Tag: Josh Benjamin
Debra Kaufman’s “Harbor Hope” Is a Good Attempt at Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse
The PlayGround: A Theatre Cooperative and Common Ground Theatre co-production of Harbor Hope, a new one-act play written by Debra Kaufman and directed by Joshua Benjamin, is a good attempt at raising awareness of domestic abuse. Kaufman has crammed a bit more story than she tells into this examination of familial abuse and the efforts… Read More ›
“The Electric Baby” Is Bizarre But Intriguing
Lives and storylines intersect with dramatic results in Stefanie Zadravec’s “The Electric Baby,” onstage now at Burning Coal Theatre as part of its second stage series. The play takes an intensely close look at six intertwined lives. There’s Natalia (Lori Ingle Taylor), a Romanian immigrant who spends her days (and nights) tending to her desperately… Read More ›
Young Matthew Hager and Caitlin Davis Give Poignant Performances in “Mary’s Wedding” at Burning Coal
Poignant performances by recent college graduates Caitlin Davis (UNC-Greensboro, 2011) and Matthew Hager (UNC-Chapel Hill, 2011), under the sure-handed direction of Joshua Benjamin, make the current Burning Coal Theatre Company production of the bittersweet romance “Mary’s Wedding” by Canadian dramatist Stephen Massicotte truly an affair to remember.
In Stephen Massicotte’s Dream Play “Mary’s Wedding,” World War I Separates Two Lovers
Playwright Stephen Massicotte writes, “… [‘Mary’s Wedding’] was going to be a war play [about the War to end All Wars]. However, I was in love when I wrote it and I thought it was more of a love to end all loves. This is not that love story but the more I loved her, the more Mary and Charlie loved each other. The more I longed to return to her, the more they longed to return to each other. So the war play became a love story. I wrote it to forget her and to get her back and to remember her and to let her go.”
A Drunken May-December Romance Becomes a Dangerous Liaison in Romulus Linney’s “Love Drunk”
Much Seagram’s Seven is swilled and much bull is slung during J&J Productions’ inaugural presentation of Romulus Linney’s last play, “Love Drunk,” a bumpy all-night session during which a drunken May-December romance becomes a dangerous liaison for Wilbur Johnson (John Honeycutt) and Karen Bannerman (Jess Jones).