What If I Told You is a special piece that will stay with you, not only because of its topical and engaging conversation about its culturally reverberant themes, but because of its joy in igniting conversation and leaving its audiences inspired.

Steadily pacing along during its 90 minute running time, Still Alice is a poignant and unflinching piece of theatre that brings its audience face to face with the reality of living with an incredibly distressing mental illness.

Sebastian Faulks’s 1993 novel Birdsong has long established itself as one of the nation’s favourite books. In recent years it has continued to find success as a stage adaptation, captivating audiences with the story of a soldier’s passionate love affair against all the odds. Adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and directed by Alastair Whatley with Charlotte Peters, I took my seat in the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Quarry Theatre to see the show on its new tour.

“Stories By Heart” is not just the reading of two somewhat obscure short stories. Mr. Lithgow shares with the audience, “I’m also going to tell you some stories about these stories. I’m going to tell you why these two particular stories are important to me, how they connect to my life, and how, over the years, they have helped turn me into a storyteller. /And along the way, I intend to do a little offhand philosophizing about storytelling itself.”

Unfortunately this party is too predictable and plays more like a simple sitcom sans substance or stability. Basically everything goes wrong. The script undermines the important relevant core issue of survival and diminishes significant topics such as infidelity, abuse, alcoholism and mental illness with contrived absurd humor.

Like the words of most (if not all) traditional and contemporary “spiritual” hymns, phrases like “Soon and very soon,/We are going to see the King” are not references to some heavenly rest; rather they continue to be clarion calls for justice and powerful strains of resistance. Ms. Orlandersmith’s enduring question remains: has America heard the wakeup call – or has it been answered and deleted.

When done correctly, horror stories can often be an intense and thrilling ride for the audience, which you won’t forget anytime soon. Yet for many of us, myself included, it often feels like an overlooked genre in theatre, as opposed to the endless amount of horror you’ll find in film.

Latin music sets the mood for Quiara Algeria Hudes emotional journey of Water by the Spoonful. It’s the second story of a trilogy about struggling with addiction and how it can affect one’s social and family life. Each character in Water By the Spoonful has obstacles, flaws and struggles that they must confront in order to move forward.

Driving through Los Angeles and seeing a homeless woman resting on a bus bench, I often wonder what’s her story. Everyone has a story, and playwright Martyna Majok wrote about her mother’s experience moving to America in "Ironbound", now at the Geffen Playhouse.

Eastbound Theatre’s “Sylvia” sometimes whispered when it could have shouted and never quite lived up to its full potential. But nevertheless, it proved a good showcase for some talented community theater actors and the very supportive crowd was having a great time for a great cause.

Valentine’s Day is soon, and I suspect many theatergoers – including some readers of this blog – are looking for something to do (and by that, I mean an event to attend) with their significant other, for this occasion. If they’re also a lover of theatre, obviously it should go without saying that any Valentine’s Day date ought to include a night at the theater. More specifically, perhaps one that involves watching a bright adaptation of a romantic classic.

The feeling of running into a long lost relative – one whom you’ve searching for, or perhaps even presumed to be dead – is a rare and emotional experience that few of us can truly understand. What could easily make the feeling of that experience even more unique is if you realize that that relative has been in front of you, the whole time. That’s exactly the feeling which Rosemary and Time, a new drama set in 1970s Yorkshire, attempts to capture during its run at the Paradise Factory Theatre.

The Opera House Players clearly dove into this production process with earnest joy and the best of intentions. It’s a shame that the musical takes such giant step backwards from the original film. For anyone considering this production as a lighthearted weekend activity, I encourage you to of course support you community theaters – but please, bring with you a discerning eye and critical lens. Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is always a delight, but unless we hold writers accountable for their questionable work, lines like those mentioned above are going nowhere.

Whether or not you can get on board with all of Thornton's strategies, you're bound to pick up an array of handy hints from Talent Isn't Enough, and the anecdotal advice given will almost certainly spark loads of different ideas – small or large – which just might help you to refresh your career strategy as an aspiring actor.

The production currently playing at SoHo Playhouse entitled “Bright Colors and Bold Patterns” is a self-absorbed, ostentatious, and highly opinionated rant penned by Drew Droege who also holds court on stage for the eighty-minute overwrought outburst.

When you think of Sondheim, you usually think of Sweeny Todd, Into the Woods, Company, and so on. Tragically, Assassins, which Sondheim co-created with John Weidman is often overlooked and underproduced.

Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of “SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE” fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola—which apparently becomes the inspiration for the Bard's infamous star-crossed tragedy "Romeo and Juliet." The plot of the film remains fairly intact in Lee Hall's mostly delightful if slightly diluted stage adaptation, now continuing performances in a gorgeous-looking new regional production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 10, 2018. This spunky love letter to the theater is chockfull of stagecraft-insider amusements and fun-to-find Shakespearean Easter Eggs that both aficionados and casual fans will appreciate. But, shockingly, despite the spectacular production values and the beguiling, gusto-bathed performances of its large ensemble cast, this stage adaptation somehow loses some of the inescapable romanticism that is so much more prevalent in the original film.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, many people are looking to get themselves ready by going out to enjoy some live music and performances rooted in the themes of love and romance. For us theatergoers in the Big Apple, what better place to get exactly that than at a Broadway-style musical cabaret show?

In her “Note from the Director,” for example, she writes in detail about her decision to cast Asian actors in the roles of Catherine, Robert, and Claire, referencing her upbringing as a first-generation Filipino-American and how that impacted the way her family dealt with the loss of her father.

Yale Repertory Theatre welcomes back Austin, Texas’ cutting-edge performance group, Rude Mechs, to perform their latest work. They have performed works at the Yale Rep before in their “No Boundaries” performance series. One of these pieces – The Method Gun – is about a production of A Streetcar Named Desire without any of its main characters. With Field Guide, the group takes on Dostoyevsky.