←

Hallie Palladino

Recommended by Hallie Palladino

  • Sugar On The Floor by Katrina RiChard
    18 Apr. 2019
    “ This clever play mixes comedy, drama and romance to great effect. As we shift between the 1970s and today we piece together the story of exactly what happened between Tilly and Katherine. RiChard makes important connections and comparisons between second and third wave feminism, exposing the failure of both to address the specific needs of black women. But the true gift of this play is a beautiful and unexpected love story that deals with desire, plus aging, motherhood, loyalty and grief. It's a play about embracing your loved ones flaws and giving them second chances. Elegantly plotted, hopeful and poignant. ”
  • Cardboard by Brent Ervin-Eickhoff
    18 Apr. 2019
    “ Cardboard examines toxic masculinity and bro culture in the context of exclusively male spaces. It explicates the growing pains of five men trying to keep up with changing social expectations of male behavior. There is tension and conflict in this group as they reexamine their shared youth through the lens of a certain brand of post-Trump, post-Metoo nascent wokeness. Some of their past behavior is merely cringy, some is deeply troubling. At its heart this play explores the social barriers to male emotional intimacy when avenues of expression are constricted to the old stalwarts of drink-fueled competition and aggression. ”
  • Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky by Dianne Nora
    17 Apr. 2019
    “ This story of very private moments in the life of a very public woman highlights the disconnect between the public narrative and the person. This play is an examination and condemnation of how we define women by their sexual relationships with men, especially when they are connected with a powerful man, however briefly. The Monica in this play is an woman who is trying to move on and do good work in the world and forge meaningful, intimate relationships, but she's hindered by the weight of her name. Nora interrogates our society's collective fear and loathing of female sexual agency. ”
  • How to Blow Off a Group Project by Abigail Henkin
    9 Apr. 2019
    “ This charming one act is a fresh take on the high school romance between smart girl and the trying too hard player guy. As Kate and Kurt work on a project about gender roles and societal expectations in "Taming of the Shrew" they also have to learn to look beyond the labels they've put on each other in order to truly connect. ”
  • The Worst Mother in the World by Kari Bentley-Quinn
    4 Apr. 2019
    “ When a mother blames her daughter for something that isn't the daughter's fault the fallout can result in some serious intergenerational trauma. Quinn dives into this uncomfortable subject by giving us a window into the emotional upheaval surrounding new motherhood leaving us with no easy answers. There are some great roles for women in this all female cast play and some gentle humor to offset the heavy subject matter. ”
  • Dance and Crawl and Sing and Fall (formerly Tales from Tent City) by Brian James Polak
    2 Apr. 2019
    “ I just saw the Prop Thtr reading of a revamped version of this play complete with original music. It's a slow burn character driven piece about chosen family that explores what makes a community and asks what does safety mean? Can emotional safety and physical safety sometimes be at odds? It's a little remencient of "Balm and Gilead" in that it's an empathetic look into the emotional lives of people living on the margins. This would be great for colleges especially because of all the roles for young people. ”
  • OUTLAWS by Cara Beth Heath
    2 Apr. 2019
    “ Wow! This charming comedy manages to connect the dots between prohibition, organized crime and gun culture while foreshadowing our image obsessed society's way of glamorizing, and yes, eroticizing, armed men (and a few women) of every generation. Outlaws reverse engineers the romanticized mythology around gangster culture of the 1920s with some sharp insight into the mess we have gotten ourselves into a century later. ”
  • The Nothing That Is Something (formerly Locked In) by J. Joseph Cox
    8 Mar. 2019
    “ I got a sneak peak at a first draft of Locked In. This play will blow the lid off everything you thought you knew about organ donation, the threshold between life and death, and the grey area in between. A heavily theatrical and unapologetically disquieting play about medical ethics that asks vital and challenging questions about the mysterious trinity of brain/body/soul that combine to make us who we are. ”
  • Two Quick Shots by Hanna Kime
    8 Mar. 2019
    “ I attended the first public reading of Two Quick Shots at the Jackalope Frontier. This play wrestles with questions about addiction, depression, despair and the problem of suffering. As characters in this play try various strategies to escape their suffering, from drugs to running away to avoidance to denial, to contemplating suicide, they are confronted with the fact sometimes the only way to get around pain is to go through it. This play is also loaded with complex moral questions about who has the right to take a life (human or pet). ”
  • Red Bowl at the Jeffs by Beth Hyland
    8 Mar. 2019
    “ What is the life cycle of a storefront theater company? How do artists and collaborators become family, and what do they owe each other as they forge ahead in the brutally competitive environment of this collaborative art form? What does success in theater actually look like and how can artists sustain it? The paradox between the fact that artists need one another to create work and gain recognition, but then often must leave one another to grow their careers is the very serious theme of this hilarious send-up of an evening at the non-equity theater Jeff awards. ”

Pages