Articles Tagged With: Stephen Beitzell

Melanie Kurstin & Jon Townson in Rocky Horror Show

Rocky Horror Show at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews October 31, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

There’s a liiiiiiiight! Over at the Taylor Street Plaaaace!
There’s a liiiiiiiii— iiiiiiii— iiiiiiight! Burning in their fireplace, there’s
a light— in the darkness of the October-November calendar and it is blazing
rainbows, folks. That’s right, as only Wolf Pack Theatre Company can do, they’ve
but a kooky and queer-positive spin on an already zany cult classic. Are you
just dying with antici— PATION to know what we’re talking about? Cause it’s
just a jump to the left (of Bladensburg) and then a step to the right (of DC.) Put
your hands on your hips— and HOLD ON TIGHT because Wolf Pack Theatre Company is
bringing you their very own Rocky Horror Show.

Dog Sees God at Wolf Pack Theater Company

Reviews May 3, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

The broken parts of a dead body will never heal. Sticks and
stones may break my bones but names— will scar me so deep that I just may never
recover. Good grief. When the iconic, albeit off-kilter, happiness of one’s
childhood, hits puberty and spirals off course with tough life lessons and
harrowing high-school truths, you get Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God. Fitting into the wheelhouse of Wolf Pack Theatre
Company productions,

A Christmas Carol at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews December 8, 2018 Alan Duda

For those unfamiliar with the tale, A Christmas Carol is a sci-fi story of outer worldly spirits and time travel overlaid with a profitable Christmas theme. You know,like in It’s A Wonderful Life. If you find that an interesting way to think of it, Director Bill Leary’s adaptation is just as intriguing in how it updates this classic. The relationships that Ebeneezer Scrooge shuns are heightened by tying every character closer to him through family and business.Old boss Fezziwig is replaced with Scrooge’s father Andrew,

Wolf Pack Theatre Company's Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews September 14, 2018 Alan Duda

Spring Awakening – Charity, Chastity, Choreography

Every generation thinks they invented sex. Spring Awakening is how they invented it under the Second Reich. Wolf Pack Theatre Company brings you this oft-censored 1890 play which was revamped as a musical in 2006 to win eight Tony Awards.

Co-director William Leary usually chooses dark and heavy adult subject matter, and continues to do so with Spring Awakening – this time with adolescents.

Deathtrap at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews May 11, 2018 Alan Duda

Deathtrap: A play of one set, two acts, five characters.

One Set: A writing den in a converted church. A typewriter. Walls decorated with posters from previous plays and various prop implements of persuasion and destruction.
Two Acts: Running an hour each with a 15-minute intermission.
Five Characters: The established writer. His wife. The new writer. The psychic neighbor. The lawyer.

Pardon my conceit as I continue the review by repeating this again with further variations,

A Christmas Carol at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews December 8, 2017 Alan Duda

A thoughtful retelling of Dickens’ classic, with music.

This is the fourth year of Wolfpack Theatre Company’s A Christmas Carol. Director William Leary has updated the off-told story with modern settings and sentiment. For example, we learn that Robert Cratchit Sr. and Andrew Scrooge had formed a beneficial business partnership that young Ebenezer destroys by merging with Marley. This deliberately joins all of the characters as an extended family with its attendant tensions.

Midnight Cigarette at Wolfpack Theatre Company

Reviews September 8, 2017 Alan Duda

Content Warning! Midnight Cigarette contains nudity, racist, derogatory and inflammatory terminology, sexual situation, graphic content, coarse language, controversial conversations regarding politics, abortion, incest, rape, domestic violence, and scenes of substance abuse.

So reads the insert in the program of William Leary’s latest play. Set in a coal town with no more coal, Midnight Cigarette revolves around the remains of those still trying to live there. It’s a small town where everyone knows most everything about everyone,

Review: A Christmas Carol at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews December 17, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther 3 Comments

Hark the herald angels sing— beckoning you to see this thing! Peace on earth and mercy mild, glory to this precious child! And all the children in Wolfpack Theatre Company’s production of A Christmas Carol. Written by Charles Dickens, Adapted and Directed by William Leary, this production is not the Dickensian classic you’re familiar with, unless you’ve been attending the Wolfpack family tradition over the last few years. When most companies choose to take the comedic twist,

Review: Memories & Legends at Wolfpack Theater Company

Reviews September 24, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

The world may change but people stay the same, at least they do in Newfoundland. This is a sobering discovery for rock-legend Oran Tobin when he returns home for the first time since childhood. Coping with the loss of a father he never knew, his declining career, and rocky relationship, the rock star vocalist finds himself drowning in a tidal wave of nostalgia and memories that are not quite his own as he encounters for the first time the legend that was the father he never knew.

Review: kinK at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews May 20, 2016 Alan Duda

“Everyone has got a kink, what’s yours?” In kinK, Wolfpack Theatre Company once again invites you to get beyond your immediate gut response to really think about an issue and consider the lives it affects. kinK, an evocative and risqué new work by company founder William Dean Leary, asks what happens when the community’s creed “Safe – Sane – Consensual” encounters the notion of “There are no limits.”

The black box theater of the Greenbelt Arts Center has been transformed into a leather/levi bar.

12 Gifts of a Wolf Pack Christmas Carol: Day 2 an Interview with Technical Director Stephen Beitzell

Interviews December 2, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

On the second interview of Christmas, Wolf Pack Theatre Company did give to TheatreBloom— the insight of their company’s resident Technical Director Stephen Beitzell! Two blinking lights— quick, Stephen they’re not supposed to blink! And a glowing spotlight on solo singers too! Follow along in the TheatreBloom exclusive series to see what Stephen has to say about his Christmas favorites and his experience with A Christmas Carol

Merry Christmas, Stephen! Thanks for giving us a moment of your time!

Review: Forsaken Angels at Wolfpack Theatre Company

Reviews September 19, 2015 Alan Duda

Wolfpack Theatre Company once again takes on troubling social issues with their World Premiere production of the new play Forsaken Angels, written by the company’s Founding Artistic Director, William Dean Leary. Now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center for a limited engagement, this is a raw play about child sex-trafficking. There are no heroes. There refuse to be victims. There are only the survivors and the dead. But what does survival even mean if the spirit is dead?