When I planned on seeing "The Ninth Circle" and "Crocodile" on Friday night at the Rochester Fringe Festival, I inadvertently set myself up for an evening of theatrical throwbacks to aching adolescence. In totally different ways, each piece presented a situation where youths wrapped up in their own difficult worlds can manifest tragic results. "The […]
Theater
Posted inCulture
Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Kinect the Dots, “Ole!”
My Friday night at the Fringe started at Little Theatre 1 for the second performance of Kinect the Dots. This show is a collaboration between FuturePointe Dance and RIT Projection Artists in which the movements of the dancers are captured live with an Xbox Kinect (hence the title), projected on to the Little 1’s screen, […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Rochester Playwrights
Not all theater has to be Eugene O’Neill (not that you see much O’Neill around here, anyway). It is instructive to see how much can be said in a couple of pages of pointed dialogue. The Geriactors, “Rochester’s Traveling Senior Theatre Troupe”, is an ensemble of six vastly experienced local actors you’ve seen everywhere over […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
THEATER: The next act
I’ve always heard Rochester described as a “theater town,” a distinction that seems like a rare one in the days of TV on demand, web series, and all the other performance media that keep a distance between you and the performers. Judging from a look at the Greater Rochester area’s 2013-2014 theater calendar, we’re still […]
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THEATER: The trials of trying out
When depicted in the movies, theater auditions are usually fraught and drama-ridden. They can be that way in real life too, but most theater companies try to save the drama for the production, and to be as fair as possible. Different local community-theater groups do have different approaches to the all-important subject of auditioning, depending […]
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THEATER: Summer’s servings on the stage
For some institutions, summer may be the slow season. But Rochester’s theater scene is coming off extremely lively fall, winter, and spring seasons, continuing the momentum right through the summer months. If you’re a fan of musicals, mysteries, comedies, and the occasional serious drama, summer offers plenty of theatrical diversions, in town and nearby. If […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
THEATER PREVIEW: “Les Miserables”
The old adage says that misery loves company. The musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” has certainly had plenty of visitors over its nearly three-decade life span. The trials and tribulations of Jean Valjean, Fantine, Marius, and the other Revolution-era Frenchmen have pulled in audiences again and again. People are drawn in by Hugo’s […]
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THEATER REVIEW: “The Book Club Play”
UPDATED 3/4/13: Edited to reflect that Geva Theatre has extended the run of “The Book Club Play” to March 23. Karen Zacarías’ “The Book Club Play” began life in 2008 and has continued to be workshopped, allowing the writer to polish and refine her script. It’s now five years later, but the current production, currently […]
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ARTS NEWS: Inaugural Rochester Fringe Festival schedule announced
This morning the organizers of the inaugural First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival announced the schedule for the new arts & cultural event, which will feature more than 180 performances of 120 shows in 21 venues in downtown Rochester. Shows range from theater to music, visual art to comedy, dance to family-friendly fare, and will take […]
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FALL GUIDE ’11: Theater preview
By Michael Lasser Anybody who can’t find something to see in the five pages of single-spaced listings I perused for the 2011-2012 theater season must be bloody hard to please. They include performances by some 30-odd companies from GevaTheatreCenter and the Rochester Broadway Theater League to Black Sheep Theatre Coalition and Method Machine. You’ll find […]
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ANNUAL MANUAL ’09: Arts & Entertainment
ART You watch them as they strut the stage, bathed in footlights, commanding a scene or captivating a crowd. You listen as they discuss their latest exhibit at a gallery opening, soaking in the praise for their visionary works. You think to yourself, “I could do that.” And if you’ve got the talent, maybe you […]
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Putting on a good show
It is, in my opinion, the best moment in the world: after the lights go down and before the show starts. Voices hush, bodies settle, and you wait. There is so much possibility in the air that breathing feels better. In fall, local theater and dance groups start performing in earnest. Rochester and the surrounding […]
