Category: Performing Arts

John Guare’s plays were po-mo before po-mo was the American theater’s default setting. They revel in pop culture references. They erase the line between reality and the phony “hyperreality” promoted every day in the media. His approach to the material is that so beloved of deconstructionists everywhere: pastiche. The difficulty in staging this pastiche is that the play often threatens to turn into pure chaos.

The desire to be somewhere better is indigenous to the human race. There are probably at least a myriad of clichés about how “the grass is greener” and it is certainly common to wish one were somewhere else. When life is relatively stable, this desire to find greener pastures is a luxury. When life is chaos, this desire is no longer a luxury but a thirst for life.

Caryl Churchill is renown for not talking about the meaning of her plays in public. A positive result of this reticence is that her plays retain their complexity as works of art. A negative result is that there is a lot of pure rubbish written about them.

It refreshes the soul to go out once in awhile and watch students who still love, still care, still dream about making good work. But it is not only a pleasure to watch the students grow and take chances but also a pleasure to watch their teachers do work they would not otherwise get to do.

Cole Hornaday visits with the fiery ball of energy that is Yana Kesala, and talks with her about her upcoming work and what it means to be a Ukrainian dentist’s daughter.

Mr. Smith’s handling of the circular narrative is quite refreshing and refuses to become yet another simple story that gives easy answers. The ending even calls into question the entire evening’s storytelling itself. It is a substantial and enjoyable script, aided by six extremely good actors. Matthew Aguayo, Carter Rodriquez, Heather Persinger, Susanna Burney, Chris MacDonald and Sara Peterson give the production their all.

For those who value On the Boards, the title of this essay is redundant; and yet, it is with increasing alarm that I find that the majority of my fellow artists are not attending their productions.