A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

Karan Brar as Maneesh and Rob Yang as Alex in Data . Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson Photography. “What are you?” I recall an experience from my college days, when I was part of a touring company playing various locales in Alabama. On one occasion, the accompanist was separated from the rest of us when a stranger asked her that very question. She explained that she was a visiting college student and the pianist for the play that was to be performed that evening. The stranger persisted in asking the same question, “What are you?” She repeated the information she had shared previously, but he asked a third time, “What are you?” Both unnerved and uncomfortable at this point she finally replied, “I don’t know!” His response was “I’m a Libra, what are you?” Astrological sign is one way of defining what you are, though I doubt many of us today would start defining ourselves according to the zodiac. Depending on the context in which the question is asked, I believe the most common respo

  L to R:  Bradley James Tejeda (Eddie), Luna Lauren Velez (Patti), Rosa Arredondo (Norma), Rebecca Jimenez {Toni), and John Leguizamo (Nelson) in The Other Americans . Photo by T. Charles Erickson Photography. John Leguizamo is a multimedia multi-hyphenate: a stand-up comedian, actor, monologist, social activist, voiceover artist, host, and playwright whose work has been seen on the stage as well as in film and television. He wrote and is currently appearing in the current offering at Arena Stage, The Other Americans , in its world premiere run (continuing through November 24). It is 1998. The Other Americans focuses on an upwardly mobile Colombian/Puerto Rican family who have moved from Jackson Heights, Queens, to Forest Hills, Queens. Leguizamo stars as Nelson Castro, the family patriarch, who owns and operates a number of laundromats in New York City. Nelson instigated the move from the cramped apartment in Jackson Heights to the house in a tonier neighborhood over the objectio

  Cole Taylor as Romeo and Caro Reyes Rivera as Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, on stage at the Folger Theatre, October 1-November 10, 2024. Photo by Erika Nizborski. Entering the Folger Theatre for its current production of Romeo and Juliet , we see (and hear) a variety of clips of characters in the play giving what appear to be political speeches drawing distinctions between the “red state” (conservative) Capulets and the “blue state” (liberal) Montagues. Their sound is somewhat unusual, not the “normal” sentence structure and syntax that we might expect. The program notes that, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), these speeches have been adapted from recent speeches by contemporary politicians. In essence, then, we are hearing Shakespeare-ized language, making it clear that the Capulets and Montagues are bitterly divided. As the play begins, we plunge right into the combative relationships between the families port

  The cast of Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company (L to R): Matt McGrath, Ali Stroker, Ann Harada, Matthew Broderick, Nehal Joshi, Judy Kaye, Mara Davi, and Chris Myers. Playwright Joe DiPietro (a two-time Tony winner as librettist and lyricist for his musical Memphis ) has adapted Babbitt from the satirical Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name. Originally the result of a brainstorming session more than a decade ago among himself, actor Matthew Broderick, and director Christopher Ashley, to come up with a project that would give them a chance to work together. DiPietro scanned his bookshelf and came across a copy of Lewis’s novel, which set into motion all of the events that would lead to the arrival of DiPietro’s adaptation at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. The play was previously produced in 2023 at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse (where Ashley is the current artistic director) with the same design team and several of the same cast members (including Broderick). Full disclosur

  T The Company of  Comedy of Errors during the finale . Photo credit: Theresa Castracane Photography. Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors , continuing through October 20 at the Klein Theatre, is a colorful, boisterous, rollicking, laugh-out-loud production. The Simon Godwin-directed show is one of Shakespeare’s shortest and most compact plays. Godwin’s production is set in a seaside village on the Mediterranean during the 1990s, which dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg notes was just ahead of when cell phones became almost universal and the Internet became such a central force in our lives. The script and the locale become springboards for Godwin and the company to embellish it with activity that Shakespeare might never have imagined, but of which he would certainly approve as the play hilariously unfolds. It begins, however, on very serious notes. The Duke of Ephesus has forbidden anyone from Syracuse to enter the city due to a trade war. Th

  Awa Sal Secka (Bea), Colby N. Muhammad (Vanessa/Sheila/Radia), Melanie Brezill (Michelle/Chrissy/LaNiece), Victoire Charles (Jaja), Bisserat Tseggai (Miriam), Jordan Rice (Marie), Tiffany Renee Johnson (Aminata), and Mia Ellis (Jennifer) in ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.’ Photo by T. Charles Erickson Photography. Jaja’s African Hair Braiding is the title of the play by Ghanaian-American Jocelyn Bioh, as well as the name of the immigrant-owned small business in Harlem where the play takes place. In the play, we become a part of what begins as a typical day as its finely-drawn, unique, and colorful characters gather and the braiders ply their trade, creating singular looks for a variety of patrons. We are far into the play before Jaja herself appears, marking a very special event in her life, which will have implications for the entire “family” of the business. Over the course of just 90 minutes, we become well-acquainted with these characters and their situations to the extent that t