20 Summer Theater Festivals in NYC 2013

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 5/25/13 at 2:59pm

Some have already begun!

20 Summer Theater Festivals in NYC 2013

[wonkit]

Posted: 5/26/13 at 9:59am

Other summer performances: New York Classical Theatre is producing THE SEAGULL in Central Park (CPW and 103rd Street) and Prospect Park, with previews starting this Tuesday, May 28. They are also performing THE TEMPEST in Battery Park in July. Free, no lines, no waiting. Love their work. Go to newyorkclassical.org to see more details -

[wonkit]

Posted: 5/27/13 at 8:06pm

If you go tomorrow night, please let me know what you think. I am supposed to go on Wednesday, and maybe again in Brooklyn (if I can figure out how to get there...)

Really looking forward to TEMPEST in July, too, because I just finished a course about it (and other late Shakespearean plays).

[wonkit]

Posted: 5/28/13 at 8:58pm

Tuesday night's performance was cancelled by the rain. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Wednesday night's weather!

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/3/13 at 10:42am

This thread is turning into quite a monologue!

I went to the performance on Wednesday, May 29th, and I found the Central Park setting (on the lake at 103rd Street) to be just about perfect for a play set in rural Russia near a lake. New York Classical has the audience move every time a scene location changes, so over the course of the two hours of performance, the audience gradually makes its way around the lake, beginning in sunlight and ending in near darkness.

The cast is uniformly strong, with many of the associate artists that have graced previous productions but I was particularly impressed with Kersti Bryan as Masha and Zachary Fine as Semyon, her school teacher husband. Semyon comes across as a clumsy and impassioned man, struggling with poverty and unrequited love (and two left feet). Kersti's Masha is a strong and interesting character, not a whiner but someone trying to make do with what little life offers her. Her scene with Trigorin becomes one of the most intriguing and illuminating scenes in this production.

There are actually laughs in this production, and all appropriate with that keen Chekhov take on human weaknesses and obsessions.

I love any version of SEAGULL but I think even Chekhov doubters would find much to like with this one.

If you attend, please let me know what you think? Thanks!

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 1:55pm

I left out a lot from this guide - including festivals outside the five boroughs. One good one is Caramoor, in Katonah, NY, which this weekend is presenting "She Loves Me" with a thoroughly Broadway cast: Santino Fontana, Montego Glover, John Cullum, etc.