←Angels Theatre Company

ATC 2022-23 Season Production (February)
Predictor engages us in the magic that lies at the heart of why we attend the theatre. It is important, relatable, daring, and magical. Meg Crane’s story is worthy and relevant; but Jennifer Blackmer’s telling of Meg’s story achieves the magic that only the theatre can truly generate. It's engaging, funny, frustrating, heart-wrenching, and vital. It is a story that follows Meg’s journey, but also provides instruction and hope for our future. It is the best of what the theatre can be.

Selected for ATC's Salon Reading Series 2022-23
The Refugees is a witty and effective satire, flipping the script on our conceptions and hidden beliefs on refugees. Like all good satire, it sits on the edge of believability and leaves its audience wondering about the potential for these events to "actually" happen. Humorous and poignant, The Refugees is a must-read and a worthy inclusion in any theatre season.

2022-23 Salon Reading Series Selection

Andronicos adeptly weaves a thread between historical fiction and contemporary allusion in A Poison Squad of Whispering Women. While the politics and divisions of a small Indiana town in 1924 may seem distant, the language of generational misunderstanding and community protectionism is eerily familiar. It is easy to imagine Andronicos's characters speaking in 2023, particularly with regards to whisper campaigns (or perhaps social media campaigns) and their effectiveness in a divide-and-conquer strategy. By shining a light on the complexity of our world, the play ultimately serves to remind us that there are no easy answers.

2022-23 Salon Reading Series Selection.
Good myth-flipping, that is well constructed and effective, allows an audience to see a different perspective on the story while maintaining a connection to the core myth. Cloaked in a darkly comic structure, Clyt leads her audience through her story with the quiet indifference of a woman who knows her choices and her rationale. Speckman’s Clytemnestra is a minor character whose motives, injustices and injuries are thrust center stage as we watch her struggle with her building rage. It is the best kind of flipping and is a marvel to watch.

Selected for Angels Theatre Company's 2022-23 Salon Reading Series.
Lisa Sanaye Dring’s sparse and poetic drama Kairos is an unconventional play for a weighty subject. Using only two characters, Dring explores identity, grief, and loss through the lens of a new relationship in a near future sci-fi world where eternal life is suddenly possible. The play is a powerful example of how simple, well-wrought characters in the theatre can be used to explore complex ideas and provoke thought and compassion in an audience.

Selected for Angels Theatre Company's 22-23 Salon Reading Series.
There is an inherent dilemma in plays about science. Mixing the sciences and the humanities on stage can be cumbersome and unwieldy. However, well-written plays about science are able to achieve consensus and appreciation for blending two worlds together that are not so different as they seem. Add Desireé York’s HUMAN(E) to this list of “science plays” that work to dispel the incorrect binary between these two strikingly similar modes of inquiry.

Selected for Angels Theatre Company's Salon Reading Series 2022-23 Peripeteia (October 2022)

The tragic structure of Abraham’s Daughters is robust. Abraham’s tragedy progresses quietly through the actions of his daughters and granddaughters until its forecasted end. We know from the beginning that Abraham will die. However, we realize too late that the tragedy unfolding before us is not that of Abraham, but that of his daughters, and ultimately, that of an entire region. The play thus accomplishes a double peripeteia; Abraham's death accomplishes the classical tragedy while reversing the tragic story to his daughters. It’s marvelous.

The Magnolia Ballet was selected for the 2021-22 Salon Reading Series by the Angels Theatre Company.

It’s been a long time since a play has captivated my imagination quite the way Terry Guest’s The Magnolia Ballet has–it sticks with me. It’s not the story per se, but the storytelling; the way the story unfolds and reveals itself–the poetry, symbolism, and the …anagnorisis. The Magnolia Ballet is a rare achievement. Highly recommended.

Produced by Angels Theatre Company, March 2022. World Premiere.

This Mortal Life Also is an excellent new play about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As part of the ATC 21-22 Season, This Mortal Life Also sold out all six performances and engaged audiences throughout our community, sparking discussion and establishing relevance to our own time (particularly with the invasion of Ukraine). It is a timely, relevant, and important work. Highly Recommended. A must read and must see.

WAKE was selected for the 2021-22 Salon Reading Series Season by Angels Theatre Company under the theme Anagnorisis.
Vince Gatton describes his play WAKE as a ghost story for a post-AIDS generation. However, the ghost story in WAKE is not simply a matter of spirits and the super-natural. It is the embodiment of haunting–of being haunted. Through a clever story-telling device introduced at the beginning of the play, Gatton explores the depth of haunting that goes beyond a simple super-natural presence. He explores the haunting of history, of experience, and of one’s own past. Highly Recommended.