Ann Lemons Pollack
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Buffon Glass Menajoree
Bouffon Glass Menajoree was staged this weekend when the Ten Directions Production was hosted by Young Liars Theatre. If you are, as I was, unfamiliar with the theatre style termed “bouffon”, here’s what Wikipedia says: “a modern French theater term that was re-coined in the early 1960s…to describe a specific style of performance work that has
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Well
Well, the current offering from Mustard Seed Theatre seems to begin with the concept of chronic illness and its effect on the family. It is, almost, a play-within-a-play-within-a-play. Don’t however, let those two descriptors put you off. Theatre is about storytelling, and often, indeed mostly, those stories are about stressful situations, whether the stress is
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Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Woman in pursuit of a goal. Stand back; author Lauren Gunderson is going to tell you all about it. In Exit, Pursued by a Bear she offers a tale of a young blue-collar couple in an exurb of Atlanta one Fourth of July. Gunderson’s the one who gave us Christmas at Pemberley Manor, the Jane
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Milk Like Sugar
Milk Like Sugar is the disquieting story of three young women, high school students who decide, when one announces she’s pregnant, they should all have babies together. “You can dress them up, and they’ll love you,” explains one. Also, people have to buy you what you want, like Coach diaper bags and tiny Air Jordans.
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Big news from the Muny
St. Louis times 2! The Muny has just announced that their production of "Matilda" will be "inspired by" our own Mary Engelbreit. She's collaborating on the look and feel of the show. A great combination, for sure!
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Farragut North
Farragut North is a Metro stop in Washington, DC, just off K Street, NW, the home of big-time lobbyists, law firms and other consultant-type outfits. Farragut North, the current show at St. Louis Actors’ Studio, however, is about an Iowa presidential caucus season in 2008, although it isn’t specifically about that particular contest. Stephen Bellamy
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Oslo
Most of us seldom think any more of the Oslo Peace Accords, even if we’re the sort of people who really keep up with world events. The results of those talks have been…well, modest compared to what many people had hoped for. Nevertheless, it was a momentous thing for the government of Israel and the
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The Crucible
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, a play about the Salem witch trials of the late 1600’s, as a sort of allegory about the McCarthy hearings. Miller himself had been subpoenaed, testified and was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to identify other people at meetings he attended. Seeing it in the current production by
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KNEAD Bakehouse & Provisions
Do not head into KNEAD Bakehouse & Provisions thinking this is your standard bakery, much less the old-fashioned south St. Louis vaguely Germanic kind. No gooey butter cake, no dinner rolls and no diner-style coffee made eight hours earlier, the kind that manages to be both weak and sour. Speaking of sour, where the quality
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Not Exactly a Recipe….
Is this a recipe? Sort of. The New York Times food section’s newsletters often talk about no-recipe “recipes”, making suggestions about putting things together and encouraging folks to use their experience, even if it’s limited, and instinct to put together food. (To quote the late Benjamin Spock, MD, “You know more than you think you