[title of article]

Chris Ramirez
Repertory Company HS for Theatre Arts, grade 10

[title of show] is an extraordinary musical about two playwrights named Jeff and Hunter who have just three weeks to finish a musical. Their creative process is hilarious as they stumble over lyrics, scenes, and everything the Broadway world has to ...

JOLLYSHIP: The Whiz Bang

Robert Smith
Murry Bergtraum High School, Grade 12

There's a first time for everything, and today I killed three birds with one stone: It was my first time on a cruise, my first rock concert and my first puppet show. As I walked into Ars Nova's space to see JOLLYSHIP: The Whiz Bang, I have t ...

Shoeless Joe Returns to NYC

Chris Ramirez
Repertory Company HS for Theatre Arts, grade 10

That’s right--one of America’s favorite Golden Age musicals is back in a revival at City Center this summer. Damn Yankees follows avid baseball fan Joe Boyd (P.J. Benjamin), who's so focused on his team defeating the Yankees that he trades ...

Rafta Rafta …

Sabrina Khan
Bayside High School, Grade 12

Rafta Rafta… is a very real and heartfelt work of art depicting traditional Indian lifestyles in present-day England. Ayub Khan-Din's play about a modern Indian couple deals with the problems that couples face after marriage, complete with t ...

Great Acting, "Crooked" Play

Molly Fagan
Stephen A. Halsey Junior High School, Grade 8

I recently saw Catherine Trieschmann's new play Crooked at the Julia Miles Theatre, put on by the Women's Project. It's a small, typical Off-Broadway theatre. When you walk in, the stage is right in front of you. For this play, the stage is ...

The Sound and Fury of "Macbeth"

Nicolas Munoz & Iliana Ortega
Seniors, Bayard Rustin Educational Complex

EnterMacbeth : The tale of a soldier with too much ambition who rises to the top, becomes blinded by his success and eventually faces his downfall. Macbeth, the protagonist of the play, is a general in the King's army. After a successful bat ...

An Awe-Inspiring "Spring"

Sabrina Khan
Bayside High School, Grade 12

Spring Awakening is by far one of the greatest musicals ever to hit Broadway. It's a racy tale about sexually repressed 19th century German teens. Although the time period would imply that the story is dated, that is absolutely not the case. ...

Scary, But Maybe Not "The Scariest"

Monikha Reyes
Halsey Junior High School, Grade 9

When you hear a title like The Scariest, what comes to mind? Things that go bump in the night, perhaps? Or maybe the fears that haunt your very sleep?

Well, this play was a bit like that. As soon as I took my seat in the tepid ...

Who Wants To Be Famous?

Robert Smith
Murry Bergtraum High School, Grade 12

Close your eyes and drift back to junior high school. Your teacher asks: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The entire class explodes with both confusion and excitement. The confusion results not just from uncertainty about how we might achieve ou ...

Who exactly was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

Jeremy Friedman
Curtis High School, Grade 12

Who exactly was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Most of us know him to have been a civil rights leader and a powerful speaker, one who could move thousands of people with his words. We are familiar with the Montgomery bus boycott and his iconic "I Have a Drea ...

A Gypsy diaPlog (may include spoilers)

Hannah Perri & Christa Tandana
Bayside High School, Grade 12

Hannah: How amazing was Gypsy? Right?

Christa: Yeah, it was pretty good.

Hannah: Patti LuPone played the overbearing and obsessed mother, Rose, incredibly well.

C: I concur. She' ...

November, big topics, big laughs

Cynthia Cruz
Fordham High School, Grade 10

November is a play taking place in The White House, and is about things a teenager normally wouldn't deal with, such as civil marriages, gambling, casinos, American Indians, presidential libraries, questionable pardons and campaign contributions. T ...

Liberty City

Julia Keimach
12th grade Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts

The majority of my playgoing experience has been to see the flashy, big-budget musicals of Broadway. I was hesitant to venture into a smaller Off-Broadway experimental theatre. But April Yvette Thompson's one-woman show Liberty City, about race con ...

The Mystery of "Curtains"

Christa Tandana
Bayside High School, Grade 12

A musical within a musical/murder mystery--sounds interesting, right? Well, that's what made me want to see Curtains. A star cast, including Frasier's David Hyde Pierce and Edward Hibbert, and seasoned actress Debra Monk makes it sound even ...

Sweeping "Stomp"

Molly Fagan
Stephen A. Halsey Junior High School, Grade 8

Stomp is a unique, eye-catching show. The minute you walk into the theatre, you see a junkyard scene: garbage cans, broken signs, and plastic all around the small theatre. The stage is colorful and vibrant, and it's covered with tons of props. The ...

Fun But Not Filling

Sabrina Khan
Bayside High School, Grade 12

Mamma Mia!, critically acclaimed as “the most fun on Broadway,” definitely delivers as an entertaining musical. But while it was enjoyable, it wasn’t exactly all that I expected it to be. I wanted more out of the experience; I thought it was missin ...

“Strange” Fascination

Hannah Perri
Bayside High School, Grade 12

I’m all for the calm and cautious kind of review. But there are times when a review calls for an obsessed-fan-at-an-*NSYNC-concert-like response. Passing Strange deserves such a reaction. From all the quirky little jokes (“Nobody in this play knows ...

Writers Hit "Heights"

Monikha Reyes
Halsey Junior High School, Grade 9

Might as well "Jump"

Robert Smith
Murry Bergtraum High School, Grade 12

Honestly, if I were to invite you to a play that had no dialogue, would you graciously accept the invite, with the hope of experiencing something new and different, or turn it down because you think it would make absolutely no sense? When first walking in ...

Mock Hitchcock

Jeremy Friedman
Curtis High School, Grade 12

"Quick, you must escape through the window! No, not that one --the rear window!"

The puns fly and familiar Hitchcockian references abound in the new Patrick Barlow adaptation of The 39 Steps. Originally a novel by John Buchan, ...

A Family Falls Apart

Sabrina Khan
Bayside High School, Grade 12

Have you ever seen a family so torn that they cannot show compassion for one another even after experiencing a loss? Sure, all of us have been in the middle of a heated family argument at least once, especially during large gatherings. But to witness the ...

"Hairspray" Holds Up

Robert Smith
Murry Bergtraum High School, Grade 12

At a recent performance of Hairspray, I believe I had the best seats in the house: fifth-row center. After taking my seat, I knew that nothing could ruin my evening, even as the usher screamed in my ear "No cell phones." While waiting for the show ...

How "Spelling Bee" Caught Me By Surprise

Christa Tandana
Bayside High School, Grade 12

When you think of a spelling bee, what comes to mind? I think: a bunch of smart kids who must stay on a stage until they find out who the best speller is. Well, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee takes this seemingly ordinary situation far beyond ...

One Person, Big Talent

Robert Smith
Murry Bergtraum High School, Grade 12

When I heard that A Bronx Tale was going to be a one-person play, my thoughts quickly returned to the thoughts I had before I went to see Nilaja Sun's No Child : "OMG, are you serious? A one-person play? Can she really pull this off? Is it ...

A welcome from the TDF Play by Play Plog

Play by Play Plog
TDF’s glossy student theatre newsletter. Written by and for high school students.

Welcome to the TDF "Plog," our name for the new Play by Play group weblog. Here you'll find the firsthand thoughts and insights of high school students from all over New York--their reactions, rants and reviews about theatre they've seen and the theatr ...