Theatre

Creative Cast Helps Bring Shakespeare to the Masses

Aliyah Walker |

Shakespeare for the Masses is typically an off-season, indoor production. This summer, however, the troupe of intrepid actors and Shakespeare experts have taken their show outside and on the road.

In collaboration with the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, the show is performed at the Tisbury Amphitheatre on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It also pops up at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Featherstone Center for the Arts and the Vineyard Drive-In.

But despite the venue shifts, the core message from 13 seasons remains the same: “Quick & Painless & Free!”

 

 

 

Ape Woman Rock Opera

On Wednesday, August 29 and Thursday, August 30, the folks at the Pit Stop in Oak Bluffs are hosting The Ape Woman Rock Opera. For those not up on their 19th century oddities, the Ape Woman was Julia Pastrana, an indigenous Mexican woman born in 1834, who suffered from hypertrichosis terminalis; her face and body were covered with black hair. Her ears and nose and teeth were also quite large. Charles Darwin described her in this way: “Julia Pastrana, a Spanish dancer, was a remarkably fine woman, but she had a thick masculine beard and a hairy forehead.”

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Ape Woman Rock Opera

On Wednesday, August 29 and Thursday, August 30, the folks at the Pit Stop in Oak Bluffs are hosting The Ape Woman Rock Opera. For those not up on their 19th century oddities, the Ape Woman was Julia Pastrana, an indigenous Mexican woman born in 1834, who suffered from hypertrichosis terminalis; her face and body were covered with black hair.
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Monday Night Special

The final Monday Night Special of the summer season takes place tonight. The works-in-progress events is hosted by the Vineyard Playhouse and takes place at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven. A recent Monday Night Special featured plays by Robert Brustein and starred Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams in the reading. Earlier in the summer Joyce Carol Oates took the stage for a question and answer session following the reading of her new play Emily & Joyce.

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Ms. Michelson’s Eclectic Musical Medley

Just two more Monday Night Specials left for the summer season. These works-in-progress events are hosted by the Vineyard Playhouse and take place at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven. Last week featured plays by Robert Brustein and starred Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams in the reading. Earlier in the summer Joyce Carol Oates took the stage for a question and answer session following the reading of her new play Emily & Joyce.

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stone farm

Aloft on Soft, White Wings, Heart of the Story Unfolds

Katie Ruppel

On an island off the coast of Georgia, moths beat against the screen as George Dawes Green and his childhood friends stay up late telling stories on a cozy summer porch.

Years later, Mr. Green sits in New York city growing tired of the loud, crowded and fast-paced parties of his adopted home.

“They were just so rapid-fire — no one could possibly squeeze in a word,” he remembered. “I just got tired of cocktail parties because I had been nurtured on stories and people telling them.”

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Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates Stirs Up Wild Night, Miniature Emily Dickinson in Tow

Tara Keegan

What would happen if we actually were able to live with the celebrities we fawn over? You’d need to fully restock your kitchen three times a day to support Michael Phelps. Annie Oakley would surely stir up trouble with the neighbors. Whoever it is, normal life would simply go awry.

In her work-in-progress play, Wild Nights, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates portrays the attempted assimilation of not only a celebrity, but one of the greatest literary names of all time — Emily Dickinson.

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