The Original "Kick-Ass" Movie.

John Ritter was really wonderful in this silly 80's comedy that treated, VERY realistically, the concept of an average guy wearing a superhero costume and trying to fight crime.

Annie Baker Feels the Love from Boston

Playwright Annie Baker is receiving three professional productions in Boston this Fall.

This from a Press Release:

Three Boston theatre companies will engage in a landmark local collaboration this fall to produce breakout writer Annie Baker’s first three plays – Circle Mirror Transformation, produced by the Huntington Theatre Company (October 15 – November 14), Body Awareness, produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company (October 22 – November 20), and The Aliens, produced by Company One (October 29 – November 20). All set in the fictional town of Shirley, VT, the plays will run together in the first-ever festival dedicated to the work of this wryly observant young writer, which will be curated by the Huntington Theatre Company.

Criticism and Reviewing

From a 2008 column in Film Quarterly by Geoffrey Nowell Smith:

The attack on the practice of film criticism in the pages of Screen in the early 1970s was part of a political project which I would still defend, but its sequel, the academicization of film studies, was unforeseen and in many ways a disaster. Academic film studies brought with it a vastly superior film historiography, including the history of film styles. But it nearly killed film criticism.

My Neighborhood in Bloom

100_6983, originally uploaded by arthennessey.

We Do See a Lot of This Lately

Jenna Scherer, reviewing the new Melinda Lopez play at the Central Square Theater, mentions a megatrend in playwriting - one I've gently made fun of in the past:

There’s nothing terribly original about “From Orchids to Octopi.” But even if Lopez isn’t breaking new ground, she’s created something that’s appealing, accessible and transiently inspiring.

The format is one that’s run rampant in Boston in the past few years, in plays like Lydia R. Diamond’s “Voyeurs de Venus,” Karen Zacarias’ “Legacy of Light” and Lopez’s own “How Do You Spell Hope?” A modern-day character draws inspiration, comfort and provocation from the life and works of a past luminary. The present and past stories play off each other and eventually intertwine.

Seeing a few of these plays in production and readings led me to write this post.

Pillowfight!

IMG00019.jpg, originally uploaded by arthennessey.

Correction to Friday Roundup

The Publick's Entertaining Mr. Sloane closes Tonight, Saturday. There is a matinee at 3:00PM and then an evening show at 8:00PM.

Groovy Baby - The Life of an Actor

If you click here, you can see me in an I-party commercial with my lovely wife Amanda, she's the one on the right below. We are in the first two clips. I think the second one is airing right now.








It was a fun shoot with fun people.

Boston Theatre - Friday Roundup

Opening

Exquisite Corps presents Charles Mee's Limonade Tous les Jours at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

Last Chance

The love triangle in Phoenix Theatre Artists' Apple closes tomorrow night.

The Publick Theatre keeps Entertaining Mr. Sloane until Saturday April, 3rd.

Actors Shakespeare Project's Othello takes a final bow this weekend.

Sue Costello's solo show 32 Million Words runs through Saturday at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw schemes through Sunday at the Huntington Theatre Company's mainstage.

At the Factory Theater, Boston Actors Theater finishes up a run of Nicky Silver's The Altruist.

Ongoing

Fugitives are on the run for a bit longer in Merrimack Repertory's The Last Days of Mickey and Jean.

The Adding Machine keeps counting at Speakeasy Stage Company.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is running at the Lyric Stage.

The string quartet practices and quarrels at New Repertory Theater's production of Opus.

If you didn't catch the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, you can still see Marblehead Little Theatre's presentation through next weekend.

The Donkey Show keeps shaking its groove thing at the Zero Arrow Theatre

Another Theater Space in Boston?

And it's underground! (It's also about 10 years off.) The Boston Globe has a short interview with the architects who have a vision of using an old subway tunnel. Here is architect Andrzej Zarzycki:

We describe TUTS (Tremont Underground Theater Space) as an “underground digital theater and experimental space.’’ We envision art galleries, a theater, a museum, places to hold parties and events. One concept is to create a pedestrian path connecting the Green Line to the Theater District, linking together the Wang, Schubert, and Emerson College theaters. That would come in handy in the winter weather.

For more information you can visit the Tremont Underground Theater Space website.