In the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s last production, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), there is a bit where the performers combine the plots from all of the Bard’s comedies into one madcap, convoluted reading. The justification is that all of his comedies recycle the same plot devices. And with the prevalence of cross-dressing, mis-matched, young lovers in his…
Last week Scott and I saw My Name is Asher Lev at The Cleveland Play House, which used a three person cast playing multiple characters to tell an intimate story about a man’s struggle between his Hasidic roots and the Manhattan art world. Another show on stage right now in Cleveland…
My first inclination when Great Lakes Theater Festival announced their Fall Repertory of Othello and An Ideal Husband was to focus on the differences between the two plays. The first is a tragic, psychological, Shakespearean thriller. The second, a witty “social comedy” by Oscar Wilde. However, after seeing the second half of the Fall Rep when…
This past Saturday, Great Lakes Theater Festival opened its 49th season with Shakespeare’s psychological thriller Othello. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to the return of GLTF since the Spring Rep’s productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Bat Boy; my first Shakespearean tragedy at GLTF did not disappoint. This intense…
Why do we love to be told stories? This past Sunday, actor John Lithgow returned to the Great Lakes Theater Festival for a performance of “Stories by Heart” which examines why people are entranced by listening to — and in some cases, telling — stories. Both a former member of GLTF and the son…
Before I moved to Cleveland, I worked for a couple of theatres in Philly. I enjoyed it a lot — working in subscriptions and marketing departments and working backstage on a show for a year. Even when I stopped being involved, I still loved experiencing Philly’s vibrant theatre community and the shows…
