Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #3

Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #3

The Harbor Stage ensemble is like a superlative string quartet – four virtuoso soloists in tune with each other’s rhythms and dynamics while anticipating their cues. The current show, “Dindin,” is a masterly showcase of this foursome in full flight.  

Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #2

Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #2

Tennessee Williams wrote “The Glass Menagerie” in 1943, when he was part of the creative ferment that has long defined Provincetown, Mass. The current revival at the Provincetown Theater recalls that genesis, with mixed results.

Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #1

Stagestruck: Postcards from the Cape, #1

Every summer I spend a week on Cape Cod, enjoying the beach and, of course, the theater. This year I saw four shows at three Outer Cape theaters, two of which I haven’t visited in a while. Here’s the first of three snapshots from those seaside shows, “Nat Turner in Jerusalem” at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.

Stagestruck: A Valley Half-Dozen

Stagestruck: A Valley Half-Dozen

It’s August, and the summer theater season is winding down. No, wait. It’s not. In the Valley, no fewer than six live-in-person productions will be vying for our attention this weekend alone.

Stagestruck: Burnett-ing Down the House

Stagestruck: Burnett-ing Down the House

Archie Burnett is a living repository of the house dance that coalesced in after-hours dance clubs, and “Life Encounters” is his personal odyssey of discovery and initiation, narrated in onstage vignettes with his intergenerational, international, multiracial troupe.

Stagestruck: The ‘Art’ of Friendship

Stagestruck: The ‘Art’ of Friendship

I’ve seen Art several times over the years, and what always strikes me is that it’s a play about men acting like women. And therein lies the crux of the play – and the problem with this production.

Stagestruck: Two Great Ladies on Noah’s Ark

Stagestruck: Two Great Ladies on Noah’s Ark

My partner, a literature professor, has noted a principle in both scholarship and fiction that she calls the Noah’s Ark Approach: If you want to get attention for your female subject, pair her with a famous man. Two new plays in Berkshire theaters illustrate that rule.

Stagestruck: The Weather, the Union, and Othello

Stagestruck: The Weather, the Union, and Othello

I had a theater-going “double feature” planned for last Saturday – two outdoor shows in a row from adventurous Berkshire-based companies. But those plans were disturbed by two irresistible forces: Nature and Actors’ Equity Association.

Stagestruck: A Shaky Shakespeare

Stagestruck: A Shaky Shakespeare

Shakespeare & Company’s King Lear, the first show to open on its Lenox campus in a year and a half, marks another return of live theater after the long intermission. It’s also the inaugural production in the troupe’s new outdoor amphitheater, a handsome addition to the company’s stages that brings its history full circle. So it’s especially disappointing to report that this production falls so short of anticipation.

Stagestruck: Dancing on a Soggy Pillow

Stagestruck: Dancing on a Soggy Pillow

Necessity, that inventive parent, has stimulated some ingenious programming at Jacob’s Pillow, including a mix of live and online shows, starting with perennial favorite Dorrance Dance, a company that has pushed the boundaries of tap.

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