Author: Jane Baldwin

Jane Baldwin, a longtime faculty member of the Boston Conservatory, taught Modern Drama, Acting, and Humanities. She is a recipient of the Canadian Heather McCallum Award for the best English essay and the French language Prix André G. Bourassa. Her books and articles include Michel Saint-Denis and the Shaping of the Modern Actor (Greenwood Press), Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style and Other Writings, which she edited (Routledge Press), and Vie et morts de la création collective/Lives and Deaths of Collective Creation, co-edited with Jean-Marc Larrue and Christiane Page (Vox Theatri). Her essay, “Michel Saint-Denis: Training the Complete Actor,” is published in Actor Training, ed., Alison Hodge (Routledge Press). Her latest work, “The Accidental Rebirth of Collective Creation: Jacques Copeau, Michel Saint-Denis, Léon Chancerel, and Improvised Theatre” appears in Toward a New History of Collective Creation, eds., Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit (Palgrave). Although most of her reviews are from the Boston area, she has followed the Stratford Festival in Canada for many years.”
The Children: an Important and Timely Work

The Children: an Important and Timely Work

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Photo Maggie Hall    “The Children”

Lucy Kirkwood’s drama, now appearing at Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage, deals with climate change. Its three characters, now elderly, were formerly nuclear scientists. Shortly before the play begins an earthquake followed by a tsunami, reminiscent of the 2011 events in Japan, destroyed a nuclear power plant forcing two of them, Robin (Tyrees Allen) and Hazel (Paula Plum), a married couple to leave their large home for a small cottage just outside the exclusion zone. They are coping with the circumstances as best they can. Robin goes out every day supposedly to feed the cows they keep, but in reality he buries them since they were killed by radiation.  …

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Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

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Photo Andrew Brilliant/ Brilliant Pictures

 “Hair” the first Rock Musical opened in 1967 for six weeks at the New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre and moved to the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway the following year where it was a hit. The book and lyrics were written by Gerome Ragni and James Rado (both actors in the play) while the music was composed by Galt MacDermot.   

Initially, the show took reviewers and audiences by surprise with its anti-war plot, nudity, mixed race relationships, and homosexuality. Over time reactions changed and the musical became popular world-wide and was translated into many languages before disappearing.   

 In 2010, the play received a Tony for the best revival of a musical which once again brought the work to the forefront and may have induced Michael J. Bobbitt, the current artistic director of Boston’s New Repertory, to choose it. Opening night at the New Rep the audience was filled with excited middle aged and elderly people, many of whom were dressed as hippies.   …

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Oliver at the New Repertory Directed by Michael J. Bobbitt.

Oliver at the New Repertory Directed by Michael J. Bobbitt.

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Ben Choi-Harris as Oliver   Photo Andrew Brilliant / Brilliant productions

The winter holiday season generally brings a Charles Dickens’ play to theatres. At the New Repertory “A Christmas Carol,” the usual piece has been replaced with Lionel Bart’s musical “Oliver” adapted from Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” first produced in London in 1960 and regarded as Great Britain’s first modern musical. Michael J. Bobbitt, the company’s new artistic director has a long career of writing for and working with children. Before coming to the Boston area in 2019, he had been the Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre for twelve years. In this capacity, he directed and choreographed as well as writing new works for the company which is located in Glen Echo outside of Washington DC. He also brought his talents to a number of theatres in Washington DC and taught at several colleges.        …

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An Iliad: A retelling of the horrors of war far beyond Troy!

An Iliad: A retelling of the horrors of war far beyond Troy!

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An Iliad  with Denis O’Hare. Photo Joan Marcus

 Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson created Homer’s Coat, a theatre company that explores ancient literature for new plays. Both the well-known actor O’Hare and the director Peterson developed “An Iliad” a work that is based on Homer’s legendary poem of the Trojan War, but cut to 100 minutes of playing time. The title indicates that there are other visions of the tale. 

They first brought “An Iliad” to Boston’s ArtsEmerson in 2013 where it was a hit as it had been in New York the previous year. O’Hare and Peterson spent five years developing the play which they then toured across the U.S. Since ArtsEmerson is celebrating its tenth year as a theatre institution its Artistic Director David Dower and its Executive Director David C. Howse decided to bring back five of their most important plays which included “An Iliad” and five new ones. Unfortunately, “An Iliad’s” second stay in Boston was only for four performances.   …

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SPEAKEASY PRESENTS ‘ADMISSIONS’: A PLAY ABOUT CONFUSED LIBERALS

SPEAKEASY PRESENTS ‘ADMISSIONS’: A PLAY ABOUT CONFUSED LIBERALS

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photo: Maggie Hall Photography. Admissions

 

‘Admissions’ is the third work of Joshua Harmon to appear at SpeakEasy in Boston’s South End. The earlier ones ‘Bad Jews’ and ‘Significant Other’ were very successful. Having just seen ‘Admissions’ I am prepared to say that it is likely that this third play will also be a winner. 

 ‘Admissions’ is more topical than the other two since it addresses the lack of equal opportunity in American education, a problem that has not been solved for many reasons. Those who suffer most are black people and Hispanics.  

 Harmon’s play deals with a white family – a father, mother, and teenaged son who believe themselves free of prejudice against minorities of color and Hispanics. Their strongest prejudice, particularly the father’s, is against white men.   …

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Bedlam Returns to Cambridge’s Nora Theatre Company with The Crucible

Bedlam Returns to Cambridge’s Nora Theatre Company with The Crucible

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the Crucible,, courtesy of Nora Theatre Production  2019

Bedlam Theatre, a New York City Company, was founded in 2012 by the actress Andrus Nichols and the actor/director Eric Tucker. Their first show, George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, was performed by four actors in 2015 at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge although it was written for eighteen. As the company has grown larger it has continued reviving Saint Joan and sending it on the road as it does with their other productions. 

In 2016, Bedlam returned to Cambridge where they played two renditions of Twelfth Night. Two years later they presented Hamlet at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston with a cast of four.   …

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Augustine’s Dream: a work in development

Augustine’s Dream: a work in development

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Augustine’s Dream   Photo:  Kathryn Syssoyevea   

Augustine’s Dream was presented in July 2019 at the Providence Fringe by AnomalousCo, an interdisciplinary theatre collective that develops new productions working with their director. The group focusses on movement which is extended vertically through the use of silks, trapezes, and harnesses. Where many aerial companies work with dancers, this group works with professional actors as well as actors in training, all of whom have an interest in physical theatre.   …

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Passagers: The 7 Fingers Return to Boston

Passagers: The 7 Fingers Return to Boston

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Passagers Hula Hoop  Photo Cimon Parent

Passengers (also known by its French name Passagers) opened at Emerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre on September 25 for a nineteen day run. It is the eighth show the 7 Fingers as they call themselves has presented in Boston and judging by the excited audience the night I saw it, it will not be the last.  …

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Nixon’s Nixon : A Revival at the New Repertory Theatre

Nixon’s Nixon : A Revival at the New Repertory Theatre

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Nixon’s Nixon  Photo Andrew Brilliant

Nixon’s Nixon by Russell Lees opened on Broadway in 1996 almost two years to the day of the ex-president’s death. The play, a two hander, takes place in August of 1974 in the chair filled Lincoln sitting room at the White House where Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger drink, reminisce, and discuss the President’s possible options for the future. However, like Nixon, Kissinger is concerned with his own future. He hopes to keep his position if and when Gerald Ford takes the office of president. Each attempts to manipulate the other. Kissinger keeps trying to convince the hysterical Nixon to resign while the president insists he has to remain in office because the American people admire a fighter. …

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The Acclaimed Choir Boy comes to Boston

The Acclaimed Choir Boy comes to Boston

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The Choir Boy  Photo: Niles Scott’s Studios

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy, as its title implies is a musical theatre piece. It deals with a boys’ boarding school, the Charles R. Drew Prep School, whose students are African-Americans, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college. Life at the school is difficult for some of the boys particularly the talented Pharus Jonathan Young (Isaiah Reynolds) who is often mocked for his effeminacy. Despite the mockery, his classmates voted him the leader of the school choir, a position of honor. The prep school focusses heavily on music, religion, and good behavior. The latter, as noted above, is sometimes missing.  …

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