themes Archives – Theatrical Musings

Photo by Nat Ordonez Juan Gamero and Calia Katz in Latine Theater Lab’s inaugural production of Maria Irene Fornes’s powerful play, Mud. By AARON KRAUSE Launching a new theater company with a live production can be frightening. But Latine Theater Lab founding artistic director Alex Gonzalez shows courage by…

Photo by Amy Pasquantonio Albert Peterson (Jeremy Benton) and Rose Alvarez (Leah Sessa) share a moment. By AARON KRAUSE Witnessing The Wick Theatre & Museum Club’s current winning production of Bye Bye Birdie is the next best thing to traveling back to the 1950s in a time machine. No…

Photo by Alicia Donelan Booth (Jovon Jacobs, right) concentrates heavily as Lincoln (George Anthony Richardson) demonstrates how to deftly operate a three-card monte game in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production of Topdog/Underdog. By AARON KRAUSE If a prize existed for malicious jokes, you would have to nominate the father of…

By AARON KRAUSE In playwright Bruce Graham’s new piece titled The Duration, “the writing is authentic, the characters are compelling, and the play is emotionally powerful and moving,” said Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) Producing Artistic Director William Hayes. In fact, audiences will be able to judge for themselves when…

Photo courtesy of Justin Namon Jacob Marley’s ghost (Colin McPhillamy) prepares to scare Ebenezer Scrooge in Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. By AARON KRAUSE It seems that no matter how many times we experience A Christmas Carol, we do not grow tired of this evergreen tale. That is not surprising….

Photo by Alicia Donelan The last time audiences saw a production in person at Palm Beach Dramaworks, they saw Skylight. Here, Kyra Hollis (Sarah Street) is deep in thought in a scene from the play by Sir David Hare. By AARON KRAUSE When Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) re-opens for…

By AARON KRAUSE WINSTON SALEM, N.C. — Larry Leon Hamlin, the late founder of The National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., would likely have described the 2019 event using a favorite word he coined – “marvtastic,” a combination of “marvelous” and “fantastic.” Indeed, ticket sales were…

(Photo courtesy of Area Stage Company) Shrek (Ryan Bauta) gives fair warning to anyone daring to enter his territory. CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Can audience members believe in a world onstage even if the theatrical magic is simple and visible? After witnessing Area Stage Company’s (ASC) exhilarating production…

(Photo by Jacek Gancarz) The cast of MNM Theatre Company’s production of Avenue Q WEST PALM BEACH — As most musical theater aficionados are aware, there are plenty of words in the potty-mouthed puppet musical Avenue Q that might cause you to recoil. But in today’s economically, politically and socially-troubled…