I saw this play by Lee Blessing twenty years ago at least when it was far more timely than it is now. It concerns two men, one from the US and one from the USSR negotiating SALT talks in Geneva. Because it focuses solely on that subject rather than on the men or anything else, it seems pretty dated now. It was a decent production at the Quoridian Theater in Bethesda, Maryland. Its original production was in 1986 when this subject was highly relevant.
NEXT TO NORMAL won the Pulitzer Award for Drama in 2010 despite not being nominated. It is a spectacular musical, unlike any other. It deals with the affect of mental illness on a family-and the difficulty of treating it despite all the pharmaceuticals we have to treat it with. Amazing performances, great set, great play. Loved it.
We saw it at the Meadowbrook Theater in Rochester, Michigan. Yes, local theater is great. Say what you want about Detroit, we do have local theater and plenty of it.
August Wilson wrote GEM OF THE OCEAN a year or two before he died. It is part of his cycle of plays about the lives of African-Americans throughout the 20th century and actually is the first in the cycle despite being written near the end of Wilson's life. It is set 1904 in Pittsburgh and concerns a woman who is a healer and the man who comes to her for healing. The Cyngnet Theater in Old Town (the oldest section of San Diego) put on a very fine production and any faults lay in the somewhat didactic text. My favorites are PIANO LESSON and FENCES. But it is nice to see another piece of the 12-play cycle.
We saw this at the San Diego Repertory Theater last week. It was an outstanding production of a thoughtful, funny, sad, truthful play about racism. Hard to think of a better play in the last five years and the acting by the company here was sublime. Local theater can be such an enriching experience.
We saw this play by Barret O'Brien in 2003 at the Southern New Plays Festival in New Orleans. If we are at a conference, we often seek out plays in the area and this was how we saw this play. Mr. O'Brien seems to be a prominent New Orleans playwright, an interesting phenomena that we have seen locally. A writer will find a local theater eager to perform his plays.
This play was included in the American Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2003. It was the story of husband and wife actors both nominated for Oscars. Sorry that I don't remember more but I think we enjoyed it.
