NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | May 26, 2009
Something might be rotten in the state of Denmark, but the future is looking brighter for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. The festival, which has a new artistic director, a revamped mission and - in its current production of Wittenberg, a modern day "prequel" to H amlet - one of the strongest shows the troupe has mounted in years. For much of the year, the troupe has taken a performing hiatus, while it tended to administrative matters, such as hiring Michael Carleton as the artistic director to replace the departing James Kinstle.
NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | February 26, 2009
Those attending the debut of Baltimore's newest theater troupe will find a sign in the lobby reading: "Depending on how things are going, this performance might or might not contain a brief intermission." Welcome to the weird and wacky world of 9 Imaginary Cows Theater Collective. These four current and former members of the Towson University graduate theater program revel in unpredictability and make an art form of keeping the audience off-balance. "A couple of years ago, I attended a performance at Arena Stage during which the lead actress developed a nosebleed while on stage," says Tom Shade, a playwright and founding member of the troupe.
NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | January 21, 2009
In an effort to stem a projected $300,000 budget shortfall, Center Stage will eliminate two jobs and the troupe's two top administrators will work for four weeks without pay - the latest of several local arts organizations pinched by the economic downturn. In addition, four department heads will take two weeks of unpaid leave before the fiscal year ends June 30. "Our revenues have been soft for the last several months," Debbie Chinn, Center Stage's managing director, said Tuesday. "We have gone through our budget line by line, and trimmed costs every single place we could find."
NEWS
By Mary Johnson | November 16, 2007
The Naval Academy's Masqueraders troupe is celebrating an unbroken 100-year history of presenting annual theater productions with performances of a fitting and timely play written by a 1966 graduate of nearby St. John's College. Our Country's Good, written in 1988 by award-winning playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, is about British military officers' attempts to rehabilitate convicts by casting them in a production of a historical play, The Recruiting Officer. Set in Sydney, Australia, in the late 1700s, this fact-based play recounts difficulties encountered by 2nd Lt. Ralph Clark in getting prisoners to work together for five months of rehearsals.
NEWS
By Arin Gencer | October 2, 2007
Chest heaving and voice thundering, Daphne Reid, 11, faced Dani Bryant, 11, and skewered her for stealing her man. Thief of love. Canker-blossom. Painted maypole. Her voice rose with each word volley. Suddenly, she paused, mid-diatribe. Another voice quietly supplied, "I am not yet so low ... " Taking her cue, Daphne went on, "I am not yet so low but that my nails can reach unto thine eyes." Then she lunged across the wooden outdoor stage, her long purple dress no impediment to her rage.
NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | August 8, 2007
Scrutinize your salad. Peruse the parsnips. Better yet, concentrate on the carrots. Do you see one - and only one - vertical orange veggie brandishing a playbill and a miniature AK-47? Baltimore's newest theater troupe takes its name from a quote by the painter Paul Cezanne: "The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." Single Carrot Theatre's opening salvo will be fired tonight at the company's official debut at Theatre Project, when Single Carrot opens a two-week, 11-performance run of Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter.
NEWS
By Rob Hiaasen | March 6, 2007
Taunting Frenchmen and a killer rabbit are at the gates of Baltimore. The touring company of Monty Python's Spamalot begins its 16-show run tonight at the Hippodrome Theatre. Spamalot, which opened on Broadway two years ago, is "lovingly ripped off" from the British comedy troupe's 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail - with other brave and strong bits thrown in. Spamalot runs today through March 18, times vary, Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. Tickets, $30-$75, at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.
NEWS
By Laura Shovan | March 2, 2007
Kim Kutchins could not take her eyes off her son. She was listening to music and noticed Jack, 6, dancing along. "I thought, `You would be really good at either Irish step dance ... or the polka,'" said Kutchins, of Ellicott City. Now 8, Jack is a two-year veteran of the Polka Kids, a children's dance troupe. Although Jack participates in several sports, polka is his favorite activity. "It's a dying art," said Kutchins. "A lot of people don't even know what it is, and it's a really fun activity."
NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | February 21, 2007
All the white dancers gathered on the right side of the stage, all the black dancers on the left. Troupe member Theresa DeAngelo recalls the stricken silence that fell over the Full Circle Dance Company when choreographer Travis Gatling separated the dancers by race during the first rehearsal of the piece called "Across the Lines." Borders Uncrossed will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st streets. $15. 410-235-9003.
NEWS
By Mary Carole McCauley | December 26, 2006
One of the nation's major ballet troupes will be bringing its lavish Nutcracker to Baltimore three times in the next five years, beginning this week. Granted, the beloved Christmas classic with the score by Tchaikovsky isn't the ideal vehicle in which to see the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at its athletic, lyrical best - or, for that matter, any other troupe. The Nutcracker is all about glitz and spectacle, with comparatively little actual dancing, especially in the first act. If you go The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre presents The Nutcracker at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St., at 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday; and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.