It is a reasonably warm night in Brooklyn as I sit in a church pew in Brooklyn's Standard ToyKraft listening to Cara Francis remind us that theatre, like war, is often bad, and there are very few of each considered universally good. I nod my head and smile, privileged to...

Be warned: I'm about to tell you a cock and bull story. Well, at least the story is about two Mike Bartlett plays called Cock and Bull, the latter of which is currently playing at 59E59 Theater, produced with Sheffield Theatres as part of their Brits Off Broadway...

If you know one thing about a man named J. M. Barrie, you most likely know that he is responsible for a story named after its most famous character: Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Yet those of you who know a little bit of theatre history...

Tristan Sturrock lies onstage on his back, his image reflected back at the audience twofold through the use of a mirror. For a minute we cannot tell where his actual body is. He seems to be suspended in space, floating. This strong visual begins the artfully crafted Mayday...

There are few times I love my job more than when I get the opportunity to sit across from a smart theatre artist to talk about her or his work. Last week I brought you the words of one such individual, Cara Francis of the New York Neo-Futurists,...

On a slightly cold, but sunny March day, I sat across from Cara Francis of the New York Neo-Futurists to discuss their upcoming show Soft Hydraulics: Inventions, Puppets, and Stunts in the Age of Manipulation. As some of you no doubt know, in addition to their week(end)ly show...

Honestly, if anyone other than the New York Neo-Futurists presented a show called Rape, Rape, Rape, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, Genocide, Genocide, Cats, I would avoid it like the plague. Yet this past Friday night I found myself standing in line outside of the Kraine Theatre once...

The dark auditorium at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is quiet, but you can feel the excitement in the air. Jessica Connell is perched on a trapeze in a single spotlight as a piece of classical music plays. As I watched her dance on and with the trapeze,...

In the darkness under the large tent in Queens, I am suddenly a five-year-old again. Well, maybe not so suddenly. You see I tend to feel this way when I'm watching a Cirque du Soleil show, and their collaboration with Robert Lepage, Totem, is no exception. The piece...

The curtain rises in the Abrons Arts Center on a whimsical set representing a farmhouse, a wooden cutout cow held by a man, and David Greenspan with exaggerated makeup and a caricatured stance. The next 90 minutes certainly explores Target Margin Theater's stated foundational principle: "that works of art return...

A single light, a chair, and three actors are on a raised stage. This minimalism belongs to Chilean director and playwright Guillermo Calderón's Neva, currently playing at The Public Theater. During this 90-minute show, translated from the Spanish by Andrea Thome, three actors play with literal and psychological...

When I was younger, hearing the phrase "one of Shakespeare's histories" would have scared me away from a play. I know that many people still run and hid at the prospect of seeing one, but let's think about it in a different way. What if I told you about a...

Three is a pleasing number. If you look at fairy tales and other kinds of mythical stories, you will see that number come back again and again. The opening scene of Kneehigh Theatre's The Wild Bride appropriately features three women, each holding a book with one of the...

It's that time again to reflect on the year that has come to pass. For me, it means that I start thinking about my favorite theatrical experiences of 2012. There were a lot of really excellent shows, and trying to pick a few is very difficult, but I'm going to...

I had no idea what to expect when I walked into Theatre 54, a small space on the 12th floor of a midtown building on 54th street to see Australian playwright Andrew Bovell's play Speaking in Tongues. There was a small playing area with mirrored walls and an overabundance of...

A little while ago I found a video of some members of The Flea Theater's Restoration Comedy lip-synching to the Scissor Sisters dance hit "Let's Have a Kiki." A bunch of fabulously costumed women and men in dresses singing to a dance anthem? Yes, please. My previous history...

On stage in front of me is a man holding a golden apple. His feet are resting in a circle of rubber particles resembling a stone circle. His voice is clear, his body is grounded, and he tells a story with this apple as his only prop. This is the...

Over the years of my theatrical career, I have been listed in programs as a director, stage manager, associate producer, and various characters. But as I sat in the front row of Labyrinth's Bank Street Theater the other night, I was reading a program in which I am listed as...

As the band kicked in and Carolyn Baeumler's started singing in Grace Slick's strong voice, I knew that AliceGraceAnon had me hooked. Of course, walking through the 1960s happening-style environment that New Georges has created in the Irondale Center had already put me in the mood for this experience. Kara...

Sitting in the dark in The Irish Repertory Theatre's production of The Freedom of the City, I couldn't help thinking how much I like Brian Friel's work. Here is a playwright who has taken an event -- "Bloody Sunday" -- and created a play around it that is both an...