I was initially intrigued by Palm Beach Dramaworks’ (PBD) first-ever revival play TRYING by Joanna McClelland Glass because of its premise. It shows how people of extremely disparate backgrounds and generational experience can spar yet keep working together to where they eventually respect and even deeply care for one another. If an ailing, patrician 81-year-old former US attorney general and judge from a prestigious American family and a vigorous, determined non-Ivy-League educated young woman of 25 from a small Canadian prairie town (who’s hired as his secretary) can learn to get along, perhaps there’s still hope for the rest of us. Particularly in our contentious times.
Students from 29 local high schools in Broward and Palm Beach Counties were honored with commendations, performances and awards at the 22nd Annual Cappies Awards celebrating outstanding achievement in high school theater recently presented by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and South Florida Cappies Inc.
Cynthia Erivo, BD Wong, Patina Miller, Ruthie Ann Miles Are Part of PBS Memorial Day Concert May 26. Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise host the 35th anniversary broadcast. Several Tony winners are part of PBS’ annual National Memorial Day Concert, which is broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol May 26 beginning at 8 PM ET on PBS; check local listings. The concert is also available for streaming at PBS.org and YouTube and on demand May 26–June 9.
Plays of Wilton (POW!) and Ronnie Larsen Presents will present the revival of Michael McKeever’s award winning play, “Daniel’s Husband,” at The Foundry from May 23 through June 16, 2024. Daniel and Mitchell are the perfect couple. Perfect house, perfect friends – even a mother who wants them married. A turn of events puts their perfect life in jeopardy, and Mitchell is thrust into a future where even his love may not prove to be enough. “Daniel’s Husband” is a bold reflection of love, commitment, and family in our perilous new world.
This past weekend was the closing performance of “Don Juan: Pride and Paradise” presented by Maroon Isle Productions at Main Street Players. Adapted from the translated Molière play “Don Juan”, playwright/director/actor Sefanja R. Galon has taken the original 1665 comedy about a misogynist navigating his way through the ups and downs of multiple romantic situations and sets it in the Caribbean in the 1950’s. In doing so, Galon gives way for a diverse cast to tell a classic story in their own unique voice.
In response to a growing year-round demand for high quality cultural programming, the Adolph & Rose Levis JCC has announced a season of diverse cultural programming which includes a special Summer Film Series, a new component of the Judy Levis Krug Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival.
Thank you for being a…fan! Following sold-out performances and rave reviews across the country, The Golden Girls are back and better than ever with a brand new stage show that’s more exciting than a trip to the Rusty Anchor. Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue will head to more than 60 cities in 2024 including a month of performances September 3 – 29 in the Amaturo Theater at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Much has been said about how the Spanish we speak in Miami has affected the native English, and of how this has led to the emergence of a new dialect in the bilingual generations. According to several academic studies, this phenomenon occurs when two languages come into close contact. Not to mention the interpersonal relationships of South Florida Latino families. From gestures to tone, Spanglish is here to stay.
When ACT’s (Actors Community Theatre of Davie) popular director Jerry Jensen decided to keep their latest production, CLOSE TIES by Elizabeth Diggs, in the playwright’s setting of 1981, it was a no-brainer. Audiences would surely love revisiting a family’s summer home set in the quieter and more rural Berkshires of decades past. Where, as Jensen states in his Director’s Notes, “There are no cellphones or even area codes, no PCs, an office where the father uses a Dictaphone. The kitchen table is the center of family activity. But the family relationships are as timely today as they were then.”
Twenty-fifth anniversaries are traditionally commemorated with a gift of silver. But when Palm Beach Dramaworks marks its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2024-25, what the company has in store for its audience is pure gold. PBD will celebrate this milestone occasion with a stimulating roster of plays that epitomize its commitment to “Theatre to Think About.”
