Author Archive

‘The Wong Kids’: Adventure and magic with a message

BOSTON – Story-telling has changed markedly when it comes to drawing young people into a film or a live stage play. In an era of ever-more-amazing video games and 3-D movies with special… Continue reading

New adaptation of ‘1984’ looks forward and back

CAMBRIDGE – Walk down the street of any major city in the U.S., and chances are there are several sets of eyes on you. There may be several sets of eyes – or… Continue reading

At MRT, love for baseball icon forges family bonds

LOWELL – In baseball, there is winning and losing just as there are wins and losses in the game of life. But baseball is more than just a game here in Boston or… Continue reading

‘An Octoroon’: A new take on mixed-race melodrama

BOSTON – An octoroon , by definition, is someone with one-eighth black blood, an amount that still made it illegal for the person to marry a white person in the South before the… Continue reading

Goodbye, Columbus: Those wacky, wild Spaniards

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – As historical figures, both Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella have been in sore need of some PR repair after the full extent of what really happened more than five centuries… Continue reading

Greenidge’s ‘Milk Like Sugar’: Teens see no way out

BOSTON – Listen and learn. That would seem to be the motto of playwright Kirsten Greenidge, who grew up in Arlington and now lives in Waltham. It might help to explain her facility… Continue reading

Fiddlehead’s ‘Rent’ a worthy tribute to an icon

BOSTON – Has it really been 20 years since a young playwright turned the theater world on its head? “Rent” debuted at the New York Theatre Workshop on Jan. 22, 1996. the story… Continue reading

‘Pippin’ makes triumphant trek across the river

BOSTON — When the curtain first went up at the American Repertory Theater’s production of “Pippin” in Cambridge in 2012, there was an audible gasp from the audience. Were they in the wrong… Continue reading

URT’s ‘The Convert’: A colonial-era culture clash

CAMBRIDGE – When cultures clash, even the well-intentioned and righteous – or is that self-righteous? – can suffer. When Christian missionaries came to Africa, often ahead of the colonialists and settlers who came… Continue reading

‘Nice Fish’: Small truths revealed on a frozen lake

CAMBRIDGE – The great actors challenge themselves, and Mark Rylance, the winner of multiple Tony and Olivier Awards and currently up for an Oscar for his supporting role in “Bridge of Spies,” has… Continue reading