I say this with humility in this— online open space! They’re your responsibility in— good ol’ Havre de Grace! If you want to see their show and all the feelings that they spill, in Havre de Grace Opera House that’s halfway down the hill, then for God sakes get thee to it! For Congress never will! Yes, yes, it’s not even July and the Tidewater Players are calling to order the second continental congress of America with their production of 1776.
Americans always seem ripe for a good feud. Feuds make great headlines and apparently even better entertainment. Ryan Murphy scored television ratings gold this season with his recounting of the on and off screen cat-fighting between iconic movie stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The current Broadway season features War Paint, a musical based on the corporate backstabbing between leading lady cosmetics pioneers Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. Nationally, the riffs and hate have become unveiled and brutally wide between Clinton and Trump supporters,
“That’s the thing with magic. You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.” –Charles de Lint
What would you wish for if you had magical powers? Would you wish to be able to fly and soar high above the rooftops, the treetops, over the clouds, and see everything from above? Or would you wish for money, riches, and wealth beyond your wildest dreams so that you could purchase everything your heart desired?
Water takes the boat people. Water catch ‘em. Water keep ‘em. A cautionary warning to those brave enough, or perhaps foolish enough, to strike out on a Government sanctioned expedition down the Colorado River through the uncharted “Big Canyon” (what we know now as The Grand Canyon) in 1869. Are you brave enough, or perhaps foolish enough, to join Cohesion Theatre Company as their close out their third season with Men on Boats,
Surprises and baking do not mix. But surprises, much like baking for some, are a part of life. And you must learn to embrace the surprises along with the expected and the planned, lest you find yourself guarded off in a fortress, trapped from the rest of the world— be it in the reality of your mind or the actual reality of your physical existence. In a delightfully baked surprise, The Strand Theater company welcomes the world premiere of Amy Bernstein’s Exit Pluto to the stage as their second mainstage feature during this inaugural season in their new home in Hamilton.
A change— a change— will do you good! A change will do you good! Unless of course you’re Betty and petrified of change. In the second mainstage production of the 2016/2017 at Strand Theater Company, now fully residing in Hamilton on Baltimore’s east side, Exit Pluto is ready to shake up the world of Betty and her bakery! In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we sit down with the creative team— including the director,
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels. Marilyn Monroe was Jell-o on springs. Harsh mantras that plague the warped minds of frustrated teenage girls in Wendy MacLeod’s Schoolgirl Figure, like those just mentioned, are what fuels this black comedic drama forward at Cohesion Theatre Company this season. Refusing to be weighed-in as an ‘issues play’ under the sharp and succinct visionary approach of Director Jonas David Grey, though MacLeod’s work does address eating disorders,
Let me tell you a story. You’ll have to listen well since the cicadas and crickets have devious plots. Plots as thick and syrupy as Cassius’ (Utkarsh Rajawat) to slide vengeance into the noble heart of Brutus (Shannon Ziegler) under the guise of freedom. Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s production of Julius Caesar is like a story told with a group of friends and family: a campfire tale told in a semi-circle of Tikki torches in the swirling beauty on the ground of the Evergreen Museum and Library.
Ten actors. Ten plays. Ten minutes. One stage. It’s happening right now in a theatre near you— the Fells Point Corner Theatre, to be exact. Appearing as a new revision to their annual tradition of a 10-minute play festival, this year four directors take ten actors across the course of ten different ten-minute one-act plays. Polished, poignant, and perfectly humorous, this bundle of shorts is perfectly palatable for those who prefer their theatre in quippy clips and devourable morsels.
We are constantly reminded that there is nothing new under the sun, and yet we seek novelty. Seek no further as The Interrobang Theatre Company sets out to please the palette, whet the whistle, and sate the appetite of the ravenous theatergoers of Baltimore with their second annual production of Heavy Hors D’Oeuvres 2: 3 New Bite-Sized Plays. Presented as a fantastic opportunity to showcase new works, three brief one-act plays with a live guest storyteller weaving this year’s theme— intimacy— between them (and there’s a different guest storyteller every night so consider seeing the performance more than once) The Interrobang Theatre Company is serving up a scrumptious selection of new works featuring local playwrights,
The truth of gender; the myth of gender. It’s small to hear but large to know and even larger to understand, respect, and accept. Appearing as a part of the Trans* Voices Workshop Series, Cohesion Theatre Company presents Aphorisms on Gender, a world premiere by Alice Stanley. Co-Directed by Caitlin Carbone and Melanie Glickman, this poignant one-act play addresses a great number of issues regarding the big and small truths of gender identity,
The mayhem never stops over at Cohesion Theatre Company and their latest mount to the stage is truly wondrous strange. Taking William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to task, Director Alice Stanely refocuses the driving forces of the plot’s actions and tunes them into the highly potent pathos of grief. Coping with loss is never easy, and the ways in which human beings express these feelings are nothing short of evocative, stirring, and daringly dramatic as witnessed in this production.
I am slain! Well, I’m not slain, thankfully, lest you’d be reading ye ole review by someone else! But you will be slain— with comic calamity and gripping tragedy all rolled into one amalgamation of a stage production currently parading itself on the boards of the St. Mary’s Community Center. Co-produced by Cohesion Theatre Company and Baltimore Shakespeare Factory, The Complete Deaths of William Shakespeare— a devised work written by Alice Stanley (with a little help from Old Bill of the Bard)— is stirring up quite a ruckus,
For such as we are made of, such we be! Cohesion Theatre Company is cutting right to the core of Shakespeare’s words in their co-production of Twelfth Night alongside Iron Crow Theatre. Appearing as the second staged production in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series, Twelfth Night— Directed by Phil Vannoorbeeck and Assistant Directed by Sarah Maher— is shaking up the gender dynamics of the production to show one hugely important detail of existence as we know it: everyone wants to live their life authentically.
Like Shakespeare, interview series can too come with surprises! In an unpredicted fourth installment of the three-part series “No Darkness But Ignorance: Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night” the show’s two remaining actors (who had not yet previously been featured) sit down to discuss the opportunity to work on the project with TheatreBloom. Alice Stanley, the Co-Founder and Co-Producing Artistic Director of Cohesion Theatre Company, sits with actor Melanie Glickman to discuss working inside of Twelfth Night in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series production co-produced by Cohesion Theatre Company and Iron Crow Theatre.
In the third installment of a series of interviews with the cast and directors of Twelfth Night, a co-production between Cohesion Theatre Company and Iron Crow Theatre appearing in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series, TheatreBloom sits down with actors Logan Davidson, Jane Jongeward, Danielle Vitullo, and Dana Woodson to hear about their experience with the production.
If you could give us an introduction of who you are and who you’re playing in the show as well as a little bit of your performance background from the area that would be a great start.
“Oh time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.” More appropriate Shakespearean words have never been found to suit the current situation of gender fluidity in the 21st century. As the knot of the rigid gender binary breaks apart into an open an accepting existence that genders— much like plays— come in a great many varieties, time proves to be the ultimate salve and knot-worker when it comes to undoing the limited thinking that has been applied to the notion since people began identifying their genders.
Some experiences are compatible and others aren’t. In a world where normal is an everyday struggle for the average human being because the notion of normative social constructs no longer fit the individuality of our personal identities, an experience such as relating a gender identification to a family member can be somewhat of a beautiful catastrophe. Cohesion Theatre Company proudly presents the world premiere of A Little Bit Not Normal. Written by Lillie Franks and Directed by Alice Stanley,