by CHRISTINE SARKES Inclusiveness and gratitude were the themes of the 12th Annual Ivey Awards held last evening at the Historic State Theater, downtown Minneapolis. Theater professionals honored their own and one of ours–Star Tribune theater critic Graydon Royce–as they reached beyond the typical candidates by awarding a non-actor, costume designer Trevor Bowen, with the Emerging Artist Award. Bowen got his…
In only their second ever production, Casting Spells Productions takes on Terrence McNally‘s late-80s play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. It’s a bold choice, given that it’s a two-hour production with a very intimate setting and features only two characters; with a weak performance by either actor or mismatched chemistry, the whole thing would fall apart. Luckily,…
By LIZ BYRON. One of the first things most sources say about Christopher Marlowe is that he was a contemporary of William Shakespeare. This, of course, instantly sets up a comparison between the two, with Shakespeare frequently coming out on top. However, as far as the Classical Actors Ensemble‘s fall repertory goes, it’s Marlowe who’s the…
BY TAMAR NEUMANN: After I saw The Classical Actors Ensemble’s production of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi all my memories of my Renaissance English Literature class came crashing back. I went home, dusted off my copy of the play, and started flipping through my notes about the tragic themes present in this story. I…
By LIZ BYRON. In old western movies, the good guy wears a white hat, and the bad guy wears a black hat. In Gabriel, the good guy (good lady?) wears a pretty dress and the bad guy wears a Nazi uniform, which seems rather unsubtle, but as the play unfolds, the divide between right and…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Our language has changed quite a bit since 1613, but our sense of humor clearly has not. Sure, there are a whole lot of “forsooth”s in Thomas Middleton‘s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, but the characters it mocks are still alive and well today: the incessantly chattering gossips, the pretentious scholar spouting verbiage no…
by SOPHIE KERMAN What’s in a number? Well, when it comes to sex, numbers can mean a heck of a lot. Ian MacAllister-McDonald‘s The Sexual Life of Savages begins when Hal discovers that he and his girlfriend Jean are numerically mismatched – where he has had 7 sexual encounters, Jean’s number may be up beyond 25 –…
Like Sophie wrote about her Fringe experiences yesterday, I did not intend to have a “theme day”, but I did: I wound up seeing two one-woman shows. However, I can’t really compare them, because the similarities kind of end there. Lord of the Files, written and performed at the Theatre Garage by Lesley Tsina, is a…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 