Put a Little Drama in your Life
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times November 21, 2002 Whoever said 'Love conquers all' and 'Honesty is the best policy?' Certainly not British playwright Patrick Marber, in his 1997 play, "Closer." One character actually says to another: "What's so great about the truth? The truth hurts people. Try lying for a change. It's the currency of the world." Ironically, "Closer" is really about people pushing Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times November 21, 2002 Think about it. There are lots of anti-female words in our vernacular vocabulary that have no male counterpart. Consider: misogynist, pussy-whipped, crone. Or shrew. Shakespeare's 1593 battle of the sexes, "The Taming of the Shrew," has long been problematic for women. A gold-digging macho comes from Verona to Padua to "wive it weathily," and he Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: November 14, 2002 If you like your theater brash and sexy, have I got a couple of shows for you. Eveoke Dance Theatre is gender-shifting Shakespeare's comedy, "The Taming of the Shrew," and UCSD is tackling Bertolt Brecht's rarely performed tragedy, "Edward II." Both productions fly in the face of tradition and timeframes. Eveoke's raunchy romp, with its symbolic dance interludes, shifts all expectations; Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: November 08, 2002 Emotional intensity slices through the air with short, sharp strokes. The silence is palpable. Onstage, in a series of brief scenes, we witness horror, anguish, grief, despair. The pain of parents raising a child. They try to love him, nurture him, understand him. And then, one unforgettable day, their lives become a wreckage, when they learn that their sweet, silent, violin-playing Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times November 07, 2002 There may have been a time or two when you really thought you needed a new brain -- but you probably didn't mean it literally -- and you weren't saying it in song. Of course, you're not William Finn. Two months after Finn snagged a Tony Award for "Falsettos" in 1992, he passed out on Read More →
Published in Gay and Lesbian Times November 07, 2002 Werewolves and vampires and mummies, oh my! There's a triple humor-whammy in watching "The Mystery of Irma Vep." First, there's the sheer brilliance of the performances, as two actors portray eight characters, both male and female. Then, there's the neck-snapping speed of the costume changes, which inevitably induces you to ask, 'How did they do that?' And Read More →
“San Diego is a hotbed of theater. Every year, I see 200-250 productions. This is fertile ground for new work. In addition to the prodigious local talent, theatermakers from around the country come here to premiere their latest creations. San Diego sends more shows to Broadway than nearly any other city in the U.S.”
-Pat Launer