Mixed Blood Theatre brings another adaptation by Caridad Svich with the world premiere of In the Time of Butterflies (En El Tiempo De Las Mariposas). Produced by artistic director Jack Reuler and directed by José Zayas, it is an engaging and moving portrait of siblings caught up in the stormy politics of the mid-20th...
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Money porn. There’s a long tradition in American storytelling of asking audiences to gawk at the shallow goings-on of the ultra-rich. The tradition began in the 20s with the work of Edith Wharton, came into its own during the Depression (My Man Godfrey), found real traction in the Ronald Reagan 80s (Tom Wolfe’s hootingly...
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Lauren Yee‘s The Tiger Among Us (Mu Performing Arts performing at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Feb 10) sprawls. Literally: director Ellen Fenster utilizes Mixed Blood’s widest configuration and in her firm hands the play ranges from Dad’s extreme stage right deer stand, to the car (we assume it’s a Minnesota beater) located on the...
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Music theater purists may not find Next To Normal (Mixed Blood Theatre, through Nov 11) to their liking. Production values are not high, the clunky bass drum stage at MBT does not lend itself to musicals and the sound system is, to put it charitably, cruddy. As to the actors, well, they exude talent...
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In the demented, clutch-popping and mud puddle shallow Learn To Be Latina (Mixed Blood Theatre, through May 13), by Enrique Urueta, a sweet-tempered, blissfully open Lebanese-American (clear emphasis on the latter), Hanan Mashalani, is informed that although she exhibits serious musical talent, her Arabic background will never do. We will assume, since we’re all...
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Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them (Mu Performing Arts, performing at Mixed Blood Theatre, through April 1) wants to be a movie. Much of what we hear about in A. Rey Pamatmat‘s play – Edith’s armed “securing the perimeter” of the house, the shooting of Dad’s girlfriend Chloe, Benji’s fraught confrontation with his...
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“Dying is easy,” went the famous (and quite possibly apocryphal) last words of the famous actor. “Comedy is hard.” Indeed, and if you want to glean a sense of just how difficult stage comedy can be to pull off, check out Crashing The Party (at Mixed Blood Theatre, through March 4). This zestfully bizarre...
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GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES Mixed Blood Theatre has opened an ambitious three-play series they call Center of the Margins with the goal of “exploring the complex world of disability,” the publicity explains. The first play, Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries has a somewhat misleading title; the most “gruesome” injuries did not happen on a playground;...
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Playwright Katie Hae Leo presents us with a pleasantly breezy and vivacious narrator in her lovely Four Destinies (Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Oct 30). The narrator is named Katie Leo. This Katie is a playwright and her aim is modesty itself: to answer once and for all the vexing question,...
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Mixed Blood has opened their season with an outrageous play and an equally outrageous concept, and I am equally impressed with both. The play is Neighbors by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a biting satire of every Black stereotype you’ve ever heard of; the concept is Radical Hospitality, offering their shows free – no strings – “Revolutionizing...
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