14 Mar 2006

Playcrafters Knocks "Rounding Third" Out of the Park

By Mike Schulz

At roughly the halfway point of Richard Dresser's two-man comedy Rounding Third - currently playing at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre - Michael (Jim Driscoll), a sweet-tempered assistant Little League coach, asks the team's boisterous head coach, Don (Fred Harris Jr.), if they might enjoy a moment of silence; Michael and Don have shared a continual, often exasperated dialogue over several weeks of team play, and Michael wonders if perhaps quiet would be preferable to jabber. "Oh no," says Don. "We don't know each other well enough to not talk."

28 Feb 2006

Stalking Points: New Ground Theatre's "Boy Gets Girl"

By Mike Schulz
New Ground Theatre's presentation of Rebecca Gilman's stalker drama Boy Gets Girl is sensationally entertaining stuff - the most consistently smartly acted and directed work I've yet seen from this organization - and the production becomes all the more impressive when you realize just how easily it could have proven unbearable.
13 Dec 2005

There's No Business Like Reviewing-the-Shows Business

By Mike Schulz

How wonderful and humbling the last eight months have been.

15 Nov 2005

Flying Solo: Adam Michael Lewis in "The Santaland Diaries"

By Mike Schulz
For many stage actors, the chance to perform a one-person show would be a dream come true. For Adam Michael Lewis, this dream has come true, but not, it turns out, for the first time. Or the second. Or even the third.
08 Nov 2005

Making Fiction Out of Fact: New Ground Theatre's "Promise Ring"

By Mike Schulz
It's no newsflash that playwrights often find inspiration in their personal pasts, and use young leading characters as theatrical alter egos; if you want to better understand Tennessee Williams, listen to Tom's monologues in The Glass Menagerie, or watch Edmund's scenes in Long Day's Journey into Night for greater insight into Eugene O'Neill.
23 Aug 2005

New Ground Gives Junior Theatre a Facelift

By Mike Schulz

Chris Jansen, the artistic director of the New Ground Theatre, is a self-described "Junior Theatre kid," and has the pictures to prove it. She thinks.

24 May 2005

New Ground Turns Mamet's "Boston Marriage" into a Massacre

By Mike Schulz
From first scene to last, New Ground Theatre's production of Boston Marriage is an almost total misreading of David Mamet's 1999 work. As usual, New Ground's decision to tackle offbeat and challenging material is commendable, but its latest offering is so wrong-headed in execution that it makes you understand why audiences often shy away from the offbeat and challenging.
01 Mar 2005

The Magic and Pain of Storytelling: New Ground Theatre's "The Drawer Boy"

By Jill Walsh
The Drawer Boy, opening this weekend at New Ground Theatre, is not only an emotional journey through the suppressed memories of two old farmers and a unique observation of the art of storytelling; it also plays an important role in contemporary Canadian theatre history.
04 Jan 2005

New Ground's "QED" Celebrates Feynman's Genius

By Administrator

"What I cannot create, I do not understand." - Richard Feynman

New Ground Theatre's upcoming show, QED, traces the many accomplishments of physicist Dr. Richard Feynman, including his formula for quantum electrodynamics (which gives this play its title) and his participation in the development of the atomic bomb.

24 Aug 2004

New Ground's "Talley's Folly" a Quirky, Incomparable Love Story

By Administrator
New Ground is one of my favorite local theatre groups because it doesn't settle for slapstick comedies, cliché-filled scripts, or sappy dramas. Instead, the not-for-profit organization with the mission to "bring the best in contemporary and original theatre to the Quad Cities" does superb work living up to that goal. New Ground's upcoming show, Talley's Folly, the recipient of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for drama, is certainly no exception to the "best theatre" rule and is perhaps one of the most unconventional, intriguing love stories I've ever seen on stage. The production opens August 26 and runs through September 5 at Rivermont Collegiate in Bettendorf.

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