author: Lilou Von Kokoro
I honestly haven’t ventured into the city in many years. But on the last day of summer, I spent the evening at Spotlighters Theatre, located in Baltimore City on St. Paul Street, seeing A Raisin In The Sun, written by Lorainne Hansberry, as directed by Rain Pryor.
Spotlighters definitely has an intimate feeling especially with its theater in the round staging. The crowd that night was small but you could feel the anticipation.
You know you’re going to be in for a night when the characters in the program don’t actually have names. Buckle up, bicycle kick, and get ready to go for— goal— with The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe now officially open at Spotlighters Theatre as the last main-stage show of their 61st season. Directed by Lanoree Blake, this 90-minute, no-intermission, theatrical exploration gives you glimpses into the lives of teenage girls and their indoor-soccer-dominated world.
Prescribed plans for wellness do not allow for love at first sight. But haven’t we all been there? Or at least seen our friends and family be there? Jumping into something when they shouldn’t based on nothing more than a glance across the Supercenter shopping aisle? Or not jumping out of something when they should have because there just wasn’t an easy way out? If you’re looking for a good evening of dark, laugh-out-loud comedy,
author: Jamie Gerhardt
Fag Gods is a mythic camp comedy making its worldwide performance debut at Spotlighters in their 61st season in Baltimore, and it truly couldn’t have had a better opening. Written by John Bavoso and presented at the Baltimore Playwright’s Festival last year, it was the highest-rated selection of that season, and Spotlighters (very thankfully!) decided to give this wonderful little show its debut. The show is highly representative of the LGBTQIA+ community— as you might be able to discern from its title— and as someone who came out as transgender myself within the past year,
Madness does not run through the theatre family; it gallops. With sardines. And while you’re certainly not going to get a gargantuan house on the postage stamp stage at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, you can definitely get a hilariously good time with their current production of Charles Morey’s Laughing Stock. Mild to moderate insanity with a dash of ‘WTF’ all balled neatly into the nonsense that is the lifestyle we choose when we jump into the world of theatre.
Some people were born to speak, others just to listen. And occasionally those of us that listen will report back on what we hear. Form an opinion, as it were. It’s me. I’m a listening opinion-former. And I’m forming an opinion on the current production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, now playing at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre through February 4th 2024. The midway point of their 61st season,
Of all the blithe sounds you’ll hear this holiday season, tis none merrier than that of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, performed in near-entirety by Phil Gallagher as a one-man endeavor at Spotlighters Theatre. For its third year running, this solo-performer adaptation of the iconic Christmas classic holds its own against the 400 other productions of the Dickensian money-maker this time of year. Adapted for the stage by Sherrionne Brown and Phil Gallagher,
“…to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave…”
Christmas starts in October for everyone else, so why not use a lesser-recognized Dickens’ quote to welcome in the latest show of Season 61 at Spotlighters? (And if you need more Dickens in your life, beyond this hook-quote, be sure to book your tickets for the cherished annual performance of Phil Gallagher’s one-man A Christmas Carol coming this December) But this particular quote feels apropos for Outward Bound,
For a season of harmony and balance, nurture and compassion, Circle Mirror Transformation seems an odd choice, especially as the kick-starter for said season. Annie Baker’s esoteric theatrical exercise-come-stage-play is now appearing at Spotlighters Theatre through October 1st 2023 under the direction of Nick Cherone.
The play itself is deeply problematic— not because it hits on any hot-button issues or is outdated/outmoded or offensive but rather because it feels unfinished. There’s sort of a beginning,
It’s never an easy task to tackle a difficult subject, particularly when attempting to speak about a narrative that isn’t necessarily your own. What Was Done, a world-premiere play by Jack L. B. Bohn currently being produced for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival by Miriam Bazensky and Directed by Barry Feinstein as a co-production with Spotlighters Theatre, is a play that leaves the audience with more questions and awkward comments than anything else.
Growing up as an only child, I often imagined what it would be like to have siblings and to be able to grow older with them. After seeing Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Spotlighters Theatre I no longer need to imagine what that type of life might look like. Written by Christopher Durang and Directed by Erin Klarner, this play encapsulates the ups and downs of sibling dynamics and proves that even as adults’ siblings will always have a unique and indescribable bond.
Everything that happens to you is your story. How you choose to tell it? And who you let tell it? That’s up to you. A surprising drama with heart and emotional heft, Suzan Zeder’s Do Not Go Gentle is a rarely produced play— at least in these parts— and is currently making its way onto the stage at Spotlighters Theatre. An estranged son? A moody granddaughter? A spastically over-the-top estate agent? And a ghost.
![[title of show] at Spotlighters Theatre. ????Matthew Peterson](https://www.theatrebloom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/DSC_3671.jpg)
Fierce! Original! Hysterical! All adjectives that one could use to describe [title of show] at Spotlighters Theatre. Written by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell with Music & Lyrics by Jeff Bowen, and the Book by Hunter Bell, this show creates a world in which a theater patron can see the time, blood, sweat, and tears that it takes for an original musical to make it all the way to the Great White Way.
“God bless us, every one”
Tis the season for holly, mulled wine, and curing any case of “Bah humbug.” Returning for the second year in a row (and deservedly so!), this one-man show, adapted and edited by Sherrionne Brown and Phil Gallagher returns to Baltimore’s own Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre through December 18th to reprise this wonderful rendition of Charles Dickens’ beloved classic: A Christmas Carol.
It is difficult to find anyone in the English-speaking regions of the world who are not,
In a modern context, the production of William Shakespeare’s works largely hangs upon the performers’ ability to voice these verses in such a way that the audience not only instantly and instinctually understands their meaning, but may also benefit from their specific notes of humor, tragedy, etc. In this sense, Spotlighters Theatre’s Twelfth Night – the classic gender-bending romantic comedy – is a decidedly mixed bag.
The older generation of performers seem to know exactly what they’re doing here,
Set in Memphis during the Great Depression, Hoodoo Love – written by Katori Hall, directed by Rain Pryor, and currently playing at the Spotlighters Theatre – exists at the seamy and sultry crossroads where superstition, the blues, and matters of the heart converge… the sort of crossroads where Tommy Johnson, referenced in this piece (along with a great many other blues legends), might well have stood at midnight and sold his soul for his music.
Garbage punctuated by art. Isn’t that what life is? Sure feels like it sometimes. If you’re feeling like the garbage part of your life is overwhelming, The Audrey Herman Spotlighters theatre has a magical hall-monitor from a parallel universe ready to wave their magic wand and give you all the wonderful art and zany comedy one could hope for in a musical called Zanna Don’t! This musical fairytale, created by Alexander Dinelaris and Tim Acito,
Dum-dum-daaah-dum. Dum-dum-daaah-dum! Always a bride’s maid and never a bride, right? But who needs to be the bride when you can be one of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress? The penultimate show in Spotlighters’ mainstage season, this oddly-out-of-sorts-with-itself comedy by Alan Ball is a unique examination of five women in the mid 90’s who all have one thing in common: they’re the bride’s maids in a wedding where the bride herself seems none too popular.
The wonder.
The mystery.
The Mousetrap.
While the ending may be the world’s best-kept secret, there’s no wonder or mystery that it is London’s longest-running performance in The West End. This Agatha Christie stage play is loaded with intrigue, deception, suspense, and— of course— mystery. And it’s now appearing on The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre stage, directed by Paul Saar. With edgy moments of suspense, thrilling moments of spine-tingling terror,
Puffs is certainly written for serious fans of a certain young wizard. You pretty much have to be well versed in the wizardly world of J. K. Rowling (all seven years and then some) to have every joke land. However, Director Alanna Kiewe and her Spotlighters’ cast deliver an evening of entertainment whether you are a Potter novice or you bleed butter beer. I mean come on; these are Puffs we are talking about.
There have been songs, dances, parodies, and even Muppets. But in all my travels— these 35 and a half years upon this earth— making merry and keeping the spirit and tradition of Christmas alive in my heart not only during the season but all the year, I have never heard of a visit to a lighthouse during the travels of The Ghost of Christmas Present with Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Friday night, October 22, 2021, was a very big night for a small but important theatre, one of a select few that are the very soul of Baltimore theatre history. After nineteen months of darkness thrust upon them due to Covid-19 lockdowns and mandates, The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, that diminutive little workhorse in the step down basement on St. Paul Street, opened again with a light fanfare and a comfortable crowd of faithful patrons to kick off their 59th Season.
Ken Ludwig’sMoon Over Buffalo is the second installment from Spotlighters
Theatre’s 58th season. If you are looking for some gut chuckling, tears
down your cheeks humor, then you won’t want to miss this show. Director Brandon
Richards has mentored his cast through door slamming, side splitting hysterics that
will keep you laughing all the way home.
Shealyn Jae Photography Moon Over Buffalo at Spotlighters Theatre. Photo: Shealyn Jae Photography
The first thing you notice upon
entering the theatre is the very cozy and well-designed set of Sam Martin.
As Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) said in
Point Break, “It will sting a bit,
but, uh, it’s for your own growth, bro.” Sweat
written by Lynn Nottage, playing at Spotlighters Theatre, is the slap in the
face that we need. It does what we all too often fail to do when it comes to a
political or social issue; it humanizes the situation. We read the paper, watch
the news, scan social media,
“Someday I’ll meet someone whose heart joins with mine—
aortas and arteries all intertwined! They’ll beat so much stronger than they
could apart, eight chambers of muscle to hustle the love in our heart!” Greg Kotis
& Mark Hollmann this time, weighing in on love as TheatreBloom talks shop—
love and marriage, that is— with the next married couple appearing in Love
Letters during the benefit fundraiser production run at Spotlighters
Theatre. Delivering their rendition of Love Letters on Friday August 9th,
“Love is oration, like an elation, love speaks to us in
tongues. Natural as teething, simple as breathing, air in the love-starved
lungs.” Andrew Lippa’s take on love through the morbidly delightful lens of
Gomez Addams. Everyone has their own approach to love. A.R. Gurney probably
never imagined that his words of love would be used as a benefit fundraiser for
the theatergoers of Baltimore to show their love of theatre and in particular
their love of Spotlighters Theatre.
I wasn’t sure what to think about
seeing a play I had only ever heard of as an acclaimed movie. Director Fuzz Roark assuaged those fears by
allowing us to experience the story in a setting not only made more intimate by
being kept in the same room as Alan Zemla’s set designs, but also brought to
our senses by virtue of Spotlighters Theater being a cozy space. Being so very close to the action made you
not an audience member at a play,
Sometimes, it’s all in the
timing. When the circles of life coincide with your best efforts, everyone
wins. There is a history of shows that premiered to little or no hoopla, but
when revived later in a different political or social climate, felt way more
relevant and meaningful. The most popular example is Kander & Ebb’s classic
musical Chicago. Opening in 1975
under the direction of Bob Fosse and starring dual leading legends Gwen Verdon
and Chita Rivera,
In
ancient Greek mythology, the shy artist Pygmalion expressed no interest in
women, but when he created a statue of Galatea so fair he fell in love with it,
he made sacrifices to the goddess Aphrodite to give him a woman as beautiful as
his sculpture. She does him one better by bringing the marble Galatea to life
as his reward. In 1912, master Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw used that metaphor
of taking the basest elements of the earth and sculpting them into a real lady
in a very literal sense in his masterpiece Pygmalion.
A new world calls across Charm City! A new world calls across street. A new world whispers through Mt. Vernon— time to see— time to see…it is time to see Songs For a New World at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. Co-Directed by Andrea Bush and Michael Tan, and Musical Direction by Michael Tan, four talented voices come together on the stage to sing songs of love and hope. Fitting well into the Season57 theme of ‘Strong Voices’,