ELIZA BENT

“I’m playing with the idea of translation in a really subjective way,” says Jessica Almasy. She’s discussing Le BalcÒn (The Balcony) , her new work that’s running at JACK in Clinton Hill through Aug 16. The show, which Almasy wrote and devised with JP Faienza, Teri Madonna and David Neal Levin, is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

When you think about theatre in New York City, Manhattan is obviously a borough that comes to mind, and those in the know might mention companies in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. But what about Staten Island? Does it have a place in the conversation?

According to Michael Spierman, artistic director of the Bronx Opera Company, the two biggest obstacles people face when it comes to opera are the high costs and the language barrier. “We remove those obstacles with low ticket prices and productions in English,” he says. “It’s somewhat surprising that we are the only opera company in New York City doing productions in English.”

Of all the design elements in the theatre, sound can be the hardest to notice. Sometimes, a sophisticated cue creates a barely perceptible noise that flavors our experience without jolting us. We may not realize how we’re being affected, but we’re being affected all the same.

For Alec Duffy, artistic director of the Obie-winning theatre group Hoi Polloi, watching a DVD of John Cassavetes’ Shadows provided a light bulb moment. “About halfway through watching I was like, ‘Damn. This would be so great with live actors in a theatrical environment.'”

Visiting Times Square is one thing. While tourists delight in its chaos, gawking at the bright lights and characters like the Naked Cowboy, locals tend to avoid the place at all costs

Short play festivals allow viewers to test the limits of their taste buds. The beauty of such a theatre smorgasbord is that if a particular piece doesn’t whet your palate, all you have to do is wait 10 or 15 minutes for another offering. Ultimately, even the pickiest and most discerning audience members will probably find something they like, and they may even be surprised to discover a style of t

“It’s funny how little gems stay with you and explode inside of your imagination,” says director Joan Evans, referring to a short article about the life of Takashi Tanemori that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle soon after the events of September 11th in 2001. The article was about Tanemori, a Hiroshima orphan, and his journey from wanting revenge to seeking reconciliation. “It was a totally

Last year, Thais Francis was scheduled to performer a dance/monologue piece about Troy Davis, who was executed after a lengthy and contested trial. Two weeks later, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.