This month, the stage offers a collection of amusing performances. Head to Theatre Cedar Rapids for two great plays: one that will get you in the holiday spirit and another that will make you laugh while portraying quirks of the human mind. In Iowa City, Dreamwell Theatre continues their season based on the theme “In […]
The Stage
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Riverside Theatre shakes things up with a new reading series
Riverside Theatre is a professional theatre that has been producing high quality, groundbreaking productions in Iowa City for the last 32 years — but that does not…
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This month in theatre: Spamalot, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and more
For the second play in its season themed “In Defense of Guilt,” Dreamwell Theatre brings the premiere of an original, unpublished play by local playwright Mike…
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The Stage: Local storytelling series ‘Was the Word’ begins its fourth season Sunday
The Corridor is home to a surprising variety of theatrical experiences. Between professional and community theatres, large-scale musicals and intimate dramas…
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September: The month in theatre
Dreamwell Theatre president Matt Falduto described the theme of their 2013-2014 season as “In Defense of Guilt.” Kicking things off is Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, featuring direction by Matthew Brewbaker and a large cast. The play is set in Purgatory, where a trial is held to determine the fate of Judas, the man who ultimately betrays Jesus in the New Testament.
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Girls, Interrupted: Fourth Room Theatre production of Stop Kiss opens tonight
It began as a way of saying good-bye to a friend. Rachel Howell and Ottavia De Luca, two core members of Fourth Room Theatre, had a list of plays that they dreamed…
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August Angst: Urban Theater Project brings area premiere of Pulitzer-winning play
Tracy Letts’ pitch-black comedy, August: Osage County, has been capturing the attention of the creative world since it premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf…
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The Stage: Everything old is new again
In the planning stages for Riverside Theatre in the Park, which began on June 14 and runs through July 7, the production team had to devise a way to make the classic plays of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1599) and Richard Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (1777) vibrant for contemporary audiences and also different from other recent versions.
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A Standing Ovation for American Dad
As a theatre critic, I am not in the habit of reviewing TV shows, although I love television to the point where I consider it a hobby. In particular, my favorite shows are animated sitcoms because of the way they can use the medium to create anything in the human imagination. American Dad, in particular, is […]
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The Stage: Interview: William Missouri Downs
Riverside Theatre is now featuring William Missouri Downs’s play The Exit Interview (directed by Ron Clark), showing Jan. 25-Feb. 17 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The play is about a professor who’s just lost his job, a sanctimonious university administrator and the colorful cast of characters who interrupt their interview. Recently, playwright Bill Downs […]
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The Stage: Theatre Cedar Rapids’ Underground New Play Festival
One of my best friends used to work at a state-run hospital for convicts who required intense psychiatric care. She once observed, “Hearing a guy say ‘Jesus told me to kill my wife’ is enough to turn anybody off of religion.” When I learned that Tom Deiker, a playwright featured in Theatre Cedar Rapids’ (TCR) […]
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The Stage: All in A Day’s Work
From Broadway to Boise, all new plays face the same obstacles. The writer agonizes over when the play is finally complete. The director struggles to combine the writer’s intent with their own artistic vision. The actors breathe life into characters that have only been words on the page. In the Fifth Annual All-In-A-Day Play Festival, […]
