Theater director David Shakes looks back at the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and looks ahead to the North Star Players’ 2021 revival of Deborah Solomon’s “Emancipation Denied.”
Theater
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A new play asks, ‘Is coronavirus Mother Nature’s revenge?’
Jason Odell Williams’ new monologue play, “Social Distancing,” positions the coronavirus as Earth’s way of punishing us, and isolation as a necessary new normal.
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Rochester’s theater community remembers Herb Katz
Herb Katz, a local stage legend who was the first artistic director of the CenterStage at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Rochester, died March 24 at the age of 82.
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Geva announces 2020-21 season
On Monday Geva Theatre Center announced its upcoming 48th season, which includes a lighthearted play about the niche world of air guitar competitions, an immersive new take on “Frankenstein,” a tribute to Johnny Cash, and a Taliban-plot-centered drama.
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PUSH-ing back against loneliness amid social distancing
As we settle into an extended period of isolation, PUSH Physical Theatre is helping assuage loneliness by creating instructional videos about what they do best — using athleticism, simple gestures, and soulful artistry to tell a story.
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Blackfriars Theatre announces 2020-21 season
Each of the six mainstage season productions will be directed by a woman. The 2020-21 season includes the longest-running music revue in Broadway history, a very Jane Austen Christmas production, and a coming-of-age soccer play.
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Falling slowly
“Once” is a captivating musical, filled with story and heartache, ghosts and grief. It has every opportunity to be Dublin embodied on stage — but the music must be honored the way it was written, or the production feels hollow.
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God of our fathers
When the avant-garde rock musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” debuted on Broadway in 1971, it was the “Hamilton” of its time — a flashy, pop culture retelling of historical events. RBTL is presenting the musical through Sunday, as part of the show’s 50th anniversary tour.
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She’s not there
“Next to Normal” can best be defined as a rock musical and a moving journey through one family’s battle with mental health, suicide, and drug abuse. It’s shockingly relatable. The Goodman family could easily be living in Spencerport or Webster.
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One step at a time
The plot of “Anastasia” centers on street sweeper Anya’s attempt to prove she’s the missing Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov, who allegedly escaped her Russian royal family’s execution. On stage at The Aud through January 26.
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Marriage story
In “Slow Food” there’s a deeper dig on the psyche behind the simple concept of eating a meal at a restaurant with a partner. Themes of hunger (both real and imagined), anger, mental health, fidelity, dependence, and manipulation come to the fore as a triangular power struggle between the characters takes place.
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Circle of life
Every millennial in the audience of “The Lion King,” many of whom are now parents, grew up with the 1994 cartoon film from Disney. But does that nostalgia translate to the theatrical adaptation from 1997? Based on Friday’s packed audience at the Auditorium Theatre, it seems that way.
