Articles tagged with: A Red Orchid Theatre
Role Playing: Steve Haggard, aiming at reality, strikes raw core of grieving gay man in ‘Martyr’
Interview: He’s buttoned up, reticent, visibly shielded against the world, the new guy who wanders into a gay bar in lower Manhattan. And Steve Haggard, who charges this muted character with an irresistible blend of charm and pathos in Grant James Varjas’ drama “Accidentally, Like a Martyr” at A Red Orchid Theatre, says the lost soul he plays seems so authentic because, in truth, he is.
‘Accidentally, Like a Martyr’ at A Red Orchid: Stranger walks into gay bar, and tragedy follows
Review: Many adjectives tumble to mind in my fingers-over-the-keyboard wait for one that might sum up Grant James Varjas’ play “Accidentally, Like a Martyr,” a sleeper of a smash at A Red Orchid Theater. The descriptive finalists: Brilliant, enthralling, magical, cool. ★★★★★
Role Playing: Natalie West scaled back comedy to nail laughs, touch hearts in ‘Mud Blue Sky’
Interview: Natalie West’s portrayal of a bone-weary airline attendant in Marisa Wegrzyn’s “Mud Blue Sky” at A Red Orchid Theatre is so recognizable – who hasn’t felt exactly like that? – in its muted and dryly funny fashion that it comes as a shock to hear that she miniaturized the performance, so to speak, from a larger canvas.
‘Mud Blue Sky’ at A Red Orchid: Stewardesses winging it with cute young drug dealer in a tux
Review: In the literal and best sense, Marisa Wegrzyn’s poignant comedy “Mud Blue Sky” at A Red Orchid Theatre is a four-star winner – one for each of the quartet of players in this close-knit and entertaining enterprise. ★★★★
Chicago Theatre Week: Curtain rises on Act 2 with now-eager audience on edge of its seats
Preview: When the League of Chicago Theatres decided to stage its first Chicago Theatre Week last year, offering discounted tickets to some 100 productions and other perks in a sort of regional stimulus package, no one knew how it would go – whether the public would bite. What happened was more like a gobble: All 6,000 tickets in the discount pool were snapped up. Now Chicago Theatre Week is back, with the 2014 version of dramas for $15 and $30, and this time the presenters exude optimism.
‘Solstice’ at A Red Orchid: In everyman’s land, house divided crashes down on life, innocence
Review: It is a tragedy as timeless as it is trackless, Zinnie Harris’ “Sostice,” now in its U.S. premiere run at A Red Orchid Theatre. Tellingly, the play is set nowhere in particular, though more or less in the present. But the divided people, the shattered family, the loss of innocence, the appalling cost of violent conflict – these things register with immediacy, with photographic clarity. ★★★
Theater 2013-14: Premieres and new vitality energize the intimate stage at A Red Orchid
16th in a series of season previews: New faces, new energy, new generation. Kirsten Fitzgerald, artistic director of A Red Orchid Theatre, says the company’s 2013-14 season – consisting of three plays all new to Chicago – reflects the forward-looking spirit of its 21st anniversary on the theme of coming of age.
Role Playing: Kamal Angelo Bolden sharpened dramatic combinations to play ‘The Opponent’
Interview: A round of boxing lasts three minutes. That’s about how long it takes Kamal Angelo Bolden, as a spunky young boxer who’s all speed and dreams in Brett Neveu’s “The Opponent,” to redefine the phrase “physical theater.” But Bolden says his knockout performance in the ring at A Red Orchid Theatre was the easy part. The challenge was getting the dreamer right.
