Theatre

B-

Hoo-rah!

• The actress playing Erica Morini was superb– that’s my kind of old lady!
• Loved the bits about how to make/play/analyze violin. I’m a sucker for ‘how-to’
• Those feelings were compounded by having a very talented young violinist performing periodically through the show (clever device)
• Satisfying enough through-line and climax… I definitely puzzled over the ‘final question’ for some time.

Blech…

• either needed to be shorter, or have an intermission
• two actors and an okay script weren’t quite able to sustain interest for the full hour and forty minutes (felt claustrophobic at times)
• stakes didn’t feel high enough

I’m going to start giving little bitty reviews as I see shows. They will be structured very similarly to this, unless I’m terribly compelled to write more. Often when I’m reading a review, I’ll skip right to the bullet points at the end. So here’s my bullet points. We all live in the age of the internet– it is unlikely I will be the only place you can find anything about a show, so come here for a taste, google elsewhere for details.

B+

Hoo-rah!

• Charmingly imaginative
• Clown school rejects? Awesome.
• Touching through-line– teaching a bird-to-be about the world with all its danger and beauty.
• The clown (Ian) was a joy throughout– his tricks were indeed ‘very daaangerous’ (certainly to a five year old, the co-writer of the show)
• Leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling
• Alan Tudyk is a sweetheart, both onstage and in person after the show

Blech…

• a little too short
• a little  too repetitive

Why not, here’s some scores from most of the plays I’ve seen in my life thus far. Some of the plays I was involved with, but I’m not including the ones I’ve written. In general, my rubric follows the lingering effect the performance has had on me:

• D | pretty worthless experience
• C | vaguely enjoyed but had a significant problems with
• B | pleasant at the time, ephemeral impact
• A | world-shaking, glorious catharsis

I’ve organized them by location and approximately the order I saw them in (newest at the top):

Continue reading…

My first original play to be performed by a non-student-based organization will be ‘Kiosked!’ as part of the Working Theatre Collective’s 3rd Annual Festival of ’20 Erotic Shorts’. Tickets available here.

This play was also performed as part of Warehouse Architecture Theatre‘s ‘Laugh Til You Say WhAT’ comedy showcase for charity in Fall of 2009 at the Schine Underground at Syracuse University. The original version is 20 minutes though, and this production is a shorter, 5-minute version.

But you know what they say, 5 minutes in heaven is better than 1 minute in heaven.