7 Fingers Production presents "Traces". Photo Credit: Michael Meseke.
There are none of the typical signs onstage at Union Square Theater indicating that a circus-type show is about to start, except for two vertical poles dead center. Replacing carnival rings and nets and clowns are everyday objects such as chairs, a piano, a wooden desk, and…a screen with my face on it? I recognize myself in surveillance footage that was taped a few minutes earlier of people entering the theater to see Traces. It is a shock to the system to realize that I was unknowingly being filmed minutes before, but it breaks the barrier between the stage and the audience and foreshadows how personal Traces will be. Then seven performers burst onto the stage unexpectantly and begin an energetic modern dance sequence with a few components of the more-daring acrobatic feats that lie ahead. Over the next 90 minutes, the performers risk their lives to impress the engaged audience, and achieve their goal of making the circus art form sophisticated and creative. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
7 Fingers Production,
Les 7 Doigts de la Main,
Theater,
Union Square Theatre
Photo of Isabella Boylston by Rosalie O'Connor.
A man in a dog costume. Another man comically gliding by on a bike. The sound of an audience laughing and cheering. You might think I was at the circus. But I wasn’t. This was American Ballet Theater’s “The Bright Stream,” complete with cross-dressing dancers and much, much more.
This comic ballet running through June 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center is quite different from a traditional ballet like “Swan Lake” in its bold and humorous storytelling. It takes place in Northern Russia, specifically, during a harvest festival on a Soviet farm in the 1930’s. An arrival of artists and dancers stir up lighthearted drama, reunion of friendships, and lots of celebrations. In the manner of a Shakespeare comedy, the characters switch identities to reveal infidelity in marriages and simply to have fun.
It is different than what people usually think of as a ballet. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Alexei Ratmansky,
American Ballet Theater,
Lincoln Center,
Metropolitan Opera House,
The Bright Stream
Blaring bagpipes and projections of flags immediately hit me when I walked into the theater. Four TV screens on the sides of the rectangular room showed blue and white flags flapping in the wind. These visuals foreshadowed the deep and slightly aggressive pride for Scotland that is central to the play Black Watch.
The National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Black Watch at St. Ann’s Warehouse (located in DUMBO) is about Scottish soldiers, and their views of the Iraq War. The Black Watch is the oldest regiment in Scotland. We follow 10 soldiers’ lives, from being in battle, to their downtime, and talking with their friends. We also watch the effects war has on them when they return home. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Black Watch,
National Theatre of Scotland,
St. Ann's Warehouse
Billy Porter, Robin Weigert and Christian Borle star in Tony Kusher's epic play. Photo Credit: Richard Termine.
When you spend seven hours with someone, you feel like you get to know them pretty well, right? This rings true with the characters of the play Angels in America. The audience becomes attached to their stories and cares about their troubles; however, you may not get to hear their entire story on one day.
The Signature Theatre Company’s Angels in America, brilliantly written by Tony Kushner, is split into two parts, each three and a half hours long with two intermissions. They are performed on different days, switching off every couple of days, so one usually can’t see both parts on the same day. You may see them a day, a week (like I did), a month or more apart from each other, but the story remains strong during the gap between viewing each part.
“Part 1: Millennium Approaches” introduces eight interconnected people living in New York City in the mid-1980s. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Angels in America,
Signature Theatre's Peter Norton Space,
The Signature Theatre Company,
Tony Kushner
One of the great things about living in New York City is that we have the opportunity to do things that many people wouldn’t get to do anywhere else; for example, a free week-long immersion into Shakespeare run by the professionals behind Shakespeare in the Park.
This was my second summer doing Shakespeare Lab Jr., and I wondered how it would be compared to last year. This five-day program held at the Public Theater on Lafayette Street is aimed at the same people who are part of High 5: teens (13-19) living in the five boroughs.
Last year I was put in the 8th/9th grade group, but this year I was going to be in the 10th/11th/12th grade group, and I worried it would be more intense. It was in a different studio, and with none of the same people as last year, but some teens had done it before, as I had.
The workshop includes learning about a Shakespeare play and its characters, doing theater warm-ups/games, and focusing on sonnet writing and structure. At the end of the week, parents are invited to a presentation. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Programs for Teens,
Shakespeare in the Park,
Shakespeare Lab Jr.,
Summer Shake Up,
The Public Theater
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