preview Archives – Theatrical Musings

By AARON KRAUSE For a decade, Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab in Boca Raton has offered a weekend-long series of new play readings. Now, the university’s professional resident theater company dedicated solely to new work has turned the annual event into a three-week festival featuring two full productions and…

By AARON KRAUSE For years, Plays of Wilton (POW) has wanted to produce free outdoor theater for South Florida residents and visitors. That dream by POW, a Wilton Manors-based nonprofit organization, has become a reality thanks to funding from the Warten Foundation and support from the City of Wilton…

Photo by Curtis Brown Photography Bill Hayes (standing) plays Norman, the dresser for Actor-Manager Sir (Colin McPhillamy) By AARON KRAUSE While Ronald Harwood’s celebrated play The Dresser offers a backstage glimpse of live theater, ultimately the piece is not about the art form, according to Bill Hayes. “It is…

By AARON KRAUSE It is nearly midnight on a pitch-black Christmas Eve. Everybody is sound asleep, and it’s deathly quiet. Suddenly you feel lonely and dreadful. But then a soft yet reassuring voice from the radio fills the vast space and instantly puts you at ease. Such a scene may…

By AARON KRAUSE When you hear the name Neil Simon, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is comedy. Indeed, the late great playwright’s early work is most notable for, among other things, snappy one-liners. But Simon’s talent extends beyond his ability to make people laugh. This is…

By AARON KRAUSE If South Florida’s Loxen Entertainment, Inc. does its job well during the nonprofit company’s season-opening show, the actors will seem inept. Indeed, appearing incompetent is the goal for the season opener…and no, that’s not a misprint. “The whole show needs to look like a disaster,…

Photo by Ryan Arnst Stella Kowalski (Casey Sacco, center) is torn between devotion to her husband, Stanley (Timothy Mark Davis, right) and her sister, Blanche (Elizabeth Price). By AARON KRAUSE “South Florida is going to really sink its teeth into something that is going to be magical, musical, and…

Photo courtesy of Thinking Cap Theatre One of Thinking Cap Theatre’s last productions at the MAD Arts Gallery in Dania Beach was the world premiere of O Christmas Tree by Bree-Anna Obst and Nicole Stodard. In the production last holiday season, Anne (Carol Sussman), Frankie (Phillip Andrew Santiago), and Claudia…

Tony Award nominee Josh Young portrays Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Soul Doctor. By AARON KRAUSE Did you hear the one about the Orthodox rabbi who attended worship services at black churches and left inspired to compose a different kind of Jewish music?…