Press
Abundant Laughs & Stone-Cold Political Commentary in Vixen Theatre’s “POTUS”
Vixen Theatre Company‘s POTUS is the funniest thing I’ve seen on stage this year.
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And in a sobering moment of stone-cold political commentary, the complicity of the enablers, the aiders, and abetters, at all levels, was fully held accountable in a memorable evening of sharp-toothed comedy. Highly recommended.
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Vixen Theatre Company's POTUS Is Uproariously Funny! (And Filled with Plenty of Food for Thought)
Blair Cadden directs this warp-speed, door-slamming farce. Timing is impeccable, and sight gags abound. The scenes follow swiftly on each others' heels, giving us just enough time to digest what has just happened before layering on more levels to complicate the absurdity
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fury: Women's Rage as a Force for Good
You said this was a very personal play. What have you gained throughout the process of devising it with this group of students?
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The thing that I realized is that we have to share the rage and carry it together. And that's part of the story we're telling. How do we share it and support each other in it? Because I think that's when it flips from being something that feels like it's burning you up from the inside to being something that that can affect the world.
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Boston Playwrights' Theatre Talks About Design: a tiny q&a
As a director, you’re responsible for overseeing and guiding the vision for the play. How do you prefer to begin?
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I like to start with everyone’s big picture response: What ideas, images, or moments stand out? What big questions are we all mulling over? I try to start broad so that we can all respond to the story itself before we start narrowing down into our own disciplines and focusing on just sound or just costumes, and so on. This way we’re hopefully all on the same page about what story we’re telling, and the more specific work of designing and staging all happens with that shared understanding as the guiding principle. Making sure we’re all steering the boat in the same direction, so to speak.
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Read More: Boston Playwrights' Theatre
Insulted. Belarus(sia)
Post-performance talkbacks are quite common, but very seldom do they feature a writer who is forced to speak to the audience from hiding.
Those were the unusual circumstances Monday night after an online reading of “Insulted. Belarus(sia),” a wrenching new drama by dissident Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik that is quite literally ripped from the headlines. Heard but not seen on a Zoom link, Kureichik spoke about the circumstances that gave rise to his play after a cast of seven delivered passionate performances under the auspices of Needham’s Arlekin Players Theatre.
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Crazy Bitch
Coming in at just under an hour, 5th Wall Theater's collaborative production, Crazy Bitch, doesn't stop to catch its breath, barreling forward through time and space, seamlessly weaving together stories of the past and stories of the now.
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Spring Awakening
Ultimately, the musical's subject matter is what matters most to Cadden. "The questions this play raises are important to me," she says. "I think that when we withhold information from our children, we think we're protecting them and most of the time we're not. And that's what this play doesn't back down from and shows the consequences of. It's something we haven't gotten better at in parts of our society, and it's something to poke at and question."
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Snow Blind
There is a real intimacy that inhabits the stage, and the sparks of an authentic, heartfelt work shining new light on the age-old problem of addiction, as well as its flavors of the month, Oxy and heroin. Anyone close to this topic will find comfort in its universality, and can gain much from the hard truths that Charlotte so softly delivers.
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