by Roseann Cane Born Lothar Berfelde in Berlin-Mahlsdorf, Germany, in 1928, the son of a leader of the Nazi Party, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf recognized early in life that she felt more herself in female clothing. Despite her formidable, abusive father, who forced her to join the Hitler Youth, she would…

by Roseann Cane If “Call me Ishmael” is the most famous opening sentence of an English-language novel, surely “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” is a very close second. The first, of course,…

After two years of good-but-not-great Panto productions, the Pantoloons at the Ghent Playhouse have regained their mojo and are currently tearing up the stage with a hum-dinger of a holiday treat. The Elves and The Shoemaker is funny, timely, and colorful. The script and songs, concocted by director Cathy Lee-Visscher…

by Barbara Waldinger Casse Noisette, French for Nutcracker and subtitled A Fairy Ballet, is Bridge Street Theatre’s current World Premiere offering. Given these clues, audience members may be excused for expecting Balanchine’s ubiquitous holiday ballet, set to the familiar score of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, based on Hoffmann’s famous fairy tale. …

by Barbara Waldinger Wendy Wasserstein, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 55, wrote several plays about college-educated women of her generation who struggled to find their own identity in a male-dominated world.  One would imagine, given the current socio-political atmosphere, that these works would be ripe for…

by Macey Levin Ann Richards has become an almost legendary character in a relatively short amount of time.  She was the second female governor of Texas, serving from 1991-1995, as a Democrat in a highly conservative state.  Her colorful life has been brought to the stage by playwright Holland Taylor…

by Macey Levin In 1945, Tennessee Williams gave us The Glass Menagerie which earned him a number of awards and propelled him into his ranking as a major American playwright.  His canon of plays  led by A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot…

by Barbara Waldinger Many twenty-first century theatre audiences, who expect real life behavior onstage, much like reality TV, may not know how to react to the work of Luigi Pirandello, whose play Naked is currently on the boards at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre.  Pirandello, writing just after the devastation…