Current Issue

Theater

Bloodlust at Red Bull: The Revenger's Tragedy

by Wendy Weisman

Theater

For director Jesse Berger, four hundred years go by awfully quickly. Berger sees the turn of the century bringing troubled times: a corrupt government that purports to be infallible; rulers who surround themselves with sycophantic yes-men; high level positions filled according to loyalty and personal favors, while the populace resign themselves to cynicism in the face of an increasingly violent world. For an artist whose latest project is a play published in 1607, Berger spends a lot of time musing on contemporary headlines.

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas: Tight Embrace

by Kristoffer Diaz

Theater

The first thing that leaps to mind when I think of Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, the playwright responsible for Tight Embrace (along with the plays Sleepwalkers and Blind Mouth Singing, among others) is the first time I met him. We were at an informal reading of a screenplay written by a friend of a mutual friend. After reading the script, we all hung out, enjoyed some liquid refreshment and talked shop. Jorge mentioned a hip-hop theater conference he was helping to organize. In response, I mentioned my own interest in the genre. Three months later, on Jorge’s recommendation, I was flying out to the West Coast to build with some of the best young minds in theater, including (and especially) Jorge himself.

In Conversation

Two Headed Calf with Roger Babb

by Roger Babb

Theater

This January, the Theatre of the Two Headed Calf will present their Kabuki influenced production of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara at La Mama.  Co-founded by director Brooke O’Harra and composer Brian Connelly, the company has presented a number of critically well-received performance pieces over the last five years. At La Mama, they did two productions of works by Stanilaus Witkiewicz, Poland’s leading theatrical innovator of the interwar period and one of the strangest and most influential personalities of the European avant-garde.  Recently they composed a beautifully crafted production of Lisa D’Amour’s The Cataract at the Perishable Theatre in Providence.

Out of the Darkness: Apparition

by Richard Fulco

Theater

If one had to experience Anne Washburn’s Apparition while lying in one’s “own shit and piss,” as one character laments, one would still be eternally grateful to the playwright.