This production contains strobe lights, haze, simulated gunshots and scenes depicting physical and sexual violence. The air blowing off the Mississippi River had the crisp feel of fall, that hint of cold that prepares us before we plunge into the depths of true Minnesota winter. Inside the Guthrie Theater, a friendly warmth quickly replaced the…
Last year, as senior theatre major Anna Brujin ’18 was thinking about potential subjects for her capstone, the theme of family kept coming back to her. She knew she would be curating a play for the stage, so she considered the relationships and connections within families and storytelling. The resulting piece, “Dirk and Others Still…
“SLUT: The Play”, opening on Friday, Feb. 16, is the latest production by the Macalester theatre and dance department. The play explores rape culture through the lens of a high school thrown into chaos following a violent sexual assault. Given the cultural context of the #MeToo movement, the play is immensely relevant to a college…
Remember the moment in The Sorcerer’s Stone when 11-year-old Harry Potter steps through a brick entrance at the back of the Leaky Cauldron pub, and finds himself in the marvellous Diagon Alley? Magic fills his eyes as he wanders, mesmerized, along the eccentric shops and colorful façades that border the avenue. As I walked into…
“All things must end,” asserts Boris Semyónov-Pischik, played by Michael Karadsheh ’18, in a rare moment of solemnity for Karadsheh, the perennially hilarious Urinetown veteran. Make no mistake; although Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, directed by Beth Cleary, is adorned liberally with humor, the fact remains that it is, at its heart, about endings. In…
When you hear the words “No Child,” what are you reminded of? For most who lived through the era of intensive standardized testing in American public schools, the phrase “No Child Left Behind” comes to mind. Nilaji Sun, a teacher in the Lower East Side of New York City, saw the effects of the No…
Will Snider’s How to Use a Knife is as sharp as its title would suggest. A gloriously irreverent comedy that moves deftly between hilarity and heartbreak, it serves as an impressive start to the Mixed Blood Theatre season. For those of our readers who are unfamiliar with this venue, The Mixed Blood Theatre is a…
In an all-student show produced by Emily Nadel ’18 and Carter D’Angelo ’17, Miller Shor ’19 and Richard Graham ’19 performed in David Ives’ Venus in Fur on Sept. 8 and 9. Shor and Graham were a dynamic pairing, playing rich and intricate characters as if they were made for these roles. The play begins…
Fantastic show. Unless naughty language bothers you — then Vietgone probably isn’t for you. The play by Qui Nguyen is a potty-mouthed, hilarious and poignant reimagining of the real-life love story between the playwright’s parents, who met in the 1970s at an Arkansas camp for refugees of the Vietnam War. Mark Valdez directs the play,…
King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s most intense tragedies, following Lear’s slow descent into madness after bequeathing his kingdom to two of his three daughters. It’s a painful and poetic play to watch, and aspects of it have been adapted into many different forms, from Jane Smiley’s novel A Thousand Acres to parts of The…
