Articles Tagged With: Ivania Stack

Twist Your Dickens at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 11, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

God bless you, theatre patrons of DC. You’ve been blessed that for another year, The Second City’s Twist Your Dickens is bringing tiding of holiday hilarity to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts! Appearing now through New Year’s Eve in the Theatre Lab, this uproarious mishmosh of Dickensian tomfoolery and modernity will have you splitting seams as you chuckle with Christmas cheer all through the nonsensical two hours of silliness they traffic across the stage.

The Arsonists at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Reviews September 15, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Everything burns, but not every fire is determined by fate. And Washington DC is certainly on fire in various meanings of the word. Politically, socially, and now thanks to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, theatrically as well! This is one fire that fate will not put out! The kickoff to Woolly Mammoth’s Incendiary 2017/2018 season— The Arsonists, by Max Frisch and newly translated by Alistair Beaton, is setting the stage and minds of audience members alike ablaze with a conflagration that just won’t quit.

Hir at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Reviews June 2, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

We are all proof and conjecture. But proof of what? And conjecture of what? The human condition? Gender non-binary fluidity? Who can say with the plethora of topics being tackled in Obie Award-Winning playwright Taylor Mac’s Hir, now appearing on stage to conclude Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s 37th season. Directed by Shana Cooper, this edgy and evocative powder-keg of a conversation starter falls well within the wheelhouse of the sort of productions that the theatre is known for,

Midwestern Gothic at Signature Theatre

Reviews April 3, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

You never know how many secrets stay hidden beneath the surface until you start digging. Don’t dig too far down into Virginia or you’ll miss all the sordid secrets that come tangled up in the world premiere of Midwestern Gothic, a new musical with Book by Royce Vavrek, Music by Josh Schmidt, and Lyrics by Vavrek & Schmidt. Appearing now in The Ark Theatre of Signature Theatre, this freeze-frame capture of dystopian life in the American Midwest circa the late 80’s/early 90’s is a questionable venture with a welcomed,

Twist Your Dickens_Photo by Theresa Castracane

Review: Twist Your Dickens at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 16, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

There’s going to be some haunting as they terrify a miser, but hopefully by the end, everyone will leave just a wee bit wiser! If not wiser, most definitely lighter of heart and happier of spirit as The Second City presents Twist Your Dickens in the Theater Lab of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. With stick-to-your-ribs, feel-good comedy, this brilliant bastardization of Dickens’ iconic Christmas Carol and a Saturday Night Live style sketch comedy show is high-octane hilarity achieving its holiday heights just in time for Christmas.

Review: King Ubu at Pointless Theatre Company

Reviews December 15, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

What a bitch of a time. The play is shit. You’ve Alfred Jarry to thank for that. The production is unique. You’ve Pointless Theatre Company to thank for that. In a new adaptation, translated by none other than the infamous Google-Translate (that bugger’s been mucking things up for years!), from the original Ubu Roi, comes a fitting-for-the-times disastrous calamity that they’re calling King Ubu, they being Pointless Theatre Company.

Review: An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Reviews June 4, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

The fourth act of a play is known as “the sensation scene.” This is the point where the play unites the A-plot with the B-plot, crams the moral of the story down the audience’s throats, and then overwhelms the senses with something spectacular, usually a lot of smoke and flames. But what happens if you’ve not only overwhelmed the senses of your audience but completely shocked and stunned them with an unabashedly forward and unapologetically galvanizing performance charged with racial controversy?

Review: Falling Out of Time at Theater J

Reviews March 25, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Passing time is painful. So what could be more titillating than other people’s hell when it comes to distracting the mind from its own personal grief? In a powerfully evocative stage adaptation of David Grossman’s novel, Theater J brings Falling Out of Time to the stage as the penultimate production of their 2015/2016 calendar season. Directed and Adapted by Derek Goldman, this strikingly emotional drama hones in on the potent power of grief and its ability to transform the lives of an entire village.

Review: Road Show at Signature Theatre

Reviews February 25, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

The journey is the destination in the Max Theatre as Road Show gets underway for the backend of the 2015/2016 season at Signature Theatre. With all of the style, flare, and spark of an old-world adventure tale, this lesser recognized Sondheim treasure hits the open stage with Director Gary Griffin and Musical Director Jon Kalbfleisch at the wheel. Being the third collaborative effort of Music and Lyricist Stephen Sondheim and Book Writer John Weidman,

Review: Queens Girl in the World at Theater J

Reviews September 23, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Where do you find your place in the world? And how easy can it be to do so when you’re trying to put together the puzzle pieces of your own life while the world around you falls apart? Imagine such a conundrum. Now imagine it in 1962, as a young African-American girl growing up in Queens, and going to a private charter school in Greenwich Village, as Malcolm X is shot, President Kennedy is assassinated,