Bill Ratner

As documentary theater goes this piece is totally satisfying. As with all world-shaking events (9-11, Columbine, Katrina) we can only know what really happened by hearing stories--stories we don't get from TV which trivializes by its very nature, or the internet which doles out reality in burps and drabs. It takes live theater with excellent actors like those now playing in Katrina Comedy Fest (Deidrie Henry, Travis Michael Holder, Judy Jean Berns, L. Trey Wilson, and Jan Munroe,) to bring home t... full review

Gloria Rosen's story of growing up with deaf parents is odd, quirky, funny, frustrating, and ultimately quite fascinating. Not sure why the lights kept snapping to different settings so often, but it didn't matter. Rosen's tale is a great one to hear, and certainly one I hadn't heard before. Rosen is a very likable storyteller. And the reverse prejudice held and often expressed by her parents: "The hearing--stupid," is funny and thought-provoking. ... full review

I had a hunch halfway through this terrific evening of postmodern absurdist theater that other than the crowd I saw it with, there must be nights where the audience is cracking up and guffawing at Brilliant Traces, like some do at a Beckett play. Cindy Lou Johnson's cracked, poetic, darkly funny, and at turns deeply emotional play forced me to my desktop to google the night away trying to find out more about this playwright. I loved this play, but if the acting hadn't been as good as it was from ... full review

Larry Cedar is a wonderful actor. We're familiar with his work on film, TV, and stage, but this piece is more than entertainment. In excellent characterizations and the first English accents I've heard an American actor do flawlessly, Cedar deftly guides us down the dark, sometimes humorous, often harrowing paths of George Orwell's brilliant anti-authoritarian writings. It's the first time in a while that I've been adequately reminded of the dark infantilism and mindless brutal authoritarianism w... full review

Director/Producer Alex Scott is in love with drama. And so is the rest of this excellent crew. I liked Scott's 2012 Fringe offering, Nostalgium, and Jen Silverman's taught Cleaner than Blood is even better. This is a focused, well directed evening of creepy tension, dark humor, and good acting from Maggie Blake, Kjai Block, and especially the rangy and dangerous-looking Austin Iredale who totally inhabits his edgy character. From the music that precedes the play to the set and lighting, all enhan... full review

GO! Michael Kass is a master storyteller, and this is his meisterwerk. Ceremony is about so many things, but what stands out is the delicacy, dark humor, ease, honesty, and pure artistry and technique with which Kass weaves his tale. He is in complete control of his sometimes very personal material. He is eminently likable on stage while telling a story that is riveting, sometimes scary, strange as hell, and yet a universal tale. And cudos on the detailed and alluring sound design as well. I work... full review

As a performer Alex Knox is smooth as silk. But this piece is more complex. Ranging from the psychological intricacies of friendship to the madness of religiosity, to very cool rock'n'roll biography, to Jewish mysticism, No Static At All made for a fun and engaging evening of theater, helped by the warm and inviting set and intermittent tastes of music.... full review

Spending an afternoon in the presence of raconteur Neecole Cockerham is transporting. A trained actress she is also a brilliant and engaging storyteller, taking us from her seemingly innocent childhood through a difficult adolescence, modulating a bouquet of voices - family, friends, enemies, lovers & cops. She is at turns riotously funny (impersonating her Aunt who favors oatmeal made me cackle as I do at only the best comedy,) and elsewhere she narrates catastrophe after accident, but never wal... full review

Stella Valente-Wilkins is a Hollywood hyphenate: comedienne-dancer-yogini-writer-actress-raconteur. And all these Stellas meld into a delicious solo performance of coming-of-age stories, at turns both wonderfully funny and sad, told in her well-modulated Queens NY accent as girl-from-the-'hood. She riffs on family, romance, fate, slackers & goombahs. This lithe Italian-American beauty moves about the stage effortlessly on a lovely pair of dancer's legs (she taught at Arthur Murray) and pushes ply... full review

Before the show tonight I was with friends having a discussion about how adult children have to escape, move far away from the radar/judgment/control/x-ray vision of their parents before they can ever truly "come into" themselves. This play validated so much of what was true about our conversation - Ben's total rejection of all that the world had put before him and tried to teach him before being taken on his journey. This is a talented, likable cast, fleet of foot and nimble of tongue with a sc... full review