Category: Plays
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Unsettling Thy Name is Rhoda – Williamsburg Players Presents the Psychological Thriller “Bad Seed”
After a few starts and stops in my attempt to write a review of “Bad Seed”, currently showing at Williamsburg Players, I’ve concluded that is it just a difficult show to write about. Not because of any lack of skill, talent, or effort on stage or behind-the-scenes – this show had plenty of each. But…
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It’s Never Easy to Meet the Parents as LTVB Showcases with “Stick Fly”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) As the pre-snow cold bore down on Virginia Beach, we were welcomed into the warm and well-appointed house that is the set of LTVB’s show “Stick Fly”. Seriously – set designer Sandy Lawrence and Set Dresser Lisa Stafford should have a show on HGTV. The house they built…
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Eight Characters Head into the Forest of Arden. Will They All Find Marriage? Find Out at “As You Like It” Playing Now at Little Theatre of Norfolk
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) Is there a limit to the number of couples that I can shoe-horn into a play with a single wedding at the end? And can I make the play still appealing to those who hate love by adding a character whose whole deal is to be a foil…
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PCT Tells a Scary Ghost Story (Along with some Tales of Glory) this Christmas Season with “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol”
This time of year, the world is flooded with versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – and oftentimes, lost in the musical numbers and the production value, it is easy to forget that, at its core, this is a ghost story. Peninsula Community Theatre’s “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol”, told from the perspective of that…
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Just in Time for Thanksgiving, “Nolan’s Wake” Will Make You Thankful for the Family You Have
*Note: As per the performance eligibility requirements laid out here, this production is not up for HRACT Award consideration.* “Nolan’s Wake”, playing as part of the Curtain Up! New Play Series at Zeiders American Dream Theater, begins with a familiar scenario – a family showing up at a house they’ve rented, with immediate drama over who…
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Williamsburg Players’ Remarkable Acting and Strong Storytelling Will Keep You Guessing Throughout “Rehearsal for Murder”
Theatre, at its core, is a game of imagination. You have a group of people – large or small – on stage, pretending to do something, and hoping that the audience is interested enough in the game to stay for a couple of hours. Sometimes, you add fancy sets lit by the most complicated of…
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Information and Reminders for those Attending the Awards Ceremony
The 2024-2025 Hampton Roads Achievement in Community Theater Awards is almost here! If you are planning to attend, here are some reminders and information: If you are a NAMED NOMINEE (i.e., your name individually appears on our nomination announcement here): Finally, if you are part of a nomination for Best Performance of a Song (Ensemble),…
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LTN Explores Addiction and Recovery in “Water by the Spoonful”
There are two main storylines in “Water by the Spoonful”, playing now at the Little Theatre of Norfolk, and they are cleverly separated by a screen which comes down and blurs the plotline taking place mainly in an online chatroom as the plotline taking place “IRL” plays out. The “IRL” (in real life) action centers…
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A Real Estate Deal, a Sexy Dracula, and a Woman Doctor (we just call that a Doctor): PCT’s “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” has a Little Bit(e) of Everything
My high school assigned us Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” for summer reading prior to my senior year, but somehow never got around to the obvious autumn follow-up of Brahm Stoker’s “Dracula.” So I cannot tell you how strictly “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors”, playing now at Peninsula Community Theatre, sticks to the canonical text, but I’m…
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All Aboard! Hop on the Train at Smithfield Little Theatre to Experience Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”
“The best food, the best beds, the best pillows, the best feathers inside of the pillows. It is poetry on wheels…” says Constantine Bouc, the man in charge of the Orient Express, as he sets expectations for famous detective Hercule Poirot (and the audience) for what they will see when the curtain opens. An ambitious…
HRACT Awards 