by Chris Rohmann | Aug 25, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
2020’s Summer of Rage following the murder of George Floyd — another “last straw” in police killings of Black men — gave rise to much soul-searching in many areas of American society, including the theater community. Some of the fruits were on view this summer. Most...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 2, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
The most stimulating, challenging and heartbreaking play I’ve seen this year is playing at Chester Theatre Company through this weekend. Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over takes place on a violent street corner in today’s America, where two young Black men dream of...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 1, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
It’s become standard practice in the region’s theaters to offer a land acknowledgement before every performance. As Jacob’s Pillow’s artistic director Pamela Tatge says every night, “The land on which we dance is the ancestral homeland” of the Native peoples whose...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 28, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
By coincidence, two plays now running in our region center on pairs of Black brothers, one bonded by blood, the other by circumstance. Hymn, now playing at Shakespeare & Company, is a study of class and family framed as a bromance. Pass Over, at Chester Theatre...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 25, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
After a boundary-busting 30-year run, the Ko Festival of Performance is coming to a close. Formed as a collaborative, for many years the summer mainstay has been guided by Sabrina Hamilton, one of its co-founders. In a message announcing this final season, Sabrina...
