Oscar Wilde Taunts Powerful Hypocrites—SNL Style by Barry David Horwitz Filled with rapid fire wit and snide satire, “The Importance of Being Earnest” sizzles like Saturday Night Live. Under Josh Costello’s deft direction, we feel Oscar Wilde ripping the mask from our illusions about millionaires, marriage, and masters. In Costello’s “Earnest,” delight rules, tweaking…
Ayad Akhtar Unfolds Religious Crisis in America by Rachel Norby and Barry David Horwitz Set in Atlanta in 2013, “The Who & the What” focuses on a traditional Muslim father, Afsal (dominating Alfredo Huereca), and his two rebellious daughters. Though the younger pretends to conform, the elder expresses her objections to male rule openly….
Millennial Notes Ntozake Shange Brightens Colorful American Souls by Tyler Jeffreys “for colored girls” feels like a healing session for the oppressed woman–not a show. Even the White women in the audience snap their fingers, relating to their darker sisters. “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” like…
Dominique Morisseau Aims for Motown Glory by Barry David Horwitz In Detroit in the long hot summer of 1967, the political winds are burning hot—under Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the anti-Vietnam war protests. Police brutality against African Americans in the big cities is boiling up and the lid is…