Criticism comes from some unexpected places when you’re a playwright attempting to star in your own play. That much is true for New York playwright Sam Forman, whose play The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall opened in preview last night at the Vineyard Playhouse (official opening night is Saturday). He’s seen the central role of Henry played by others in the three years since the play was written, and he has heard the actors lodge lighthearted complaints about the challenges posed by the dialogue. But before now, he’s never experienced it firsthand.
The Vineyard Playhouse opens its popular summer series of new work — the Monday Night Special — with the reading of a new play by actor, director and playwright Thomas Kee, Inside My Hidden Room, on Monday, June 14 At 7:30 p.m. at the playhouse, 24 Church street in downtown Vineyard Haven.
A new session of after-school improv classes for all ages with IMP theatre company will begin Feb. 5. Classes take place at the Edgartown School and are open to students from across the Island.
Unbeknownst to most, the story of The Little Mermaid predates the 1989 animated classic by more than 150 years. The real story is a bit more complex and a great deal darker than the Disneyfied version we all know and love, and this weekend students at the West Tisbury school will offer their own interpretation.
Once on This Island Jr., is an adaptation of a Broadway musical based on the novel My Love, My Love, by Rosa Guy, which is in turn an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, first published in 1837.
For a young, pretty girl growing up in pre-women’s lib Arkansas, a sure way out of a small hick town was winning a beauty contest. But what if the girl happens to have a mind? A good, questing mind? Once she wins the contest, is she going to be content cutting ribbons and crooning Wayne Newton hits in piano bars? Maybe not.
Story will be fending for itself this summer on the stages of Martha’s Vineyard. Stripped like the economy (and because of it), this season promises something much more seductive than blockbuster pretense, jaw-dropping set design, or celebrity leads: a glimpse at the so-called creative process.
Island Theatre Workshop opens a new production this weekend at Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. It’s the Tony award-winning comedy and musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by Taffy McCarthy and Linda Berg. This fun, high-energy show opened last night and continues through August 8.
Tisbury becomes Dublin on Wednesday night as Arts and Society — which organizes what is apparently the oldest continuous celebration of Bloomsday on the planet — presents its 32nd annual Bloomsday Celebration of Music and Drama based on the texts of James Joyce.
The program is on June 16, at 8 p.m. at Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. All tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the door.
New, original short plays will be presented by the Tisbury and West Tisbury schools on Saturday, Feb. 6 and Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Vineyard Playhouse, 24 Church street, Vineyard Haven. Performance times for both dates are 2 and 7 p.m.
The Tisbury School plays are Calculated Risk, by Pam Herman’s class, and Tornado Fourth Grade-O! by Veronika VandeGeer’s class. The plays from West Tisbury are Digging for Clues, by Rebecca Solway’s class, and A Map For Freedom, by Mary Boyd’s Class.
IMP, the Island’s youth improv troupe, has been selected to perform at the 2010 Teen Chicago Improv Festival, and will be in the spotlight for two nights in a row this weekend in an effort to raise funds for the trip to the Windy City.
