Off-Broadway

Theatre can happen anywhere, even on a Greyhound bus. Playwright Rajiv Joseph was travelling at night between his hometown of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and while most of the bus was dark, one woman had a worklight on over her tray table and was “folding these little boxes and fish,” Joseph recalls. “It was this weirdly […]

Lenelle Moïse looks forward to visiting Paris one day. In the meantime, the multitalented performer/poet/playwright can travel to the City of Lights virtually in her new play Expatriate, which opens this week at the Culture Project. Moïse plays Claudie, an African-American singer/musician who, with her soul mate Alphine, rises to pop stardom in Europe. It’s […]

“My picture is now hanging in the renovated madhouse,” says Jeremy Lawrence, and out of context this makes a haunting and evocative image. Put in context, it’s an even more impressive line: Lawrence–who will perform Everyone Expects Me To Write Another ‘Streetcar‘, his second one-man play about Tennessee Williams, for a limited run June 16-19 […]

Sometimes art imitates life; sometimes it’s vice versa. Other times, it’s much more complicated than that; sometimes fiction becomes destiny. “I’d been in umpteen productions of Arsenic and Old Lace as the guy who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt,” says Michael O. Smith, who currently stars in a self-penned solo show, The Bully Pulpit, at the […]

Even folks who aren’t in the business of theatre tend to remember their very first live show: The vivid colors and sounds they saw opened up a whole world of undreamed-of possibilities. For those who were lured into a life on the wicked stage, though, that “first time” has a special magic. That’s the kind […]

If you ever happen to find yourself in a tussle with actor Gideon Banner, know two things: He’s likely to remain remarkably calm about it, and he’s almost certainly going to file away the experience for future use. “It’s a writer’s difficulty, and actors can be prey to it, too,” admits Banner, who plays a […]

“Please don’t use the Fraggle Rock photo!” Julie White pleads, referring to a particularly bug-eyed picture which The New York Times has been running, showing her in character in Liz Flahive’s new comedy/drama From Up Here (at Manhattan Theatre Center’s City Center through June 8). As unflattering as it looks, the so-called “Fraggle Rock” moment […]

Ever want to sit back and watch a novel? Elevator Repair Service, a cutting-edge troupe known for fashioning stage works from “found” materials not originally intended for the theatre, has recently made great American books their specialty. And we’re not talking about traditional adaptations: The troupe’s seven-hour epic Gatz (not yet seen in New York […]

“It takes quite a lot to jar people into action,” says Joanna Gleason, the Tony-winning actress now starring as a jailed radical in Willy Holtzman’s play Something You Did (at Primary Stages through Apr. 26). Gleason is talking about how hard it is for performers associated with one kind of material–in her case, musical theatre–to […]