Articles Tagged With: Matt J. Bannister

Closer at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews May 3, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Everything’s a version of something else. Try lying for a change, it’s the currency of the world. With taglines like those, one hardly expects the intimate and fascinating dissection of human relationships that one gets with Patrick Marber’s Closer. Appearing now as a co-production between Cogent Theater Collective and Silver Spring Stage, Closer (a play published in 1997 and later transformed into a silver-screen feature of the same name) is produced by Diego Maramba and directed by David Dieudonne.

Head Over Heels at St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Reviews April 21, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Arcadians swear their beat is divine! And they want you to get up and go! Go get tickets, that is, to the St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s production of Head Over Heels the musical, featuring the song-catalogue of The Go-Go’s. Based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney, conceived & original book by Jeff Whitty, with he aforementioned pop-rock band music providing the songs, this production is Directed by Matt J.

No, Virginia- A Grown-Up Holiday Farce at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 10, 2021 Amanda N. Gunther

Up on the housetop, reindeer paws— out jumps good ol’ Santa Claus. And Sandy Claws! And Odin!? Why, yes, Virginia! There is— someone on your roof— or something— heck— it could even be— THUNDERSNOW! Put on your believing hat and your holiday hat and wind your way on over to the Maryland Ensemble Theatre this December season for a MET original— No, Virginia— A Grown-Up Holiday Farce. Written by company member J.D.

In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews February 24, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

What thing can put a man to death and bring him back to life
again? Why the cure for women’s hysteria, naturally, or better known as
electricity. Thank you, Mr. Edison, for the focal point of Sarah Ruhl’s play
with two titles, In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play. While electricity
does run as a strong alternating and direct current throughout the script,
there are so many more deeply layered,

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.