Feminists Get the Green Light in The Huntington’s ‘John Proctor is the Villain’

Cast of ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ at The Huntington. Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson

The Huntington presents ‘John Proctor is the Villain.’ Written by Kimberly Belflower. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Scenic Design by Kristen Robinson. Costume Design by Zoë Sundra. Lighting Design by Aja M. Jackson. Sound Design by Sinan Refik Zafar. At the BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion through March 10, 2024.

by Linda Chin

The Huntington’s provocative John Proctor is the Villain, by playwright Kimberly Belflower, is set in the present day, in a small – and small-minded – town in Appalachian Georgia. Four female students of diverse backgrounds, frustrated/inspired by discussions in their co-ed 11th grade Honors English/Sex-Education class centered on male heroes in The Crucible and scientific descriptions of sex, are eager to start a new ‘Feminism Club.’ Not surprisingly, the teenagers have different definitions of what “feminism” means and “feminists” are, different (and evolving) understandings of why it matters, and what the club’s purpose would be. The four young feminists are all on board to be the club’s founders, but will the School Board of the one-stoplight town give them the green light?

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The Connective Tissue of Huntington’s  ‘Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight’

Jim Ortlieb in Huntington’s  ‘Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight’ Photos by Nile Hawver

“Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight” – Written and directed by John Kolvenbach. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company, the Maso Studio, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through March 23.

By Michele Markarian

“I’m getting an East Village vibe here,” I whisper to my friend as we wait for the curtain to go up.  But there is no curtain, only a low wooden platform for a stage, with mismatched, elegant chandeliers strung from the ceiling. Our chairs are mismatched as well. The house lights are up, and a buzzy kind of energy vibrates among the audience – what is it that we are about to witness? 

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Huntington’s ‘The Heart Sellers’ Will Steal Your Heart

Judy Song, Jenna Agbayani in ‘The Heart Sellers’ at The Huntington
Photo by T Charles Erickson

‘The Heart Sellers’ – Written by Lloyd Suh. Directed by May Adrales. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Lighting Design by Kat C. Zhou. Sound Design and Original Music by Fabian Obispo. Hair and Makeup Design by Rachel Padula-Shufelt. At Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion/Wimberly Theatre, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through December 23, 2023.

by Linda Chin

In this season of gratitude, I am grateful to be seeing more stories about Asians on American stages, and for playwrights, like Lloyd Suh, who create these possibilities. Three of the award-winning American playwright’s plays have been produced on professional stages in metro Boston in the last eight years, and I’ve had the good fortune to see all three. The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, brought to ArtsEmerson by Ma-Yi Theater Company in 2016, is the fantastical tale of imaginary modern-day teens Bruce and Violet Wong, who use their newly discovered powers for intergalactic teleportation. The play’s blend of engaging live actors, clever dialogue, puppetry, and an underscore (!) changed people’s perceptions – that theater for young audiences could have broad appeal and that superheroes could be young, extraordinary, and Asian.

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Huntington, SpeakEasy’s Co-Production “The Band’s Visit” Serves Up A Sublime Slice of Life

The cast of “The Band’s Visit” at the Huntington. Photo by T Charles Erickson

“The Band’s Visit” — Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek. Book by Itamar Moses. Based on the Screenplay by Eran Kolirin. Directed by Paul Daigneault; Choreography by Daniel Pelzig. Music Direction by José Delgado. Scenic Design by Wilson Chin and Jimmy Stubbs. Costume Design by Miranda Kau Giurleo. Lighting Design by Aja M. Jackson. Sound Design by Joshua Millican. Produced by Huntington Theatre in collaboration with SpeakEasy Stage at 264 Huntington Ave. Boston through December 17.

By Shelley A. Sackett

The delightful musical “The Band’s Visit” is a welcome breath of air in the current asphyxiating climate surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas. Its focus is a single night in Bet Hatikva, a tiny Israeli town that feels more like a pit stop on the way to someplace more important than a destination.

“You probably didn’t hear about it,” says Dina (played by a magnificent Jennifer Apple in a star-making performance), the proprietor of Bet Hatikva’s only café and its resident narrator and cynic. “It wasn’t very important.”

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Huntington’s “Fat Ham” Is A Raucous and Resonant Reinvention of Shakespeare’s Masterpiece, “Hamlet”

Cast of ‘Fat Ham’ The Huntington Theatre. Photos by T Charles Erickson

‘Fat Ham’ — Written by James Ijames. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, Scenic Design by Luciana Stecconni, Costume Design by Celeste Jennings, Sound Design by Aubrey Dube, Lighting Design by Xiangfu Xiao. Presented by The Huntington Theatre in association with Alliance Theatre and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont St., through Sunday, October 29, 2023.

By Shelley A. Sackett

“Fat Ham,” winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Award for best drama, is much more than a modern-day riff on “Hamlet,” one of Shakepeare’s most quoted, performed and adapted plays. Using the bones of the Bard’s tragedy as a structural anchor, the exceptionally talented playwright, James Ijames, has fleshed it out with analogous characters whose feet are firmly planted in the here and now and whose modern-day nightmares and dreams reflect both the mundane and the existential.

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“Prayer for the French Republic” Tackles Existential Issues with Humor, Grit and Gravitas

Cast of The Huntington’s ‘Prayer for the French Republic’.  Photo by Nile Hawver.

‘Prayer for the French Republic’ – Written by Joshua Harmon. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic Design by Andrew Boyce. Costume Design by Alex Jaeger. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Sound Design and Composition by Fan Zhang. Presented by Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., through October 8.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright Joshua Harmon has a gift for tackling important, profoundly challenging and topical subjects and, through sheer brilliance of characters and dialogue, creating intimate and accessible theater that both rivets his audience and leaves them in a standing ovation of thunderous applause.

He did it with “Bad Jews,” “Admissions,” and “Significant Other,” which Boston theatergoers had the good fortune to see at SpeakEasy Stage Company. Thanks to the Huntington Theatre’s season opener, the 2022 Drama Desk Outstanding Play Award-winning “A Prayer for the French Republic,” they have the opportunity to experience this supremely talented writer’s latest and most ambitious project.

And experience it they should.

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It’s All in the Family in Huntington’s Spectacular ‘The Lehman Trilogy’

Joshua David Robinson, Firdous Bamji, and Steven Skybell in ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ at the Huntington. Photos by T. Charles Erickson

‘The Lehman Trilogy’ – Written by Stephano Massini and Adapted by Ben Power. Directed by Carey Perloff. Scenic Design by Sara Brown; Projection Design by Jeanette Oi Suk-Yew; Costume Design by Dede Ayite; Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel; Original Music by Mark Bennett; Co-Sound Design by Mark Bennett and Charles Does. Presented by the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., through July 23.

By Shelley A. Sackett

A lone and mournful clarinetist (Joe LaRocca) wanders across the stage of the Huntington’s theatrically astonishing “The Lehman Trilogy,” inviting comparisons in tone and content to the spirited drama “Fiddler on the Roof.” Steeped in ritual and Judaism, both stories trace what happens to a family when political oppression forces it to leave home, leading most of its members to emigrate to America.

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The Parallel Universe of “Joy and Pandemic”

Stacy Fischer, Breezy Leigh, and Ryan Winkles in “Joy and Pandemic” at the Huntington.
Photos by T Charles Erickson

“Joy and Pandemic” by Taylor Mac. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic Design: Arnulfo Maldonado; Sound Designer and Composer: Fan Zhang; Costume Design: Sarita Fellows; Lighting Design: Jen Schriever. Presented by The Huntington, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through May 21.

by Michele Markarian

Joy (Stacy Fischer) and her unenthusiastic second husband, Bradford (Ryan Winkles), are running an art school for children in Philadelphia, a venture which Bradford’s mother, Rosemary (the magnificent Marceline Hugot), disapproves of. Joy’s daughter Pilly (Ella Dershowitz) is Joy’s biggest fan. The annoyingly sunny Joy is a Christian Scientist who peppers her conversations with phrases like, “All we need is an invitation to see things differently” and “fear is a lie that we tell ourselves” while insisting that everything and all beings are “perfect.” In a bit of foreshadowing in response to some clanging chimes Joy has over her front door, Rosemary snarls, “Must optimism always be so piercing?”  With a visit from Melanie (Breezy Leigh), the staccato-voiced black mother of Marjory, one of Joy’s prized students, Joy is about to find out how imperfect she is.

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At Clyde’s Roadside Café, the Sandwich Rules the Roost

Louis Reyes McWilliams, Harold Surratt, April Nixon in ‘Clyde’s’ at The Huntington. Photo Credits: Kevin Berne

‘Clyde’s’ – Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Taylor Reynolds; Scenic Designer – Wilson Chin; Costume Designer – Karen Perry; Lighting Designer – Amith Chandrashaker; Sound Designer – Aubrey Dube; Hair, Wig and Makeup Designer – Megan Ellis. Presented by The Huntington in co-production with Berkley Repertory Theatre at The Huntington, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through April 23.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage has elevated that plebian lunch item — the sandwich — to A-list, Michelin star status in her Tony Award-nominated comedy, ‘Clyde’s,’ now in production at the Huntington through April 23.

Through her skilled script, imaginary recipes combining exotic and surprising ingredients will have the audience trying to remember them after the curtain falls. Glowing in its exalted status as metaphor for salvation, redemption and even tikkun olam (a Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world), we will never think of the sandwich as “mere” again.

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A Tree  Grows in Boston and Bears Fruit: K-I-S-S-I-N-G at the Huntington

Ivan Cecil Walks, Sharmarke Yusuf, and Regan Sims in The Huntington’s production
of K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Photos by T Charles Erickson

‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G’ – Written by Lenelle Moïse. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Scenic Design by Jason Ardizzone-West. Costume Design by Dominique Fawn Hill. Lighting Design by Jorge Arroyo. Sound Design by Anna Drummond. Projections Design by Yee Eun Nam and Hannah Tran. Co-produced by the Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, Boston through April 2, 2023.

by Linda Chin

The coming-of-age play now making its world premiere at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion did not come into being from a hurried hook-up, nor inexperienced young people sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.  A decade in the making, Lenelle Moïse wrote early drafts during her 2012-2014 Huntington Playwrighting Fellowship, and its development history went something like the titular schoolyard rhyme: First came love –  in the form of a commission by Clark University, staged readings at the New Rep and Huntington in 2015 and 2016, and an educational production at Ithaca College (2018). Then came ‘marriage’ – a three-year strategic partnership between Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington that started in the fall of 2021, connected Moïse and Porch’s Co-Producing Artistic Directors Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Dawn M. Simmons and catalyzed the companies’ first co-production. A tree growing in Boston has blossomed and borne the loveliest, sweetest fruit. Welcome to the world, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

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