“The Appointment” is pulled from the headlines about women’s rights and abortion. With singing and dancing, and a definite point of view, Lightning Rod Special brings its liberal stance to life. Jessica Rizzo questions the one-sidedness of the piece but says when it hits, it is devastating. Final performances today, March 30 or tomorrow, March 31, 2019. Ticket links at the bottom of the post.
Read MoreOur new contributor, Jessica Rizzo, sees the 10-hour, marathon performance of EgoPo Theater’s Lydie Breeze trilogy and says it’s worth spending the time with John Guare’s flawed Civil War-era characters, whose tragedies, loves, jealousies and losses are humanly relatable. The sets get a shout out as bringing the action to life, as does the atmospheric music. and Guare’s vision, rooted in the past, seems oddly relevant today. The three play marathon is a monumental accomplishment, says Rizzo. The last performance is Sunday, May 6, 2018.
Read MoreCatherine Rush attends the February 24th, 2018 performance of “Poor People’s TV Room” at Bryn Mawr College. Created by Bessie-award-winning writer/choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili, and performed by a small inter-generational cast of black women, this multidisciplinary piece exists at the intersection of installation and dance theater. Inspired in part by Nigeria’s 1929 Women’s War, as well as the 2014 Boko Haram kidnappings of 276 schoolgirls, “Poor People’s TV Room” takes a non-narrative, full-bodied approach to articulating the interplay of trauma and resistance.
Read MoreCarl(os) Roa previews the Power Street Theater Company’s production of “Las Mujeres,” a new play by Erlina Ortiz, running March 9th-17th at West Kensington Ministry. Supported by a pantheon of feminist icons from Latin American history, “Las Mujeres” adapts the unorthodox structure of Caryl Churchill’s 1982 working-woman play, “Top Girls,” to the complexities of contemporary Latinx life.
Read MoreCarl(os) Roa is back with something brand new for Artblog: a short play! Co-written with Mona Washington, featured playwright for Philadelphia assembled, this work of creative nonfiction tackles an evergreen dilemma for artists of color who operate within mainstream institutions.
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