TDF Stages Archive

By MARK BLANKENSHIP When Osceola Mays sings “Oh Freedom,” we can feel what it means to her. One of two characters in Texas in Paris, a play with music at the York Theatre Company, she’s a black woman in her 80s, the daughter of a Texas sharecropper, who suddenly finds herself singing for the French […]

Welcome to Geek Out/Freak Out, where theatre fans get super enthusiastic about things. This week, Kelly Kerwin, an MFA Dramaturgy student at the Yale School of Drama, geeks out (via Google Doc) with Emily Zemba, a playwriting MFA student at Yale. Today’s Topic : What is your favorite play within a film? — Kelly Kerwin: […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Of course Dash’s arm falls off. When you lose someone, it can feel like losing a limb, and in City Of, now at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in a Playwrights Realm production, feelings like grief (and love and hope) become physical facts. Dash, a man traveling to Paris in the wake […]

At Flux, everyone, including the audience, is part of the team.

By LAUREN KAY The most famous song and dance men—the Fred Astaires and Gene Kellys—are synonymous with debonair style, majestic movement, and a surplus of charm. And while the ranks of these elegant performers may have dwindled as tastes have changed, those nostalgic for swift-footed dancing and perfectly harmonized Gershwin tunes can enjoy the Encores! […]

By ERIC GRODE Move over, August Wilson. Damon Chua is halfway toward replicating your century-spanning theatre project. True, Chua doesn’t focus on one specific geographic area, à la Wilson’s beloved Hill District of Pittsburgh. And the definition of “century” got a little fuzzy when he set one of his plays in the 2000s. “Also, I […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Fans of Russian drama—or anyone who’s slogged through War and Peace-–might be startled to learn that Classic Stage Company’s current production of A Month in the Country lasts roughly 120 minutes. Since the original script for Ivan Turgenev’s 19th century comic romance can run nearly five hours, does that mean important moments have […]

They’re just your typical American family, getting together for Thanksgiving dinner. Except there are no tables, chairs, or turkey. And the characters have names like Cheesecake and Cherry Pie. And the meal is served in a gym. “I’m tired of looking at living rooms on stage,” says Kate Benson, discussing her debut play A Beautiful […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Maybe you know a theatrical person. Maybe they squeal with rapture when they get a great deal on paper towels. Maybe they rage like an opera villain when Verizon drops a phone call. These megawatt people can be intense, but they’re also incredibly captivating, turning every brunch into a platform for passion. […]