←

Ian Thal

Recommended by Ian Thal

  • SEX, LIES & STYROFOAM - a ten minute comedy by Arianna Rose
    21 Jul. 2024
    “ Whether one is an entrepreneurial sex-worker, or the spouse of an artist about to have a gallery opening, everyone eventually has to do the laundry, and sometimes those people cross paths at a neighborhood laundromat. A conversation about pleasure, desire, economics unfold, as a parade of costumes, paraphernalia, and toys change hands.

    A great mix of verbal and prop-based comedy. ”
  • Fit for a King by Rex McGregor
    21 Jul. 2024
    “ A freak disaster at sea and a rescue by a luxury cruise ship starts as a comedy of manners and quickly escalates into a grotesque satire of class, the hospitality industry, and maritime law. ”
  • CURS'D BE MACBETH by Donna Latham
    8 Jul. 2024
    “ A parodic origin story of the popular actors' superstition about the "Scottish Play". Latham's dialogue is a mash-up of iambic pentameter, 20th and 21st century slang, and excerpts from The Tragedy of Macbeth. The result is smart and wickedly hilarious. ”
  • Fight for the Apron by Rex McGregor
    8 Jul. 2024
    “ In this science-fiction satire, McGregor imagines a not-so-implausible future about an AI-dominated economy, and then figures out the absurd extremes that his all-too-human characters use in order to game the system, and of course, prove that they are not robots! ”
  • Postpartum by Jillian Blevins
    10 Jun. 2024
    “ What makes this horror story so effective is how well grounded it is in naturalistic drama of human emotions, relationships, and life-changing moments -- that Blevins leaves it ambiguous whether we are witnessing a purely psychological horror or that something supernatural is at work is skillfully unsettling. ”
  • From Cinders To Ella by Michelle Lynch
    7 Jun. 2024
    “ Lynch's retelling of "Cinderella" stands out from most adaptations by placing less emphasis on pursuing princes, and more on family reconciliation, the processing of grief, even presenting the step-mother with sympathy. ”
  • Where We Belong by Madeline Sayet
    23 Apr. 2024
    “ Sayet, with equal parts humor and horror, describes the tension between loving a classic work (in this case, Shakespeare) while at the same time being an outsider to the culture that produced and even shapes its identity around it. Though it's a tension felt by many artists and scholars from many backgrounds, Sayet's perspective as an artist working within the Mohegan nation's project of language reclamation, and in light of the Mohegans' centuries-long history with both England and English-speakers, makes for a powerful, and intellectually-challenging, story. My review in Washington City Paper: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/683288/a-mohegan-shakespeare-scholar-in-london-madeline-sayets-where-we-belong/ ”
  • Pico by Ron Pullins
    10 Apr. 2024
    “ Loopy, philosophical, and hilarious. Pico provides ample opportunity for actors, directors, and designers to use their imagination. I am proud to have been the first to play the role of Pico and to create puppets and masks for the original production. ”
  • Re: Oblivion by Seamus Sullivan
    5 Apr. 2024
    “ Imagine a job so banal, that one reacts with neither horror nor madness when an eldritch abomination appears in the supply closet. ”
  • IMPRESSIONS OF PARIS by Nora Louise Syran
    3 Mar. 2024
    “ In "Impressions of Paris" Syran explores the world of French Impressionist painting through the career of Suzanne Valadon. Syran is not content to present the lives and aesthetic debates of her colleagues, but situates them in the relationship between their counter-cultural movement and the world of commerce and respectability: Where they showed, and where they wished to be seen; The hiring of models; the laundresses and seamstresses that made and cleaned the costumes; and the barriers of sexism and classism. It's a world richly recreated in words, song, images, and shadows. ”

Pages