Skip to main content

Premiere!

ART IMITATES SHAKESPEARE IN"PREMIERE!"
by Chuck Graham
TucsonStage.com

Any actor will tell you light comedy is as difficult to pull off as heavy drama. To draw out those gentle laughs while maintaining a buoyant congeniality is to walk a tightrope high above the crowd, that little internal gyroscope spinning faster and faster -- all the while charming everyone with a warm and winning smile.

Premiere chuck

"Premiere!" ups the ante by also asking the actors to keep everyone's attention by talking about how there's no such thing as art.

Dallas Thomas generates a magnetic presence as Rebecca, the wife of grumpy albeit very successful playwright Gil Fryman (Robert Anthony Peters). She gets in some convincing mood changes as the ambitious woman who encourages her husband to pass off his work as Shakespeare's own. Then gets antsy when the high-falutin' scam looks like it might actually work.

Also making a big impression is Victoria McGee as Professor Justinia Hawkins, the Shakespeare expert who wears bright red-framed glasses and flaunts her superior literary knowledge.

Read the full review here: Premiere!

Popular posts from this blog

Talent shines in play about acting | Invisible Theatre : Talent shines in play about acting “Circle Mirror Transformation” is billed as a comedy, but it's also a heady drama about the limits of self discovery Posted Nov 5, 2011, 10:15 am Dave Irwin TucsonSentinel.com Written by Annie Baker, “Circle Mirror Transformation” won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play and made a number of lists for top ten plays of 2009. It’s refreshingly unorthodox structure and setting - a rural classroom of actors playing non-actors who want to be actors - provides a meta-analysis on the nature of acting itself. It’s pure post-modern, but with a hint of quaint. It must be said up front that portraying an amateur actor ironically requires considerable acting skill. Fortunately, this production has a balanced, talented cast that doesn’t overwhelm the intimate Invisible Theatre space. Director Betsy Kruse Craig keeps a subtle hand on the proceedings, letting the action simmer nervous...

Theater worth catching. | www.azstarnet.com ®

Theater worth catching. Accent On stage Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.14.2008 http://www.azstarnet.com/ : "If you've watched HBO, you've likely seen Judy Gold. She's the tall comedian with the glasses who interviews moviegoers to fill airtime between shows. She also won an Emmy for her work on 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show.' She's very funny. And she's headed our way. Invisible Theatre brings Gold here to perform her solo off-Broadway show, '25 Questions for a Jewish Mother,' taken from Gold's book of the same name. It consists of interviews she conducted across the country with mothers of varying ages, ethnicities and occupations. She'll perform at 8 p.m. March 29 and 3 p.m. March 30 at The Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway. There will be an interview with Gold in next Friday's Accent, but we wanted to alert you early in case you want to get tickets — we suspect this will be a hot one. It's written by Kate Moira Ry...

Pastime Players reflect many talents

Pastime Players reflect many talents DOCUMENTARY CAPTURES SPECIAL PERFORMERS M. Scot Skinner Skinner@azstarnet.com | Posted: Thursday, April 15, 2010 A fascinating documentary about the Pastime Players, a Tucson troupe that showcases the abilities of people with developmental disabilities, is one of 18 feature films selected for the 2010 Arizona International Film Festival. "Such Good Friends" goes behind the scenes with the inspiring ensemble, which took its name from the street within the Amphitheater school district, where the Pastime Players originated 25 years ago. Under the constant and energetic guidance of Susan Claassen, Gail Fitzhugh and other professionals from Tucson's Invisible Theatre, the players have rehearsed and performed at Catalina High Magnet School since 1990. You can see "Such Good Friends," a film by Claassen and Cyndee Wing, at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Crossroads theater on East Grant Road. Although the documentary was first screened at th...