Acting
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
During the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York are completely unprepared for the onslaught of AIDS. What starts as a rumor about a mysterious "gay cancer" soon turns into a major crisis as, one by one, some of the friends begin to fall ill, leaving the others to panic about who will be next. As death takes its toll, the lives of these friends are forever redefined by an unconditional display of love, hope and courage.
Abortion and contraception go back thousands of years. So does the question of who should control them. Our attitudes about controlling human reproduction through abortion and contraception have changed radically over the centuries. So have our perceptions of the moral and ethical issues involved. The Roots of Roe reveals the story of abortion and contraception in America from the first surgical abortion in 1742 to the struggles over Roe v. Wade. In a debate often reduced to simple-minded slogans, The Roots of Roe offers partisans and the public a unique historical perspective on contemporary issues. —Captured Time Productions
The beloved American musical that brought us “The Impossible Dream” turns its lens on modern love and society, especially as brought to the Playhouse stage by director Mark Lamos in our award-winning 2018 production. In this play within a play, Cervantes has not yet finished his manuscript for Don Quixote—he sits in jail awaiting trial during the Spanish Inquisition. Fourteen actors portraying Cervantes and his fellow prisoners bring to life the great odyssey we all know of a questing knight tilting at windmills and battling for the love of the fair maiden Aldonza.
Two migrant ranch workers, best friends, move from place to place, seeking work and the promise of the American dream. George dreams of owning land and being his own boss. Lennie, his partner, a giant and physically strong man with cognitive disability, simply dreams of playing with rabbits. Having encountered problems at their last job, George and Lennie are forced to flee to a new farm for work until Lennie’s strength gets them into trouble.
London society matron Lady Sneerwell loves to gossip and spends her free time engaged in manipulation. When she selfishly derails the romance of Charles Surface, her scheming unexpectedly creates a ripple effect among her well-to-do acquaintances.
James Levine’s love for this seldom-heard score infuses every measure of Verdi’s music. Superstar Luciano Pavarotti heads the cast as the Muslim warrior prince Oronte who converts to Christianity out of love for the Italian Giselda (Lauren Flanigan)—before dying of the wounds he received in battling the Crusaders. Samuel Ramey is the Crusader-turned-hermit Pagano. Mark Lamos’s striking production has sets by John Conklin and costumes by Dunya Ramicova.
Nick and his wife Sam have left the chaos of the world behind for their tiny house among the sequoias—or so they think! But fireworks fly when a quirky cast of characters converge upon their tiny enclave for a Fourth of July barbecue, and we’re reminded that there is no easy escape.
