Category: Plays
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The 2025-26 HRACT Awards Nominees
Another remarkable year of theater has come and gone here in the Hampton Road region, and we can’t wait to celebrate it all at our awards ceremony on August 20th at 7:30PM at the Ferguson Center at CNU. Narrowing down the list of nominees was once again incredibly difficult – a credit to all the…
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Did the HRACT Awards Just Tear Apart a Show? Yes… and No. We Review Otstar Productions’ “Nothing On”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) “Sardines? Sardines. Sardines! You don’t get to see that fish take center-stage all that often. Anchovies? Yes. But sardines?” This was indeed the conversation in our row during the first intermission of “Nothing On”, a show described as “the funniest farce ever written”, playing now at the Grand…
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“You’re a Wizard, Wayne”: PCT Shares a Different Wizard’s Story with “Puffs…”
We love a good parody here at the HRACT Awards headquarters (meaning… our couch at home, but sometimes if we are feeling particularly formal – our dining room table). We also love us some Harry Potter (why yes, that was us you saw in a full Niffler robe/blanket and a “you’re so poor” Weasley-style sweater…
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Williamsburg Players Rewrites “Her-story” with “The Revolutionists”
“It might be fiction, but it is not fake.” A few days after seeing “The Revolutionists”, playing now at Williamsburg Players, I keep coming back to this line, said multiple times throughout the show. In a world that is stranger than fiction at times, it was this line about how art can feel more real…
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The Duality of Faith and Doubt: LTVB Masterfully Presents “Doubt, A Parable”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) “What do you do when you are not sure?” asks the first line of “Doubt, A Parable”, playing now at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach. It is uttered by Father Flynn from his pulpit, ironically the only character in this show who can be sure of what…
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Journey to the Basement of Chrysler Hall One Final Time to Take In Generic Theater’s “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive”
Photo courtesy of Barb Hayes (https://windhoundphotography.com/) Arriving at Generic Theater for their show “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive”, we were swiftly and safely escorted to our seats by a swarm of secret service agents. This group of suit and sunglass-wearing stage hands matched this measure of…
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Search for the Truth Through the Murky Haze of “Angel Street” at LTN
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) On a foggy March night, we were greeted by set designer Shawn Crawford’s sterile, white walls of a modern 1960s London residence on the stage of the Little Theatre of Norfolk, where the play “Angel Street” is currently playing. And something felt just a little… off. Is it…
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Have Some Eggs (and a Side of Family Drama) with that Smithfield Bacon at SLT’s “Breakfast with Les and Bess”
Before I could even make it up the stairs to my seat for Smithfield Little Theatre’s “Breakfast with Les and Bess”, I had turned my head at least three times to catch glimpses of the magnificent set – the fancy 1960s New York apartment that morning radio show hosts Les and Bess broadcast from. There…
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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…
HRACT Awards 