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Allan Appel |
Dec 20, 2013 2:12 pm
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Yarbor in rehearsal.
For more than 30 years Black Nativity, the Christmas story set to a Langston Hughes’ text with African-American liturgical music performed by local choruses, had been a New Haven tradition, most recently performed at Long Wharf.
Then it stopped, seven years ago.
Now two local musical families and area professionals lWes Yarbor, who has performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, are combining their graceful moves into a new production designed to endure for decades to come.
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Christopher Arnott |
Dec 19, 2013 2:36 pm
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You may think you know Peter Pan. He’s a flying boy, usually played onstage by a grown woman, who takes a girl named Wendy to an enchanted land where there are pirates and alligators and no mothers. But it’s no pie-in-the-sky lark. This is a harrowing tale of abandoned kids and the hazards they endure on a daily basis. It’s a story of survival and eternal hopefulness.
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Christopher Arnott |
Dec 18, 2013 12:06 pm
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Now that the Yale Cabaret has wrapped up the first half of its 2013 – 14 season, the winter break reminds us just how rare and special this small student-run basement theater is.
The “Birthplace of the Nation’s Hits” turned 99 years old Wednesday with a new lease on life — marked by a formal transfer of ownership and a ceremonial sharing of Claire’s Lithuanian Coffee Cake.
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Christopher Arnott |
Dec 10, 2013 12:38 pm
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Before, I didn’t get it. Now there’s something to get.
A world-famous, Nobel-winning radical buffoon (in the best sense) who has mastered a centuries-old tradition of socially conscious clowning has been newly interpreted by a team who have pursued a particularly modernized form of classical European comedy at Yale for years.
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Christopher Arnott |
Dec 6, 2013 12:24 pm
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In 1987, two theater productions from New Haven’s dynamic, world-class regional theater scene moved to Broadway and won Tony Awards. One was August Wilson’s Fences, which had been developed at Waterford’s Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and then had its world premier production at the Yale Rep. The other was Long Wharf Theater’s revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.
Twenty-five years later, it’s the Long Wharf that is doing Fences, on a set which could serve equally well (better, even) as the set for All My Sons. The whole production, in fact, is more in keeping with a mid-20th melodramatic style than the distinctive, visceral yet lyrical modern theatrical style which August Wilson brought forth in the 1980s.
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Joshua Mamis |
Dec 3, 2013 1:02 pm
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Occupy Wall Street and its local progeny, Occupy New Haven, have long since disappeared from the public consciousness. We are no less a divided nation (or region) than we were when the movement started in 2011.
The Occupy movement was on my mind as I navigated the world as experienced by the lowest portion of the “99 percent” during a recenCrossint poverty simulation at Southern Connecticut State University. It came up again that evening when the Occupy New Haven encampment on the Green was mentioned in the Yale Cabaret’s premiere production of Derivatives, Jabari Brisbort’s exploration of the income gap’s impact on people in New Haven. One character saw the encampment as little more than a well-intentioned tented folly that had damaged the Green.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 27, 2013 1:10 pm
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Esau Pritchett is Mr. Othello, having played Shakespeare’s great tragic hero nine times and counting. Yet he has never seen the Shakespeare’s great tragedy acted on a stage. Any stage. Anywhere.
Pritchett takes the stage in New Haven Wednesday night to step into another huge role, the embittered yet noble Negro Leagues ball player Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences. He has never seen that play either.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 25, 2013 2:57 pm
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Alders Santiagio Berrios-Bones, DeCola, Colon, and Ernie Santiago.
Marshmallows, graham crackers, marinara sauce, and pasta.
Patrons brought those non-perishable food products along with their tickets to the Shubert Theater Friday night as they entered the lobby and ascended to their seats to see Mamma Mia!.
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Christopher Arnott |
Nov 24, 2013 11:35 am
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You might look at Mamma Mia! as a cheeseball 1970s retro piece which gets its big laughs from the sight of people wearing spandex who probably shouldn’t be wearing spandex.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 22, 2013 3:00 pm
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Brooks, Stetson’s Diva Book Club prez, speaks Wednesday night.
Black fathers of the 1950s may have experienced such pain they never said, “I love you,” but at least they supported their children, even those born out of wedlock. Young men today just puff out their chests at how many babies they make, and take a walk.
Sharon Brooks made that real-life argument as she and others at Dixwell’s Stetson Branch Library applied a play’s lessons to their community’s real life.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 21, 2013 2:03 pm
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Mychael Green as Algernon and Robert Pease as Jack face off in Act One.
A serious outbreak is spreading rapidly throughout Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School: Students concocting imaginary people and places in order to avoid their obligations.
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Allan Appel |
Nov 20, 2013 2:00 pm
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Jabari Brisport had a crisis at the end of his second year as a graduate acting student: Why pursue an arts career when his talents might more tangibly be used to help heal the world so badly riven by the vast gap between rich and poor and all its consequences?
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Allan Appel |
Nov 14, 2013 1:47 pm
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Jenny Schuck as Glory and Christian Shaboo as East in “Her Heart,” Almost, Maine’s first tale.
A literal broken heart in a brown lunch bag clatters when shaken. Inside duffel bags, all the love you’ve given look like piles of red clothing stuffed inside large laundry sacks.
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Allan Appel
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Oct 31, 2013 11:40 am
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When the nameless Card Player takes on Lucifer at poker and actually wins the big pot — the ability to succeed at anything he desires — you’d think there’d be a happy ending to an original rock opera debuting on Halloween night.
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Allan Appel
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Oct 25, 2013 5:03 pm
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Co-op High seniors heard tips Friday from professional touring actors: how to warm up for a show, how to pack for a national tour, and how to use Skype to stay in touch with your boyfriend back home.
