murphy to capture the essence of the greatness of Abraham Lincoln and the world in which he lived during a time of Civil War.