There is a fact playwright and performer Sharece Sellem likes to share with people the first time she meets them: In the 1980’s, a group of teens formed a sound that no one had ever heard, and a brotherhood that couldn’t be broken.
She likes to follow it up with a question: do they know that their story can be performed right here, in New Haven?
“In acting, it’s not what you say but what you choose not to say” that creates the tension and dramatic momentum.
That’s his opinion — and his central challenge — said Benim Foster, the engaging young actor who plays one of the lead roles in the talky and controversial Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar.
Christopher Shinn is an award-winning Connecticut-born playwright whose new play An Opening in Time premiered at the Hartford Stage on Friday, September 17th. In this new play, an older woman returns to her Connecticut hometown in hopes of reconnecting with a former love. In an interview on WNHH radio’s “In The Moment,” Shinn told me more about the play, the creative work of production, and his thoughts on writing about the inner struggles of older adults.
Rafael Ramos had a big family growing up. His mother, father, siblings, and some extended members he rarely saw: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X.
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Allan Appel |
Aug 20, 2015 12:30 pm
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One is a “violence designer,” concerned with the safety of both actors and audience. The other knows how to purchase pronto a genuine 19th-century violin case on eBay, for only $30
Not all journeys home have to involve ten years of hardship and imprisonment, fighting a cyclops, or fending off angry gods.
Extricating yourself from a toxic relationship, emerging from a nasty bullying episode, or just moving out of the nest into college can be journeys as daunting as traveling from the siege of Troy home to Ithaca.
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David Sepulveda |
Aug 4, 2015 3:51 pm
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From the make-do space of Bregamos Community Theater (BCT), located at the end of a sunken industrial parking lot behind Fair Haven’s Erector Square, a new play has emerged to take its place among the pantheon of theatrical works being presented at a major theater festival.
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Donald Brown |
Jul 28, 2015 11:43 am
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Dr. Faustus is famous for his deal with the devil. For ages he’s been synonymous with reaching beyond natural bounds to achieve something unprecedented, but at a great cost.
“I think I’m excited by every atom of it. It’s so very different to do a show that’s our project, our adaptation, our play, our writing. I get so connected to it,” said Andrej Visky, director of the Yale Cabaret‘s upcoming production of Faustus, as he described how what had begun as a long-term love affair with Christopher Marlowe’s play was now near completion. “I really hope that we are able to trick the audience the same way Mephistopheles tricks Faustus.”
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Christopher Arnott |
Jul 14, 2015 4:28 pm
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Don’t let anybody tell you that Adah Isaacs Menken is obscure. She was one of the top-paid performers of her time, her popularity buoyed by scandals and rumors. She appeared nude — or appeared to appear nude — onstage, had numerous love affairs, and was of unusual ethnic heritage for a mainstream stage star in the late 19th century. (There were various claims that she was of Cuban, French, or Creole descent.) Her poetry collection Infelicia is still in print, and major biographies of her tend to come out every decade or so. She has more books written about her than a lot of U.S. presidents. The only thing that might make her more popular these days would be if she were still performing — which would be sensational indeed, since she died in 1868 at the age of 33. Just like John Belushi, Sam Cooke, Carole Lombard, Chris Farley, Eva Peron, Eva Braun, Bon Scott of AC/DC, and Jesus Christ.
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Allan Appel |
Jul 10, 2015 1:35 pm
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“I want to improve the lives of my subjects,” declared the king, also known as eighth-grader Matt Levin.
He was reading lines from A Stone In The Road, a kids’ morality tale about a king who puts a giant rock in the street and then hides as he evaluates the kindness, or lack thereof, of his various subjects who wander by and react to the obstacle.
“You’re doing an awesome job,” replied his acting teacher, Jennifer Nelson. “You need to limp a little more and you could also use a cape.”
“I just couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of someone who appeared to be the female forefather of the theater and I got so intrigued by the fact that no one knows the real facts about her … she just seemed to contain so many selves,” said Leora Morris on a recent afternoon, her hands whizzing through the air as she spoke.
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Lucy Gellman |
Jun 26, 2015 11:44 am
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“We are going to survive no matter what happens,” crackled a Cronkitean voice to the half-dark of the University Theater, the determined squeal of a radio signal falling silent after several seconds. Cloaked behind two long, dimly lit curtains, a number of silhouettes leaned in, listening for any last, surprise utterances before the world around them quieted completely.
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Lucy Gellman |
Jun 19, 2015 1:06 pm
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“I love making people laugh … in the back of all my hijinks and hilarities, you’re gong to just feel better about yourself,” said Shawn Bodey, sipping his coffee on a recent morning at Cafe Romeo. At his sandaled feet, his dog Soul searched for loose toast crumbs, settling under the table after he had found a few. Bodey pulled down his sunglasses, adjusted his plaid overshirt, and looked up at the sky, an unadulterated shade of New Haven blue with a few cloudy wisps floating past.
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Christopher Arnott |
Jun 19, 2015 12:18 pm
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The International Festival of Arts and iIdeas is intentionally scheduled to provide a smooth transition from the end of the school year into the summer entertainment season. Usually, that just means providing stuff to do during an otherwise lackluster period at the end of June.
But this year, Arts & Ideas is actually providing a seasonal transition as well. Two dance pieces this week — Mark Morris’s Acis and Galatea and a piece by the Ragmala Dance Company (stay tuned for Lucy Gellman’s review) both boasted a spring in their step, ushering in a bright breezy summer.
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Aliyya Swaby |
Jun 19, 2015 11:19 am
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The day after a white supremacist killed nine black people in a Charleston, S.C., church, an actor with Charleston roots brought home the violence facing black Americans for a mostly white audience up north, tossing around the “n” word and raising uncomfortable questions about how we view victims.
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Allan Appel |
Jun 18, 2015 3:03 pm
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“Ekos vayonya tst,” recited Klondo the great poet speaking in her native language — er, “Klondo.” Then came the immediate translation into English: “I was so terrified, I thought I was toast.”
The crowd leaned forward on its seats and chuckled. The actors continued, first in Klondo, a totally made up gibberish of a language: “Snya dosn playa.”
The immediate translation followed, also utterly made up: “Mr. Ghost, I’m pleased to meet you.”
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Brian Slattery |
Jun 17, 2015 3:14 pm
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“I dreamt that I was walking with hundreds of people down LA‑1 towards Grand Isle,” wrote Nick Slie of Louisiana-based music and theater troupe Mondo Bizarro, about the inspiration for Cry You One. “It was the last day we could all live in Southeast Louisiana and we were parading from New Orleans. Everyone I consider an important part of my Louisiana experience was present, all carrying meat and vegetables. When we arrived at the beaches of Grand Isle, the most renowned Louisiana chefs took our food and placed it in the world’s largest gumbo pot as we all walked towards the Gulf. At the water’s edge were hundreds of rafts, each with a famous Louisiana band. We then decided which raft we wanted to leave on, said our goodbyes and off we went, into the Gulf, never to return to Louisiana.”
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Lucy Gellman |
Jun 16, 2015 2:44 pm
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“The spring, the summer, / The childing autumn, angry winter change / Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world, / By their increase, now knows not which is which,” Titania cried, raising her voice to the heavens as a summer –– or was it winter? Or spring? –– storm unfolded around her bared, gleaming shoulders. Lightning cut through the trees; wind moaned as branches crashed to the ground. She was in full control of her element now.
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Christopher Arnott |
Jun 14, 2015 11:26 am
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Friday’s show (and post-show party) reportedly featured the star bantering with State Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr. about the nature of “anal pussy.” Or so Taylor Mac related in Saturday’s show, where there were even more of-the-moment references: “Darlene Love is playing down the street… and here we are.”