Shakespeare is challenging for most professional theater troupes to pull off; even more so for amateur performers. This holiday season, however, Screen Plays has ambitiously partnered with DVC (Dream Visualize Create) to bring one of the Bard’s bloodiest tales to life onstage — and they’re doing it with a cast that features both high school […]
Theater
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Theater review: ‘First Date’ at JCC CenterStage
There are a few “firsts” in life that almost everyone can relate to: first day of school, first kiss, first home — the list goes on. But perhaps the “first” that draws the most entertaining anecdotes is a first date (even more so if it’s a blind date). The co-creators of “First Date: The Broadway […]
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Theater review: ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’
When Screen Plays announced a production of “Meet Me in St. Louis” at the Lyric Theatre this month, it caused a quick double take. Wasn’t that last year’s show? Could this be a misprint, or a mistaken announcement? As it turns out, Geva Theatre and “A Christmas Carol” doesn’t have a corner market on holiday […]
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Theater review: ‘Dracula’ at Blackfriars
Although Christmas decorations quickly replaced any remnants of Halloween in stores, a large harvest moon hangs low in the sky and the weather has just begun the transition from temperate to bone chilling. With the opening of its second 2017-18 season production, “Dracula,” on Halloween, Blackfriars Theatre isn’t in a rush to move past the […]
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‘The Agitators’ explores the friendship of Fred and Sue
Outside the Susan B. Anthony House on Madison Street, there’s a life-size statue created by Pepsy Kettavong depicting Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony having tea. The two were only a few years apart in age and, in true Rochester fashion, of course they knew one another. Through November 12, Geva Theatre Center is staging […]
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Theater review: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
The reinstated Greece Theatre Company stages a next-level production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the Lyric Theatre
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Theater review: ‘Smart People’ at Geva
There are a few topics people don’t bring up in casual conversation, as a rule — politics, sexual orientation, money, and race, to name a few. For heaven’s sake, just stick to asking about the weather, weekend plans, and the welfare of children or pets. Those topics, for most, are easy and non-offensive. But playwright […]
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Theater review: ‘School of Rock’ at RBTL
The RBTL ushers in their 2017-18 season with “School of Rock,” adapted from the crowd-pleasing 2003 comedy starring Jack Black.
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Theater review: Geva’s ‘In the Heights’
At the age of 37, composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda is already a recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, two Grammys, an Emmy, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He has also been nominated for an Academy Award and was named in Time’s 2016 “Most Influential People in the World” list. But it was three […]
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Theater review: ‘Twelfth Night’ at Blackfriars Theatre
When a theater company opens the season with an experimental take on a Shakespearean work, it’s a calculated gamble. In a digitally saturated world that provides a three-minute video version, SparkNotes study guide, and Wikipedia synopsis for every play in The Bard’s canon, there’s no guarantee audiences will care enough to see a three-hour run […]
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Theater review: Bread and Water’s ‘Dionysus in ’17’
Perhaps the less you know going into a performance of Bread and Water Theatre’s “Dionysus in ’17,” the better. Written and staged by the company’s artistic director, J.R. Teeter, it should at least be said that the performance art-driven play is a modern update of “The Bacchae,” by the Greek tragedian Euripides, filtered through The […]
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Theater review: WallByrd’s ‘Macbeth’
It takes all of five minutes for a fight to break out. As the lights dim in the grand Lyric Theatre, a bass-driven rock song blares and cast members in dystopian military garb rush the stage. A battle ensues, and only the strong survive. Such a violent beginning for WallByrd’s latest show, “Macbeth,” establishes two […]
