Shattered Globe’s True West Almost Grabs the Sam Shepard Dynamite
Anyone who had rowdy brothers or raised a pair of sons will feel a chill of recognition at some point during Shattered Globe Theatre’s production of True West, Sam Shepard’s […]
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
It’s the Finale of Kill Your Darlings, A Live-Lit Mash-Up: On 9/14 We Explore Saloon/Lit Culture
Third Coast Review and Tree Falls Productions conclude Kill Your Darlings, their series of “live-lit/improv mashups” on Wednesday, September 14. That night will be devoted to Lit itself and we’ll explore Chicago’s saloon […]
E.D.G.E. Theatre Celebrates Election Year With Rousing Production of 1776
A new and intimate production of 1776 succeeds in reminding us that the founding fathers were real people with human problems who managed to make the close decisions that […]
This Is Modern Art: Synchronicity of the Week
Carl Jung might call it synchronicity because this is a meaningful coincidence, albeit also accidental. Wednesday night at a live lit event I told the story of the play This […]
Theater, Critics and Perfomers: A Kill Your Darlings/3CR Night of Live Lit and Improv
Last night was the fourth night of seven Kill Your Darlings events this season. We celebrated by recounting theater stories, lamenting the current critical environment and telling personal stories about […]
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Ends Its Run with Abbie Fest XVIII
Mary-Arrchie’s theater space at Angel Island is gone, but the theater closes out its history with a final event in the spirit of “Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins.” The […]
Einstein’s Gift: Compelling Story of Two Scientists’ Approach to War and Life
Einstein’s Gift, the compelling new production being staged by Genesis Theatricals, is that most satisfying kind of play. It’s rich with historical detail and scandal and ripe with questions for […]
Byhalia, Mississippi, Portrays Issues of Class, Race and Family in a Nowhere Town
Byhalia, Mississippi, is one of those nowhere, dead-end small towns that no one wants to live in. Except for the young woman from somewhere else, who just gave birth to […]
Direct from Death Row: The Scottsboro Boys, a Riveting Tale in Narrative & Vaudeville
Direct from Death Row: The Scottsboro Boys fools you into thinking you’re getting a straight retelling of the events and trials of the nine young African-American men who were falsely […]
SoloChicago: A Theater Startup in a City of Theaters: An Interview
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to start a new theater company in a city that might be considered saturated with storefronts. But Ron Keaton and Kurt Johns […]
Goodman’s War Paint Offers Glamour and Spectacle, Little Substance
My ratings for War Paint: — Scene design and costumes? Four stars. — Performances of its leading actors? Three stars plus. — Sophistication and nuances of its story, smart dialogue, […]
Steppenwolf’s Between Riverside and Crazy: Wildly Funny and Profane, Touched by Today’s Drama
The setting was once a large and elegant apartment on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. There’s a spacious living room and a view of the Hudson River. The place has a […]