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Articles tagged with: Kirsten Fitzgerald

Role Playing: Natalie West scaled back comedy to nail laughs, touch hearts in ‘Mud Blue Sky’

Jun 24, 2014 – 9:56 pm | 3,009 views
Actor Natalie West

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

Apr 14, 2014 – 10:37 pm | 5,457 views
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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. ★★★★

‘Solstice’ at A Red Orchid: In everyman’s land, house divided crashes down on life, innocence

Jan 16, 2014 – 8:16 am | 4,381 views
Kirsten Fitzgerald and Meighan Gerachis in 'Solstice' at A Red Orchid 2014 (Michael Brosilow)

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

Oct 19, 2013 – 5:03 pm | 9,674 views
'Trevor' poster (A Red Orchid Theatre)

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.

‘Butcher of Baraboo’ sharp on characters, wit but the dicey plot could stand another whack

Apr 11, 2012 – 9:20 pm | 5,844 views
Butcher of Baraboo featured image 1 Marisa Wegrzyn Kristen Fitzgerald Natalie West 2012 credit Michael Brosilow

Dark comedy at A Red Orchid. 2 stars.

Role Playing: Kirsten Fitzgerald inhabits sorrow, surfs the laughs in ‘Clybourne Park’

Oct 16, 2011 – 12:23 pm | 10,007 views
Kirsten Fitzgerald Act 1 housewife Clybourne Park Steppenwolf 2011 featured

Interview: Actor Kirsten Fitzgerald portrays two very different characters amid the hurlyburly of “Clybourne Park, the double-edged drama by Bruce Norris now playing at Steppenwolf Theatre through Nov. 13. She’s a grieving mother in 1959 and a self-interested lawyer 50 years later.
It’s a theatrical tour de force that Fitzgerald likens to acting in two different plays the same night.