This Friday, Feb. 28, Riverside Theatre’s artistic director Adam Knight brings a story close to his heart to the Gilbert Street stage. Stages is a play that Knight helped develop with long-time friend David Lee Nelson, following Nelson’s diagnosis in 2017 with stage four colon cancer. Throughout the course of his chemotherapy, Nelson kept a […]
Riverside Theatre
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‘Thespians can boogie, too’: Riverside Theatre and HomeBrewed team up to support Free Shakespeare
If you’ve attended a fundraiser in the Iowa City area in the last several years, there’s a better-than-average chance that you’ve heard the sounds of HomeBrewed. They’ve played shows for CommUnity’s Project Holiday meal campaign, for Strengthen • Grow • Evolve, for the local chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness and many other
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Riverside’s ‘The Agitators’ a timely exploration of 19th century concerns that still plague us
Riverside Theatre opened its first play of 2020 with an intense reminder of the importance of history, civil rights and activism. Jessica Link portrays Susan B. Anthony and Curtis M. Jackson is Fredrick Douglass in this retrospective of their friendship and political lives, which often found them at odds with one another.
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Accept the challenge of Riverside Theatre’s ‘Straight White Men’
It is as if the audience is watching the events of the play unfold inside a diorama — a piece of history captured, but a history that is still being played out.
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‘Feast.’ at Riverside is Megan Gogerty at her most visceral and compelling
Somewhere, I read a likening of Feast. to Game of Thrones — which I thought sounded ridiculous. How could a one-woman, live stage show approximate the visual awe of flying dragons, the vast expanse of bloody battle scenes, the echo of hallowed throne rooms? But as usual, I turned out to be the unimaginative fool. You see, I was envisioning
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Get thee to a theater! 10 can’t-miss local productions this month
With the variety of offerings in Eastern Iowa, you won’t have to go far to find something for date night, the whole family or just a quiet evening for one. This seems particularly true in September. Shows continuing their runs include
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Riverside’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ achieves a moment of peace
A story of family relationships, an examination of how one lives their life, and unrequited love all take equal stage time throughout ‘Uncle Vanya.’ The show runs through Oct. 6 at Riverside Theatre. Tickets are $30.
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Riverside’s ‘Men on Boats’ is sheer delight
In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell took a crew of nine other men on an expedition to traverse and map the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. In just over three months, six of them emerged on the other side of the canyon, having completed the journey more or less in tact.
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Honor and duty are deeply examined in Riverside’s amazingly accessible romp of a ‘Henry IV Part 1’
There were moments of sheer unplanned magic in the opening night performance of Henry IV Part 1. But there were also moments of genuine theater magic as well — scenes that stood out even in an overall strong production. There are a lot of good reasons to see Riverside’s ‘Henry IV Part 1.’ But the most amazing thing about it is the role it plays in our community.
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You should see her in a crown: Katy Hahn leads Riverside Theatre’s ‘Henry IV, Part I’
In Iowa, there is a small, but growing, community of artists who have no “day job.” It’s into this mad amalgam of a gig economy that theater artist Katy Hahn found herself thrust several years ago. “A question that people ask me a lot is, how do I do it? I say, don’t try to take the same path!”
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‘Apple Season’ is moving and restrained
Iowa City needs new work. We are a City of Literature, a city of curation, a city of having written — new work shakes us out of our steadiness and surety and forces us to contemplate the glorious mess of process. It gifts us with those nuggets of honesty that can be sluiced away by a deluge of revision or buried deep beneath layers of polish.
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A rocky start dims but can’t douse the brightness of ‘How I Learned What I Learned’
Riverside Theatre and Des Moines’ Pyramid Theatre joined forces this winter to bring us ‘How I Learned What I Learned,’ by August Wilson. It is an incredible thing to be able to see Wilson as a character on the stage, brought to life in Aaron Smith’s performance.
