Theatre director

distinctly different from traditional theatre. This helped include the audience and create empathy and engagement. It also inspired great mystery and wonder in the audience, excited to be a part of such a thought-provoking experience. This involvement of the audience helped break the…

You do not attend a showing of The Addams Family to be moved or inspired; you go for laughs and fun. And when you have a cast as talented as the one at CM Performing Arts Center’s Noel S. Ruiz Theatre, you will exit the theatre thoroughly entertained. This iconic brand has been around for quite some time and while the musical may not be the strongest of material per se, Andrew Lippa's score and the Marshall Brickman/Rick Elice's book are uproarious and, to be honest, does have heart. The…

The Sparrow On Friday, November 18, 2016, my wife and I saw the 7:30 showing of The Sparrow, a play written by Chris Matthews, Jake Minton, and Nathan Allen. The play is about a high school girl (Emily) returning to her former school after a tragic accident in the second grade, in which she was the only survivor, forced her to move and attend a different school. Eventually it is revealed that Emily has super powers when she saves the popular cheerleader (Jenny) from falling from the school’s…

times, with each director adding their own version of the classic piece. While originally adapted by Patrick Barlow, the show directed by Jon Halpin is simply an outstanding version, using many of the elements and themes of epic theatre, mainly around character transformation and set. Firstly there’s the scene of “The Car Scene”. This scene really shows the theme of epic theatre, It shows the audience (or spectators as Brecht would say) that they are watching a piece of theatre. When the show…

The production of A Raisin in the Sun was put on my the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Music. The show ran from November 15 through the 19 at the Highlander Theatre. A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry and was directed by Dr. Julie Rae Mollenkamp. With the recent presidential election, and backlash that came with it, this was a very important play that could not have come at a better time. The set and acting blended together to create a wonderful show for…

Dreamworks to the highest level of commercial theatre; and it stuck the landing. The audience immerses itself in the backstory the witty princess Fiona, and the giant green ogre, Shrek, who is sent to rescue from a dragon-guarded tower in hopes to get his swamp back. The elements that stand out in Shrek The Musical are the costumes, a heavy amount of singing, and the acting, which all appeal to the 75$ price tag. To emphasize the costumes, the director of Shrek the Musical did a fantastic job…

post-dramatic theatre techniques as a reinvention of classic story tropes for a 21st century audience. Argus follows the classic tale of a hero’s journey. The story focuses on a creature as he travels the world in search of his lost love. Dead Puppet Society has re-envisioned what puppetry can be, throwing off the shackles of Bunraku and stringed puppets and using hands as a method of creating character. Argus utilises focus, characterisation, music, set, technical elements and post dramatic…

The intimacy provided by the cellar theatre made the set all the more real; the audience was just as involved with the show as the actors were. Since the audience was so close to the stage, the actors had to be completely engaged the entire time (which they were). If there were any restrictions…

Intimate Apparel- Theatre Critique On Tuesday, April 4th, 2017 at 7:30 p.m., I attended a theatre performance, Intimate Apparel, by Lynn Nottage, but was directed by Melissa Maxwell. This performance took place at Texas State University in the Patti Strickel Harrison Theatre which intended to be a thrust type of stage. With the set, lighting of the play, and the thoroughly thought costumes, specific performances, and comical performance style, I would say that the Texas State Universities’…

in powdered white wigs, it’s a contemporary piece with scores of music in pop, hip-hop, R&B and only uses Black and Latino actors. In theatre, the concept of colorblind casting has been used for a long time but it is still a debate whether or not it’s an effective practice. Even the celebrated Black playwright August Wilson, in his speech addressed to the Theatre Communications Group National Conference “The Ground on Which I Stand” states that, “colorblind…