Articles Tagged With: MET

A Very Jewish Christmas a Maryland Ensemble Theatre 📷 David S. Spence

A Very Jewish Christmas at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 4, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

“Embracing happiness is f**king terrifying.” ~Sarah Shulman A Very Jewish Christmas

We don’t usually censor words around here but tis the season and you never know which little ones might be reading alongside the adults in hopes that Santa Claus or Hanukkah Harry or whichever present-bringing seasonal deity will see them being a good little offspring, reading the theatre review of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s latest new work to grace their mainstage.

Sense & Sensibility at Maryland Ensemble Theatre ???? Spence Photographics

Sense & Sensibility at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 24, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Tis your ambition to be happy? Then come to Maryland Ensemble Theatre as they open up their 2024/2025 main stage season with Kate Hamill’s sprightly adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility. Indeed, the season of MET’s happiness kicks off swimmingly with this exuberantly energetic movement-based comedy, Directed by Gené Fouché, this most agreeable and enjoyable afternoon of quirky comedy meets winsome romance is a delightfully balanced romp of pathos and silliness,

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,

Courtney McLaughlin (left) as Chordata with Tad Janes (center) as Sciurus and Matthew Harris (right) as Sciuridae in The Squirrels at Maryland Ensemble Theatre ???? Meech Creative LLC

The Squirrels at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews March 30, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Our subject tonight?

The Squirrels. Better still— The Squirrels at Maryland Ensemble Theatre as the penultimate production of their 2023/2024 main stage season. Written by Robert Askins (Hand To God) and Directed by Julie Herber…well… buckle up, you discerning patrons of the arts, because this one’s a doozey. Hell— I’ll say it. It’s nuts!

Playwright Robert Askins is wringing audiences in Frederick through the high-octane spin-cycle of this satirical washing machine.

Intimate Apparel at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 13, 2024 Jamie & Ashley Gerhardt

Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel has local origins; originally a co-production between Baltimore’s Center Stage and California’s South Coast Repertory in 2003, it went on to a 3-month Off-Broadway run starring Viola Davis. The material also has a direct link to Nottage’s family history and was inspired by her great-grandmother’s life as a seamstress in the early 1900’s. Nottage found that the narrative and stories of black women in the early 1900’s were largely absent by researching her great-grandmother’s life.

Inebriated Holiday at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 1, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Deck the MET with cans and corks! Fa-la-la-la-laa! La-la-la-laaa!

Gather round ye hist’ry dorks! Fa-la-la-la-laa! La-la-la-laa!

Don you now your drunk apparel! Fa-la-la-la! La-la-la! La-la-laaaa!

And hear the tale of A Christmas Carol! Fa-la-la-la-laa! La-la-la— hold-up. Nah. That’s not right. Shoot.

Inebriated Holiday. D’oh! That’s the one this one is about! Good grief, how many Three Kings draft beers did I have at Maryland Ensemble Theatre last night!?

Angels In America Part II- Perestroika at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews October 6, 2023 Jimi Kinstle

In a follow up to last year’s presentation of Angels in America, Part 1, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre has endeavored to complete the series with Angels in America, Part 2, Perestroika. The production of these two pieces is a monumental undertaking creating almost a seven-hour total theater experience.

It’s hard not to write a comparative review. The cast and design team remain relatively the same.

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?

Angels In America Part 1: Millennium Approaches at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 13, 2023 Jimi Kinstle

Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America, was ambitious in 1993, taking on difficult subject matter, and the Maryland Ensemble Theatre is ambitious to take on such a challenging production. ‘Set in the mid-1980s amid the AIDS crisis and the Regan administration, the characters struggle with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell’*. Originally intended for a season three years ago but sidelined by COVID, Angels now marks the MET’s 150th production overall and falls during its 25th anniversary,

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 &

Sean Byrne (left) as Jim Fingal and Jack Evans (right) as John D'Agata in The Lifespan of a Fact. ????michaelmasonstudios

The Life Span of a Fact at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews September 30, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Story is the way organize our lives. Narrative is how we make sense of what’s happening around us; it serves as a way to conceptualize, to frame our existence. But what about truth? What about facts? And where do they fit into our narrative? Our story? Opening their 25th Anniversary season with a play that feels topically relevant to this day and age, with a prescience that is unmistakable given that the essay, book, and play itself predate the concept of ‘fake news’,

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.

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,

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type at MET’s Fun Company

Reviews September 27, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Old MacDonald had a farm— wait— no…that’s not quite right. Oh! I know! The MET Fun Company had a farm— E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm they had some cows! E-I-E-I-O! While there won’t be any song quite like that one featured in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type at the MET Fun Company production, rest assured there will be plenty of singing and dancing all throughout the production, which is geared toward younger audiences.

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,

Maryland Ensemble Theatre Announces 2018/2019 Season

News June 18, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

They are not throwing away their shot! Maryland Ensemble Theatre may not be producing Hamilton for their 2018/2019 season (though they are raffling off a pair of tickets to see the highly sought-after show through August 4, 2018— click here to not throw away your shot!) but they are certainly bringing a fantastical new line-up to their stage for the coming season. With three regional premieres and a little something for everybody from classics to new and edgy,

A View From The Bridge at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews May 31, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Most people ain’t people. Because people strive to treat each other with dignity and respect. Of course, that was the point Arthur Miller might have been trying to make when he scribbled down A View From the Bridge. Horrifically relevant and strikingly topical in today’s political climate, this intense family-driven drama is an exacting fit for the style of ensemble performance work which the Maryland Ensemble Theatre prides themselves on and does exceedingly well.

Rapture, Blister, Burn at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews April 8, 2018 John Nunemaker

Is the grass really greener on the other side? Ever wonder what life would be like if you chose to take the opposite path? What if you could live whatever life you wanted what would it be, and do you really think that would be the key to eternal bliss or end in eternal sorrow? Rapture, Bliss, Burn written by Gina Gionfriddo, directed by Suzanne Beal and on stage now at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in Frederick,

1984 at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews October 26, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

There is a show running in Frederick.

WHAT SHOW. YOU MUST BE PRECISE.

There is a production of George Orwell’s 1984 as adapted to the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan running at a theatre in Frederick.

WHERE. YOU MUST BE PRECISE.

There is a production of George Orwell’s 1984 as adapted to the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan running at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre.

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.

Peter and The Star Catcher at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews April 17, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

To have faith is to have wings. Have faith that you’ll absolutely love what’s happening on the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s main stage this spring and you’ll find yourself sprouting wings that will fly you right into downtown historic Frederick for their outstanding production of Peter and The Star Catcher. Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, written by Rick Elice with Music by Wayne Barker, this marvelously mesmerizing tale is the official beginning of how the boy who wouldn’t grow up,