Dramaturg Lois Roach on Continuing the Ufot Family Cycle with “Lifted”

March 24, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Initiated by the Huntington Theatre, the Ufot Family Cycle is a massive undertaking by the Boston theater community. Across nine plays and three generations, Mfoniso Udofia’s series examines both the intimate life of one family and the expansive reach of the African diaspora. The artistically and logistically complex effort began last season and is slated to conclude this season. This citywide collaborative undertaking will have given five of the nine plays their premieres by the time the theatrical epic reaches its conclusion.

Music Director Reuben M. Reynolds III says Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Is About Community and Social Change

March 22, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Rueben M. Reynolds. III Photo Credit: Michael Willer

The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus has been making music and making change through music for the better part of a half-century. In that time, our community has seen victories and setbacks, from the depths of the AIDS crisis to growing representation and acceptance in popular culture, to judicial and political attacks, to the advent of marriage equality, and the current moment’s dismantling of access and protections for marginalized Americans of every sort.

Liars and Believers’ “The End is Nigh” Uses Humor to Cut Through Hatred and Despair

February 23, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Glen Moore in Liars and Believers’ upcoming, ‘The End is Nigh’
Photos by Ollie Kamens

By Kilian Melloy

Liars and Believers devises its shows using a collaborative process. Its shows are lively and inspired, combining various theatrical traditions in works like Yellow Bird Chase, a favorite that tours to enthusiastic audiences. But the company doesn’t create fun fluff; behind the clowning, bright design work, and physical comedy are artistic director Jason Slavick’s creative and philosophical concerns. “I have political and social goals,” Slavick admits. “Actually, everything I do has some deep intention, even Yellow Bird.”

Director Bryn Boice on Why Our Absurd World Needs Absurdist Plays like “The Bald Soprano”

February 20, 2026April 9, 2026 Charlotte SnowLeave a comment

In anticipation of Hub Theatre Company’s upcoming production of Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and The Lesson, Theater Mirror sat down with director Bryn Boice and the producing artistic director of Hub Theatre Company, Lauren Elias. We discussed the importance of absurdism in 2026, how to be recognized by directors, a surprising anecdote involving a Saturday Night Live alum, and, of course, Hub Theatre Company’s upcoming theatrical offering. 

Strange Turns and True Stories: Ahamefule J. Oluo on Their New Show, ‘The Things Around Us’

February 17, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ahamefule J. Oluo in ‘The Things Around Us’, coming to the Emerson Paramount Center
Photo Credits: Alex Dugan

By Kilian Melloy

Jazz musician, stand-up comic, playwright, screenwriter… Ahamefule J. Oluo is all of that and more. The author of two previous shows blending storytelling and music drawn from their own life and those of their parents, 2014’s Now I’m Fine, and 2019’s Susan, Oluo brings their latest, a solo show titled The Things Around Us, to The Emerson Paramount Center’s Robert J. Orchard Stage from February 20 – 22. The Things Around Us constitutes the third part of what’s become a trilogy, but, unlike the previous two shows, it’s a solo piece: Oluo will create the show’s music using loops rather than an orchestra. With a stand-up’s instincts for engaging with the room and a musician’s ear for the language of sound, the artist will present audiences with a unique experience that he tells us is hard to describe — but not to understand, not once you’ve had it.

Oluo took some time to chat with Theater Mirror about the show, how it grew out of past projects, and the loneliness of being backstage with no one but themself.

Director Keira Fromm on the Huntington’s “We Had a World”

January 26, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater Mirror1 Comment

Chicago-based director Keira Fromm is no stranger to the work of playwright Joshua Harmon, author of Bad Jews, Significant Other, Admissions, and Prayer for the French Republic. Fromm is also a no stranger to premiering memorable work, having directed everything from Tanya Barfields’ lesbian romance Bright Half Life for About Face Theatre and David Auburn’s The Columnist at American Blues Theater to Halley Feiffer’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City for Route 66 Theatre Company, all in their Chicago premieres, not to mention the U.S. premiere of British playwright Debbie Tucker Green’s harrowing hang for Chicago’s Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.

Playwright Najee A. Brown on his play “Stokely & Martin”

January 14, 2026April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Najee A. Brown’s Stokely & Martin imagines a pivotal dinner conversation between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) — Stokely Carmichael, Cleveland “Cleve” Sellers, and Willie Ricks — in 1966, at a moment when the civil rights movement was fracturing over questions of tactics, philosophy, and the meaning of Black Power.

Brown, the Artistic Director of the Multicultural Arts Center, wrote and now directs the production. The script comes with an imprimatur of authenticity: The dinner table conversation (a “strategy room” session, Brown explained during our interview) is informed by interviews Brown did with Willie Ricks, who attended just such gatherings. “They knew strategically what they had to do,” Brown notes, “and they did more planning than they did marching. Now I feel like we do more marching and maybe some planning that I don’t know about, or no planning at all.”

Adam Theater co-founders Ran Bechor and Karin Sharav Zalkind on “Library Lion”

December 28, 2025April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Adam Theater’s ‘Library Lion’ at BCA Calderwood Pavilion January 10-25
Photos by Nile Scott Studios

By Kilian Melloy

For the second January in a row, Adam Theater will be putting the “lion” in the Calderwood Pavilion with a production of Library Lion, a musical that celebrates the importance both of reading and of celebrating people for who they are.

The story is sweet and compelling. When a lion wanders into a library, his appearance stirs panic in some. Others, however, find his presence to be perfectly fine, so long as he follows the usual rules: No running, no shouting, no eating or drinking. The lion becomes a regular at the library (and its popular story hour) at the same time as two children are learning how to use the library as a resource, and to understand that books can fuel the imagination. But suspicion and fear linger, and when a misunderstanding happens, the lion’s place in the library’s community is put into question. It’s the kind of story that, ironically, can get a book challenged, or even banned, these days.

Keeping the Faith: Voncille Ross on 55 Years of Boston’s “Black Nativity”

December 12, 2025April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Killian Melloy

For 55 years, the National Center of Afro-American Artists’ (NCAAA) production of Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity” has been a holiday tradition, a community gathering, and what some have called “Boston’s Black community’s holiday card to the world.” At the helm of this enduring celebration is Voncille Ross, Executive Producer and Director of NCAAA Black Nativity, whose connection to the production has endured nearly as long as the show itself.

Boston Favorite Will Lyman on Playing Scrooge in Commonwealth Shakespeare’s “A Christmas Carol”

December 8, 2025April 9, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Will Lyman as Scrooge in CSC’s “A Christmas Carol”

Ebenezer Scrooge is the ultimate Christmas villain. Indeed, his name has become synonymous with unthinking greed paired with the sort of flinty hard-heartedness that denies joy to oneself as well as to others. His trademark exclamation of “Bah! Humbug!” has become a universal shorthand for dismissal of all things joyful and celebratory.