Once and for all can the question be answered: Can we go home again? Playwrights from Chekhov to Wilder have renewed the debate and, of course, the answer will always have to be Maybe, depending on the place and who was — and may still be — in it.
In the small town where he lived, there is no memorial to Matthew Shepard. The fence post where he, an openly gay man of 21, hung dying for some 18 hours, tied up after being pistol-whipped, has been torn down. The bar from which he was lured to his murder is gone.
From the Page to the Stage, the Pick of the Crop
Three original plays, penned by Islanders Taffy McCarthy, John Ortman and Peter Palches, will move from the page to the stage for two weekends in a row at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven in an Island Theatre Workshop presentation called Pick of the Crop.
Longtime Island Theatre Workshop artistic director Lee Fierro directs Peter Palches’ Sam Meets Maria, or Still Here, which features Island actors Niki Patton and George Ricci.
T here is probably not a soul — not even an Oxford don who’s written his umpteenth thesis on King Lear — who takes Shakespeare so seriously that he can’t enjoy a little fooling around with the canon. Nothing is sacred when it comes to Shakespeare, even though hordes in every generation of theatregoers since the bard lived and wrote (up until he died in 1616) have pretty fairly worshipped him.
IMP now offers classes and performance opportunities for all types of young actors. Whether they like to play with a script or without, actors ages 7 to 18 are invited to become a part of IMP’s company.
Actors who love to work with scripts can check out the new class Let’s Put on a Show! which will produce a new version of Bears Beware, Goldilocks Is in Your Town.
Actors who like the freedom of no scripts are a good fit for the Story Theater Touring Ensemble and/or IMP improv classes.
The Fabulists: Theater for Children will extend the summer season one extra week to present a new show, Sally Jean, The Bicycle Queen, on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m. at the Tisbury Amphitheatre at the Tashmoo Overlook on State Road in Vineyard Haven.