Articles Tagged With: Doug Grove

Head Over Heels at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews June 7, 2024 Jimi Kinstle

author: Jimi Kinstle

Head Over Heels, book by James Magruder, conceived by Jeff Whitty, is open and running at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) in Frederick, MD. Directed by MET Associate Artistic Director, Gené Fouché, it offers an entertaining evening of frivolity and fantasy while exploring themes of love, acceptance and self-discovery – all set to the sounds of the 1980s high energy band, The Go-Gos.

Set in an Elizabethan-esque fairy tale world,

Craft Town at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews April 7, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

They come across my inbox like they always do; a cool drink of water— code for ‘new play’— just asking to be looked over. Not in distress or nothing, see? These ‘new works’ they hold their own. But I wouldn’t be a very good T.I. if I didn’t give it a once over, now would I. T.I.? What’s that? You don’t know? Theatrical Investigator. That’s me— Amanda Gunther, T.I. – and this new one— Craft Town?

Miss Bennet Christmas At Pemberley

Reviews December 9, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Is there anything more shocking and wonderful than a true literally classic done up and decked out for Christmas? I jest not; Jane Austen never had the chance to show us the festive holiday season in her romances, but Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon have done exactly that! Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley, now playing on the main stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, nestles itself in the cozy bosom of three days before Christmas…two years after the conclusion of Pride &

Lisa Burl (left) as Olympe de Gouge and Rachel Manu (right) as Marianne Angelle in The Revolutionists. Photo: Madeline Reinhold,

The Revolutionists at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 29, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

Air and ink and make-believe. Isn’t that all theatre is when it comes down to it? But theatre isn’t flourish; it’s fundamental! Or so says the text of Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists now on the main stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre. Directed by Gené Fouché, this meta-play within a meta-play of a play is a fundamental exploration of liberté, egalité, and sororité! Deep layers of freedom, equality, and sisterhood enveloped in the flavor of The French Revolution is what’s coming to the stage and it gets a little confusing,

Full Speed Ahead! Maryland Ensemble Theatre launches their 2021-2022 season, back on stage LIVE!

News July 2, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s a surreal experience— being in a crowd of enthusiastic, energetic, theatre people after over a year of being isolated from that crazy, amazing, loving bunch of people who have so much to offer to the performing arts community in Frederick. But in minutes of being amid the Maryland Ensemble Theatre 24th season launch gala, it felt as if no time had passed at all, as if just last season this exact thing had happened.

Karli Cole in Midsummer: A Most Rare Vision

Midsummer: A Most Rare Vision at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews June 18, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say that indeed dreams— rare visions or not— do come true; live theatre with in-person audiences have returned to us once more. The Maryland Ensemble Theatre is at their finest in bringing a most peculiar, wondrous and intriguing theatrical endeavor to those of us who have waited so long to return to the theatre. Directed by Julie Herber,

Circle Mirror Transformation at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews October 30, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Have you ever taken one of those intro to acting classes
where nobody’s really sure they want to be there but they all desperately want
to learn all the secrets behind good acting? Then this show might be for you.
Have you ever taken one of those acting classes where all of the exercises that
are supposed to be revealing all the secrets to good acting feel a bit like the
instructor is trying to unload some of their own personal garbage from
childhood onto the students?

Sweat at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 7, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Skilled labor isn’t cheap; cheap labor isn’t skilled. An innocuous
enough statement of truth that might just ruffle the feathers of the pleasantly
situated. But isn’t that art and theater at its core? Comfort the disturbed and
disturb the comfortable? No surprises that politically charged, prescient and
topically relevant drama by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage
is being produced upon the Maryland Ensemble Theatre stage. Directed by Gené
Fouché, this ensemble-driven drama is laced with humor around the visceral edges
of political upheaval in the town of Reading,

Radium Girls at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 16, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

There is so much light in the world. Light from the sun,
light from inside that glows out from the human spirit, there’s all kinds of
light. But what about artificial light that’s natural? The disturbing glow the
illuminates from a diabolically dangerous substance? Radium. Playwright D.W.
Gregory historically fantasizes a dark spot on American history, shining an
incandescent beam of harrowing truth, with dramatic flair, onto historical
events of the shadowy 20th century.

Really Listening: An Interview with Director Daniel Valentin-Morales about El Viaje de Beatriz at MET’s FUN Company

Interviews February 5, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

A real family helps each other when they stumble, not kick
each other when they’ve fallen; a paraphrase of just one of the profound
insights found inside Andrea Moon’s El
Viaje de Beatriz or Beatrice’s
Journey, now appearing at the MET FUN Company as a part of their 2018-2019
season. Maryland Ensemble Theatre and its familial branches— like the FUN Company—
uplift this message with great consistency in their work.

El Viaje de Beatriz at MET’s FUN Company

Reviews February 5, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom

You may not understand every word, but if you listen deeply,
you will understand what they’re trying to see. This is a critical component to
the extraordinary and brilliant piece of children’s theatre being performed on
the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s FUN Company stage this winter. El Viaje de Beatriz, written by Andrea
Moon, and Directed by Daniel Valentin-Morales, is a bilingual fairytale about
little Beatriz,

Who’s Holiday at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 14, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Every Who out in Frederick liked Christmas a lot

So much that they rented Matthew Lombardo’s new plot

See, now the MET— they LOVE Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

So they’ve picked this irreverent comic gem, I can guess at the reason

To festively light up their holiday stage slot

Who’s Holiday, Directed by Gené Fouché, is the show that they got!

Let The Right One In at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews October 23, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

While the autumn breezes finally rush in, bringing all the productions of Rocky Horror Show and Deathtrap along with them, The Maryland Ensemble Theatre defies the more conventional approach to the spooky season and instead invites a uniquely chilling entity onto its stage for the month of Halloween and beyond. Let the Right One In, a stage adaptation by Jack Thorne from the Swedish novel & film by John Ajvide Lindqvist,

Hand to God at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

In the beginning we were one. There was no right and no wrong. But then someone invented right and wrong, where right is for all of us and wrong is just for you. Go to the Maryland Ensemble Theatre to see Hand to God…RIGHT. Skip out on seeing Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Hand to God…WRONG. And you do not want to be in the wrong when it comes to this darkened,

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 12, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

What ho, Horatio! It is the east— west— Frederick! It is the MET! Alas, poor Shakespeare, I knew him, readers! And you thought you did too, until you ventured to Maryland Ensemble Theatre for the opening of their 2017/2018 season! With preeminence in stage chicanery, the MET invites you to sit back, unplug your brains, and enjoy three ridiculous men attempting to cover 38 plays, 1,122 roles, and 154 sonnets all in about two hours,

Fred’s Diner at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews June 3, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Happiness comes only in moments. And to ensure those moments, sometimes drastic action is necessary. Closing out their 2016/2017 mainstage season, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre brings to the stage a rarely produced darkly-driven British comedy. Fred’s Diner, by Penelope Skinner, takes place in an American 1950’s themed diner in present-day Britain just off the major motorway. Everything looks hunky-dory, as the Yanks might say, but upon closer examination, things aren’t always what they seem.

Review: Bunnicula at Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Fun Company

Reviews September 27, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

There’s nothing like a pet in the house! They keep you safe! They keep you warm! They drain your vegetables of all their color because they’re juice thirst vampires! Wait— what?!? Well, only that last bit if you accidentally sit on a rabbit in a movie theatre while seeing Dracula and decide to take it home. This may be exactly what happens to the Monroe family in the childhood classic story of Bunnicula,

Review: The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 at Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Fun Company

Reviews June 7, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Afraid your children are spending too much time with their video games? So much time that they might just get sucked into them and never return because they can’t beat the evil boss at the final level now that he has control of the keyboard that controls the game? That’s exactly what’s happening to Charlie— a smart, funny, young video game programming kid— in The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 now appearing live on stage with MET’s The Fun Company!

Review: Stupid Fucking Bird at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 18, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Do you know what passes for theatre these days? Honestly? How many of you get out of your comfortable living rooms— with your live-streaming Broadway channels on Netflix or the “new musical of the month” live on NBC— and go to the theatre, sit through two to three hours of live performance, and actually take in what you’ve just seen? The Maryland Ensemble Theatre seems to know what’s passing for live theatre and has challenged the standard,

Review: The Cat in the Hat at MET’s Fun Company

Reviews September 26, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Whether it is raining outside or perhaps it is sunny,

The MET’s Fun Company has a show that is funny!

It’s a fanciful jaunt, a chance to let your imagination run loose!

Because they’re mounting a production adapted from Dr. Seuss!

Katie Mitchell, the Adaptor, of this fantastical story

Adapts The Cat in the Hat and all of its glory!

Directed by Julie Herber,

Review: One Man, Two Guvnors at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 18, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Sometimes being a liar works, and with the Maryland Ensemble Theatre there’s bound to be some fireworks! In their season opener, that is. Kicking off the 2015/2015 season with a big comedic bang, MET presents Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors. Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, this physically intensive farcical slapstick endeavor is Directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Tad Janes, with Musical Direction by Thom Huenger and will leave you rolling in the aisles with gut-bursting laughter.

Review: A Revolutionary Christmas at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 8, 2014 Amanda N. Gunther

At this festive time of year when everyone is presenting their decorated version of Dickens’ holiday classic (and yes, even MET is doing that in their family series) it comes as a revitalizing surprise to see the Maryland Ensemble Theatre producing a Christmas original on their main stage. Written by company member Reiner Prochaska, this quaint tale is richly populated with local flavor and all the right notions to tug gently at the heartstrings for this spirited time of year.