Serenbe Playhouse: The Seagull

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Robbie

I generally don’t attend arts events OTP just because there’s more than enough for me ITP and my daily commute up and down GA 400 sours me on the idea of getting back on the highway when I don’t have to. A couple of friends of mine wanted an excuse to go down and check out Serenbe, though, so we made plans for them to pick me up and go see a play by Serenbe Playhouse. They left it to me to pick the play and I chose The Seagull both because I like what I’ve seen of Chekhov’s work and the rest of the season offerings were mostly musical theater adaptations of movies (or at least the same source material as famous movies), which didn’t appeal to me in the least. So my friends picked me up, we got some dinner in the city since we are all vegans and Serenbe is not particularly friendly to our kind, and we went down to see what may be the worst production of Chekhov’s work ever to be staged.
Continue reading →

7 Stages: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Robbie

I went with a couple of friends to 7 Stages Friday night to see their production of Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. Directed by Rachel Parish, it’s a farce that struck me as kind of like a cross between Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis and Věra Chytilová’s Daisies. Performed by six actors, it consists of a series of absurdist sketches that range from silly and accessible to anyone to chaotic and a bit challenging.
Continue reading →

The Followers: A Retelling of the Bacchae

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Robbie

I caught “The Followers: A Retelling of the Bacchae,” a musical produced by 7 Stages, last night. It was well produced and performed and I thought it was a lot of fun to watch. Written by Margaret Baldwin and directed by Michael Haverty, it was a truly enchanting spectacle, though I have to say that I didn’t find much more to it than that.
Continue reading →

Puppets: The Pigeoning and Nufonia Must Fall

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Robbie

I’ve seen a couple of puppet performances recently. I’d probably not write about either by themselves, but there were a couple of thoughts about them that I wanted to remember, so I’m putting them down in this post.
Continue reading →

Phantasmagoria: Wickedest Tale of All

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Robbie

When I first looked at the promo materials for Phantasmagoria, I thought that their “Wickedest Tale of All” was going to have more circus-arts integrated into it and be much more of a grand, goth spectacle. As such, I rounded up a hottie goth-date last night and went in expecting some fairly fun and flashy entertainment but nothing particularly substantive or memorable. I ended up being delightfully surprised to find that, although it was certainly fun and flashy, it was a very slick and intelligent telling of some wonderful horror stories. This show focused on works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens, but also had a Hindu story about a churel and a reading of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Demons” as part of a pseudo-encore.
Continue reading →

The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness, as told by an African-American Man who also happens to be Black

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Robbie

There are three things that will stick with me from going to see Mark Kendall’s “The Magic Negro” last night at the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage. Before the show, I found a stack of stickers in men’s room that said “Be patient, Atlanta! We’re all in it together.” and had a picture of an I-85 sign. Secondly, the existential depth of cookies and the fact that my companion for the evening totally scored some cookies. And, finally, that I was awarded and then denied an Oscar for my part in the show. I’d probably feel better if it went to “Moonlight” because everything about that movie is amazing, but it went to some random person in the audience, which left me wishing that Kanye West had been there to stand up for me.
Continue reading →

Tara Ochs: White Woman in Progress

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Robbie

“White Woman in Progress” is a one person show in which Tara Ochs, who also wrote the script, explores her own understanding of racism. Ochs’ role in the 2014 film “Selma” as Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered for her role in the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, helped her realize her own lack of knowledge of the Civil Rights movement and her lack of understanding of the prevalence of racism, both in society and in her own behavior.
Continue reading →

Robbie Writes

Category Archives: Theater