Welcome to the Wicked Stage

This is the Wicked Stage, a blog of theatre reviews by the students of the Watershed School. What happened was this: I was approached by Jason Berv, who runs the school, to create a week-long theatre class for students, using my perspective as a playwright, actor, teacher, and theatre critic. I decided to have the class focus on theatre from the point of view of a critic. I used the model of nytheatre.com, where I where I was a senior reviewer for several years, as the template for the kind of reviews we would write. So each day the students and I talk about theatre and reviewing and all the elements that comprise a play, and each night we go to a different theatre, take backstage tours, attend shows, and have talk backs with the cast after the show. So far, we've seen Mariela in the Desert at the Denver Center Theatre Company, Hamlet- Prince of Darkness at the National Theatre Conservatory, and Opus at the Curious Theatre. Tonight, we see our last show, Nine, at the Arvada Center. In the blogs that follow, you'll see the reviews that the students have written about the shows.
Enjoy.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Opus, reviewed by AG

Opus, the dramatic comedy by Michael Hollinger currently playing at the curious theater, centers around the Lazara Quartet, made up the gay lovers Dorian (William Hahn), their violist and Elliot (Josh Robinson) their first violinist, as well as the their second violinist and cellist Alan and Carl, respectively. When the group is forced to fire Dorian, they go about trying to hire a new violist and find Grace, a young, novice musician who has a remarkable gift for playing the viola, but who is also considering a job with an orchestra in Pittsburgh. While Dorian still wants back in and Grace is deciding weather or not to stay, the one of the five characters who ends up not in the quartet will shock you.

The acting in Opus is incredible. Each of the actors are clearly enthusiastic and portray great energy on stage. I particularly thought William Hahn and Josh Robinson did a great job of portraying the heartbreaking fights that Elliot and Dorian go through. The set and costumes fit the play quite well even though they aren't particularly complex or meaningful. Most of all, this play's story and relevance to everyone, but particularly those who have played a string instrument like myself, makes it worth seeing.

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