Theater

If you weren’t lucky enough to win tickets in our AYT competition to see Music Impossible at St. Paul’s church, then do not fear because we have managed to get three pairs of tickets to see Iris theatre’s next production at St. Paul’s, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Because everyone likes a bit of open air theatre in the summer. See below for a bit more information about the show and then scroll down to enter (pssst…be quick, you’ve not got long!). SHAKESPEARE’S JULIUS CAESAR 26th June – 26th July Mon – Sat at 7.30pm The Republic stands on a knife edge. Chaos and ruin threaten on all sides. Through the fog of war a charismatic leader emerges; but Caesar’s strength is a threat to democracy itself. Brother will turn on brother, freedom fighters will become terrorists, and blood will be spilled. When you play for an Empire, you win or you die. Set in the intimate gardens of this historic 17th century English church, this open-air production will take you into the racing heart of Shakespeare’s vivid political thriller. Iris’ unique participatory approach will bring a new and startling modern sensibility to this grandest of political tragedies. Driven forward by a contemporary soundtrack the audience will play an active role in the story, dancing in the Lupercalian festival, standing judgement in the senate, and maybe even striking against Caesar with the conspirators. Watch trailer | @iristheatre #IrisJC iristheatre.com  Enter the competition To win one of three pairs of tickets for each preview performance (Wed 26th, Thurs 27th, Fri 28th & Sat 29th June at 7.30pm), simply fill in the form below and submit it by 5.00pm on Monday 24 June. [contact-form-7] By entering the competition you agree to have your email added to the A Younger Theatre E-Newsletter. AYT never passes your details onto other third parties – we keep them safe!

The third annual Off Broadway Alliance Awards were presented on Tuesday, June 18 at a ceremony at theater district eatery Sardi's. Honoring outstanding achievement throughout the 2012-2013 season, aw

Erin Cummings (Made In Jersey), Randy Harrison (Wicked), Alexis Molnar (Harbor at Westport Country Playhouse), and Paul Anthony Stewart (The People in the Picture) are set to star in Primary Stages'

Broadway favorite and Tony Award winner Faith Prince will take on the role of mean orphanage matron Miss Hannigan in the Broadway musical Annie beginning July 19. She will steps into the shoes of cur

Even if you think you know everything about world-famous sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, playwright Mark St. Germain (Freud's Last Session) has put it all together in one very appealing package un

A few drops of rain didn't stop the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of The Comedy of Errors from celebrating its opening night on Tuesday, June 18 at the Delacorte Theater. Joinin

Renée Elise Goldsberry (Good People) is set to star in the 1970s musical I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road for the final Encores! Off-Center presentation of the 2013 season. The

Academy Award nominees Ed Harris (Pollock) and Amy Madigan (A Streetcar Named Desire), as well as Theatre World Award winner Glenne Headly (Balm in Gilead) and Drama Desk Award nominee Bill Pullman (

I did something crazy the other day. I read a newspaper. Not a kindle version.  Not the .com version.  No.  I picked up and read an actual, ink comes off on your fingers, NY Times.  (I didn’t pay for it, however – it came to my hotel room door, so there’s that.) As I turned and folded the big gray pages, I couldn’t help but notice the large section devoted to The Crossword Puzzle.  That sucker takes up a lot of space!  And it’s space that could be sold as advertising.  Certainly they could shrink the puzzle a bit, and squeeze in another 1 x 2. But nope.  The Puzzle, as well as a couple of other word games, just sits there like a big, old, stubborn bull, basking in the sunlight on a warm summer day. Obviously that Puzzle is popular.  Seriously popular.  (And if you don’t believe me, watch this doc.) And, here’s the kicker . . . obviously that puzzle is even more popular in print than online. Let me ask you . . . if you had a choice of doing the puzzle on your computer . . . or by grabbing a pencil (or a pen, if you think you’re a real smarty), and digging in, which would you choose? You’d go with the paper version, wouldn’t you?  You’d choose the live, tactile, problem solving, paper version, over the impersonal, tech version, even if it included clues and easy deletes, and so on, right? Same goes for chess.  Any chess players out there?  Which would you rather play with, a friend . . . a 2-D flat screen computer version?  Or would you rather feel those pieces in your hand, and watch your opponent furrow his or her brow over those 64 squares right in front of you? How about board games?  Or cards? See where I’m going with this? Despite the supreme technological advances over the past 10 years . . . there are certain things that people would still rather do live . . . no matter how much easier they are made for us online.  And that ain’t gonna change. And the theater is the same. Sure, pretty soon we’ll be able to get entertainment beamed to just about any device we want, anywhere in the world, at any time (Google Glass, anyone?). But in my mind, that will only make what we do more rare, and therefore more valuable. We’re just as stubborn as the big, old, crossword puzzle, and I don’t think we’ll ever get out of the paper. Unless the paper disappears out from under us entirely. (Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!) _ _ FUN STUFF: - VOTE for the 2nd Annual Broadway Marketing Awards!  Click here! - Only 22 performances of Macbeth remain!  Get tix. - Win two tickets to First Date on Broadway!  Click here!

Playwright John Guare has given us many enjoyable nights in the theater with such works as The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation and A Free Man of Color (click here to read my review of that). Alas, his latest work 3 Kinds of Exile, now running at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater through this weekend, doesn't come off anywhere near as well. The best things about the show, which runs 1 hour and 45 long intermissionless minutes, are its intriguing title and its motivating concept. As the title announces, 3 Kinds of Exile tells the stories of a trio of displaced persons. All three are real-life Polish emigrés whom Guare knew or admired and he gives each his or her own playlet. Their experiences aren’t uninteresting but neither Guare nor director Neil Pepe has figured out how to make them theatrically engaging. The bookends are Karel, the opening monologue in which a man recounts the story of a 12-year-old boy sent out of Poland to the supposed safety of England during World War II; and Funiage, the Brechtian fantasia inspired by the work of the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz that ends the evening. Karel is performed by the actor Martin Moran, who did his own one-man show earlier this spring and is comfortable holding a stage alone. But despite Moran’s congenial manner, my attention wandered. I’m told there’s a nice twist at the end of his tale but I missed it. In Funiage, David Pittu plays Gombrowicz, a novelist and dramatist who found himself stranded in Argentina at the outbreak of the war in 1939 and never returned home. The always-game Pittu works hard but his efforts are overwhelmed by the hyperactive staging. Pepe has filled this part of the production with all kinds of stage business. A nine-member ensemble sings, dances, does tricks with bowler hats and spouts surreal dialogue. But it's all flash without any sustaining fire. The centerpiece, and potentially most intriguing of the three plays, is Elzbieta Erased, a tribute to the Polish actress Elzbieta Czyzewska (say it Cha-zef-ska) who gave up a rising career in her homeland when she married the journalist David Halberstam in 1965 and moved to the U.S. Their marriage didn’t last, her heavy accent made it difficult for Czyzewska to find acting jobs in this country and she died from esophageal cancer three years ago at just 72, still lamenting the hand fate had dealt her. Guare spoke at a memorial service for Czyzewska and says that he wrote Elzbieta Erased as a way to keep her from being forgotten (click here to watch a video in which he talks about his inspiration for the play). I once met Czyzewska at the home of a mutual friend and she told me her whole life’s story after less than 10 minutes of small talk. It is a compelling tale and it inspired the 1987 movie “Anna,” in which Sally Kirkland played the Czyzewska role. But Guare doesn't do it justice here. For starters, Czyzewska isn’t actually a character in Elzbieta Erased. Instead, Guare and the Afro-Polish actor Omar Sangare, who appeared with her in a Polish production of Six Degrees of Separation, portray versions of themselves and, standing at podiums, tell anecdotes about their friend. Sangare is a charismatic guy but Guare, in his Off-Broadway acting debut, has little stage presence, less technique and a voice so weak that it fails to project even in the small space at the Linda Gross Theater. Still, my admiration for Guare continues despite this current disappointment. Few white playwrights create such textured roles for black actors as Guare has done in Six Degrees of Separation and A Freeman of Color and even here for Sangare. And that's not the only kind of reaching out Guare does. He recently patiently mentored a trio of young playwrights on HBO’s “YoungArts MasterC