Focus on Theater

Lighting and Projection are Critical for World Premiere

From the enthusiasm in his voice as he drove through Los Angeles, lighting designer Josh Epstein had an unmistakable dose of world premiere fever.

A Balance of Lighting and Video Reflects our Modern World

“A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have, Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted — a chance to finally fit in.” That’s the premise behind this humorous musical, which would certainly appeal to anyone who ever thought they were on the outside looking in. Especially when browsing social media sites.

Christopher Wheeldon’s Nutcracker, at the Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Revitalizes a Holiday Classic

The strains of Tchaikovsky’s lush, spritely overture soar as the Chicago Philharmonic begins The Nutcracker, but when the curtain rises, we find that we are not, as we may expect, in the expansive living room of a traditional Victorian home. Instead, it’s Christmas Eve 1892 in Chicago, and one family on the outskirts of town conducts its fairly frugal preparations for Christmas Day.

Taking A Christmas Story on Tour

It began as the reminiscences of an old storyteller, but it grew to become one of our best-loved tales of the yuletide season — and now it’s a singing, dancing celebration of the youthful anticipation of Christmas morning. A Christmas Story, the live stage show adapted from the 1983 movie, takes a tale of 1940s Midwestern America and turns it into an extravagant fantasy that spins from the mind of an eleven-year-old boy.

National Technical Institute for the Deaf  Theatre Uses Captions, Projections

Most hearing people never give the word “Earth” a thought, but to deaf people, it’s a word that starts with “ear”—proof that our planet is a world meant for people who can hear.

What better place to stage the first North American production of a play about William Shakespeare than at the continent’s longest running Shakespeare festival? This was the thinking behind the Stratford Festival’s summer 2016 production of Shakespeare in Love, the glorious romp that brings the 1998 Oscar-winning film of the same name to the stage. Produced in Stratford, Ontario, by special arrangement with The Walt Disney Company and Sonia Friedman Productions, the show’s script, set and costume designs come directly from the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End, where it debuted in June 2014.

With the news that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will return to the West Village in New York City this winter after an 11-year absence, it’s time to take a fresh look at Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s crowning masterpiece. Coincidentally, the timeless classic received two professional re-mountings in the summer of 2016 just a few hours from one another: one at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and the other at the Glimmerglass Festival, a summer opera company outside of Cooperstown, NY. The same story was interpreted in two different manners.