ryan carbrey

I'm new to one person shows, so with each new one I'm never sure what to expect. This one really snuck up on me. The playful nature of her loss of innocence makes each misstep, each level deeper she falls hurt that much more. When you get right down to it the story is dark, deep, and painful. I had thought that it was done in such a fanciful and playful manner to make the punch feel harder, but it's not. It's a defiance. A triumph and a guide for those who might have gone through something si... full review

This is a rock solid piece of work. I so thoroughly enjoyed this story telling memoir. The picture he paints is so well considered, so well paced, and so carefully put together that while it's almost certainly a thrill for people who were alive and there at the time to remember the time and the places, but as someone who lived that time in a marshmallow suburb without the outsized characters that band together to protect themselves from each other and the outside world it was just as vivid and en... full review

It's perhaps important to remember that at every stage of the development of the idea of democracy there has been cautions regarding the potential pitfalls inherent in the system that can't necessarily be baked out of the system and fall on the participants to guard against. The production approaches Aristophanes The Birds with that premise, roughly paraphrased from the notes in the program. What that entails is the basic story of The Birds, who set up their own utopia between the earth an... full review

With an already clever concept, there's so much more under the surface. It's easy to rebuke modern politics and long for a different time, Lincoln 2020 turns that longing on its ear. It doesn't question the quality of our hero figures or saviors and instead the reliance on them or the belief that they're the answer.... full review

More than just a fun send up of the modern superhero, a clever take on the nature of heroism in the information age. With clever and engaging performances throughout and snappy dialog.... full review

It's a really engaging balance of heavy and light and broad and personal that's incredibly well balanced. Where the story could be sensational or scathing, it instead becomes introspective. It's more than just the tale of evangelical cults, it's instead more about how we carry the weight of our damage and how it effects us long after the damage is done.... full review

This is a solid bit of comedy that is played to the hilt. Everyone involved completely goes for it in their performances and doesn't let up. The timing is impeccable. Broad characters with well earned laughs.... full review

One of the things I dig about theater as a medium is it not only allows artists to go for it in terms of concept and execution, but it encourages it. There's a place for kitchen sink drama or Mamet style biting dialog, but theater can also do away with the hand rails entirely. Instead of an answer, it can reframe the question. Start swimming is an exercise in just that. Through the self described Pavlovian rewards and punishments, answers become meaningless and arbitrary. You are on or off, yo... full review

A cool take on the idea of a couple fated to remake their love story over and over again throughout generations. What the audience knows and can believe is nicely handled, when a play can make give you a story and then give it to you again with a new lens it can be pretty satisfying and this does that well. The two actors have great timing and physicality while still essentially having an admittedly awkward conversation.... full review

A deceptively deep dive of introspection with catchy hooks that would get you some side eye if you found yourself singing them on the way home. The performer clearly is enjoying himself and that becomes contagious. ... full review