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Saturday was a beautiful almost-autumn evening at the Peggy Boyle Whitworth Amphitheatre. Around me on the grassy hill at Brucemore was a full house (if there can be such a thing at an outdoor performance space) of families on picnic blankets and lawn chairs, snacking and playing tag as the performers and production team prepared […]
Angie Toomsen, director of Riverside Theatre’s production of The Comedy of Errors, brilliantly brought together two things that theater historians might compare to orange juice and toothpaste: 1970s country and Shakespeare. Southern drawls mixed with Shakespearean monologues made the show memorable and even more hilarious, as if the bard himself had written the show with […]
Willow Creek Theatre Company kicked off its opening season in January 2020, and after just one production, Matt & Ben, they were forced to close their doors [insert groan]. But [title of show] marks a new beginning for WCTC, and this DIY space is aiming to grow community roots in their “Moving Forward” season. [title […]
As my tablemates and I arrived at Theatre Cedar Rapids’ production of Little Women at Brucemore, I could feel a crispness in the air. The rainy sky had opened to let the sun out just as we rolled up into the drive. The stage, covered with a painted backdrop of the interior of the March […]
The last time we spoke, Riverside Theatre producing artistic director Adam Knight impressed upon me his desire to re-imagine the face of professional theater in Iowa. For years, Riverside has been producing intimate, small cast shows with many of the same heavy-hitters: stellar productions, to be sure, but familiar. It would be easy to doubt […]
What is love? To some, it might be a passionate affair in Paris. To others, it’s the very definition of one’s relationship with their furry companion. Perhaps, quite honestly, it’s just a catchy Haddaway tune that had you responding “Baby, don’t hurt me.” Or maybe, love is the last morsel of strength you have to […]
With its opening this past weekend, Riverside Theatre’s production of Paul Morella’s A Christmas Carol adaptation has officially brought the holiday season down upon us. The pandemic takes the loss this time — it can’t rid us of the magic, charm and lessons we cherish from stingy old Ebenezer Scrooge. Nestle in front of your […]
As both a mother and a daughter, I found Midnight Your Time resonant and meaningful. Riverside Theatre’s current streaming production, Midnight Your Time by Adam Brace, is a one-woman show featuring Riverside co-founder Jody Hovland. Directed by Adam Knight, this is the story of a mother learning a new role as her adult children have […]
Over the past seven months, theater companies in eastern Iowa and elsewhere have reinvented themselves, branching out from traditional spaces onto streaming platforms to keep performance and themselves alive. Starting Thursday, Riverside Theatre — in conjunction with PURE Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina — offered another to their audiences: a recorded play that audiences can […]
Like the protagonist in Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas, I, too, am struggling to find the perfect words — in my case, to convey my unadulterated awe and affection for Theatre Cedar Rapids’ exquisitely haunting (and hilariously vulgar) production of the 1997 play. Listening to the drunken, Irish monologue is intoxicating in itself as Mathew James […]
According to the first result that loads on Google (bless you, Wikipedia), a utopia “is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.” The hilariously absurd, one-man tale that unfolds in Riverside Theatre’s Buyer and Cellar is just that, a utopia. Starring the sensational Patrick DuLaney and […]
Picture this: Several strangers gathered around in their cars, watching a married couple go through the pros and cons of a relationship on the verge of divorce. No, this isn’t your weekly trip to Walmart or your neighbor’s driveway — it’s the Mirrorbox Theatre production of The Parking Lot. A socially distanced, pandemic-proof theatrical drive-in […]
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