A Shayna
Maidel is a play I had never heard of, and that’s really a shame,
because it was a powerful experience that left me thinking, for days. I’ve seen favorite plays performed in an
underwhelming way, and also saw a play I didn’t anticipate liking performed by
such talented thespians that I was converted to a fan, but the real treat with
this particular production of A Shayna Maidel,
Aaron
Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, directed by Todd Starkey, opens up to
one of our only moments watching Greg Stiffler give us a reason to care about
the tragedy the play is built around, by making him a vulnerable guy. A man is dead and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson
(played by Lamar Leonard) and Pfc. Louden Downey (played by Jordan Baumiller)
stand accused of murder. Moises
Estrada’s lighting and sound design built atmosphere as Eva Grove’s costume
coordination lent an air of authenticity to these characters,
When I was
considering attending Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life, I committed a
horrendous crime, in that I read a review containing a summary. A couple starting out like a fire caused by a
comet. The marvelous beginning, the slow
and painful waning, and an end showcasing the doom that was always in store, as
if asking us if it was really worth the good times. Knowing the half-life referred to a
relationship and not a radioactive isotope was all I was after!
This year marks a special
milestone as Fluid Movement has been entertaining Baltimore residents for 20
years. As someone who has been
contemplating watching Fluid Movement’s Water Ballet for over five years, I’m
glad I decided to finally treat myself to what I had been putting off. The theme of this particular show is a
celebration of Water Ballet’s history, mixed with technical achievement,
care-free fun of the summer, new creative ideas, the beauty of what can be done
by a fleet of swimmers dedicated to artful entertainment,
I wasn’t sure what to think about
seeing a play I had only ever heard of as an acclaimed movie. Director Fuzz Roark assuaged those fears by
allowing us to experience the story in a setting not only made more intimate by
being kept in the same room as Alan Zemla’s set designs, but also brought to
our senses by virtue of Spotlighters Theater being a cozy space. Being so very close to the action made you
not an audience member at a play,
Something
I wasn’t prepared for when I walked into the theater to see Tornkid was
that I would slowly become a part of the play.
The first scene seemed to have more characters on set than I’m used to
seeing in the introduction to a story, as a series of people sitting on pillows
at the edge of the audience played silent ancestor spirits of the main
characters, clapping their hands to send signs to our hero and narrator,
In Rapid Lemon’s Variations on
Myth, director T. P. Huth takes advantage of the emotional ride a series of
ten-minute plays can create if presented in an order that allows them to
strengthen one another. It is too often that a series of smaller plays is
presented as hors d’oeuvres, being consumed individually without thought to if
the first appetizes the audience for the second, whereas this collection of ten-minute
plays formed a cohesive experience.