Tuesday, February 19, 2013

John Lloyd Young, Jan Maxwell Will Announce Nominations for Drama Desk Awards

John Lloyd Young and Jan Maxwell will announce nominations for the 58th Drama Desk Awards (www.DramaDeskAwards.com) which will take place 8 pm Sunday, May 19 at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd St., NYC).

The nominations announcement news conference will be held 11 am Friday, April 26 at 54 Below.

Drama Desk Awards, which are presented annually, honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. What sets Drama Desk Awards apart is that they are voted on and bestowed by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers covering theater, “without any vested interest in the results.” For this reason, Drama Desk Awards reflect both enthusiasm for all aspects of New York’s professional theater and a level of erudition and theatrical experience unparalleled in our industry’s other prize-giving organizations.

The awards show will be written by Bill Rosenfield and directed by Jack Cummings III (co-founder and artistic director of Transport Group) and will be webcast live on www.TheaterMania.com. Gretchen Shugart, CEO of TheaterMania.com, which will present the awards ceremony, is managing executive producer of Drama Desk Awards. Robert R. Blume and David S. Stone in association with Renee McCurry are xecutive producers.

The 2012-2013 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Barbara Siegel, Chairperson (TalkinBroadway.com and freelance); David Kaufman (author and freelance), Samuel L. Leiter (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center), Martha Wade Steketee (urbanexcavations.com; editor and contributor, Chance Magazine), Adrian Wattenmaker (Theater Faculty, Brooklyn College; Director, School of Creative and Performing Arts), and James Wilson (Professor of Theatre, CUNY; co-editor of Journal of American Drama and Theatre).

The 2012-2013 Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of: President Isa Goldberg(Broadwaychannel.com;Theaterlife.com), Vice President Leslie (Hoban) Blake, (Theater Critic/City ARTS-Downtown; Co-Host/TWO on the AISLE, MNN, You Tube), Trasurer and Second Vice President Charles Wright (A+E Networks; Editorial Board, Best Plays Theater Year Book), Secretary Richard Ridge,(BroadwayWorld.com, Backstage with Richard Ridge), Arlene Epstein (South Shore Record/Herald Community Newspapers & LIHerald.com;), Elysa Gardner (USA Today critic/reporter; New York Drama Critics Circle), Randy Gener (American Theatre; New York Theater Wire); John Istel (Freelance Editor and Arts Journalist; Managing Editor, Drama Desk website), David Kaufman (Author and Freelance), William Wolf (wolfentertainmentguide.com; Adjunct professor, NYU), Lauren Yarger (Reflections in the Light; BroadwayWorld.com).

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tired of Winter? Think Summer: Comedy of Errors, Loves Labor's Lost Set for Shakespeare in the Park

Public Theater Presents Comedy of Errors with Jesse Tyler, Hamish Linkater; Musical Loves Labor's Lost Directed by Alex Timbers


Hamish Linklater
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
The Public Theater continuing five decades of free theater in Central Park this summer with Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater.

The Public’s 2013 free Shakespeare in the Park season will begin on Tuesday, May 28 with The Comedy of Errors, featuring Shakespeare in the Park alumni Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”) as Dromio and Hamish Linklater (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) as Antipholus. Ferguson and Linklater last performed together in The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice in 2010 for The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, The Comedy of Errors will run for five weeks through Sunday, June 30.

The second show of the Park season will be a new musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Alex Timbers, who adapts the book, with songs by Michael Friedman. Timbers and Friedman last collaborated on the award-winning musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Timbers will direct the new David Byrne musical Here Lies Love this spring at The Public’s downtown home at Astor Place. Love'Labor's Lost will begin performances on Tuesday, July 23 and run through Sunday, Aug. 18.

Bank of America sponsors the park series. Free tickets are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on the day of the show. The Public Theater will again offer free tickets through ourVirtual Ticketing lottery at www.shakespeareinthepark.org on the day of the show.


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Art Imitates Life


Here's Some Quick, Cool Marketing. How cool is this?:

NEW YORK -- With the bones of King Richard III having been found beneath an English parking lot, New York's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot (http://shakespeareintheparkinglot.com), a project of The Drillling Company, will present "Richard III," directed by Hamilton Clancy, this summer from Aug. 1 to 17.

Director Hamilton Clancy says, "We have known for a long time that parking lots and Shakespeare were connected. Our intention is to bring Richard III back to life in a parking lot."

Free Shakespeare in the parking lot at Ludlow and Broome Streets on Manhattan's Lower East Side is a New York tradition dating back to 1996. It has been passed down through the years to the Drilling Company, which has produced free Shakespeare there since 2006.

More info on the show: http://shakespeareintheparkinglot.com/.

More info on the discovery of Richard's bones and the battle for them: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html

Gracewell Prodiuctions

Gracewell Prodiuctions
Producing Inspiring Works in the Arts
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Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008- 2022 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.

Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.

Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.

Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.

Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.

Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.

Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.

Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.

Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.

Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.

Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

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