Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This piece, written and directed by Angeliki Giannakopoulos, and based on her award-winning documentary film, takes a probing look at the lives of women whose children served in the armed forces during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It provides an emotionally charged examination of their love, hopes, pride, fears, … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw The published text of Tennessee Williams’ play is rife with stage directions insisting that it’s not a realistic play, but its production history suggests that Williams didn’t trust his own creation. When it’s performed with honesty and simplicity, as it is here, debates about realism vs. memory seem merely academic. Read … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Improvisation in the theatre is hardly a new thing, and more and more it seems to become a useful part of the movie-making process. Improvised comedy has become downright ubiquitous, and was practiced with glorious expertise by Mike Nichols and Elaine May way back in the 1950s. But improvised opera? Read … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw There have been a number of plays in which the action occurs at a funeral, but now, Liz Shannon Miller’s Clutch is being staged in a venue actually dedicated to funerals, weddings, and bar mitzvahs. We’re asked to believe, however self-consciously, that we’re at the real funeral of former football star and … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This one-woman show, written, performed and co-directed by Alyson Renaldo (with Chris deCarlo) may be about virginity, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of sex. Read more… Now running through April 19. This one-woman show, written, performed and co-directed by Alyson Renaldo (with Chris deCarlo) may be about virginity, but that … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Shakespeare could wield a neat dialectic as deftly as Bertolt Brecht, though he didn’t talk about it as much. In almost every play, the Bard shaped his plots to depict forces eternally at odds. Here, he ranges Prince Hal (Ramon de Ocampo) and Hotspur (Joe Holt), believers in the chivalric … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage and Cinema In his solo show, playwright Nicholas Guest describes his life and travels around the world. He’s accompanied by Hillary Smith on the cello and by Tony Carafone on the guitar (in the play, not his travels) – and they turn out to be a helpful pair, too, because Guest … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Some years before Judy Garland’s death, she appeared at a star-studded benefit for the Actors Studio in New York, alongside Carole Channing, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters and Josephine Premice — and Judy’s children, including Liza Minelli. Judy wore a black satin evening suit, which emphasized her matchstick legs, the result … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Last year, Teatro De La O and writer/director/couturier Octavio Carlin produced a show called Hollywood Party. It was set in Hollywood in the Silent Era, and featured campy, not very convincing impersonations of the famous divas and male stars of the era. There was a confusing and improbable plot, involving an … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw In today’s world of “Fifty Shades of Blech,” where young ladies of intelligence and means agree to be subjected to dominating brutes who whack them with neck ties and do terrible things with handcuffs and strings of beads, what a pleasure it is to be reminded of more civilized times, … Read more