All stories by John Barry on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Wild Child by John Barry

Experimental theater has a reputation for being unfriendly, if not downright hostile, toward the audience, but Baltimore’s Lola Pierson has been trying to turn that characterization on its…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Russians Aren’t Coming by John Barry

Things in Russia have changed so much during the five years Yury Urnov has spent in Baltimore that he jokes it feels more like 350 years. When he first arrived in 2009, he worked with the Ce…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Unadrama by John Barry

P.O. Box Unabomber by Zdrava Kamenova and Gergana Dimitrova Through Aug. 4 at Single Carrot theatre Ted Kaczynski is back this week with Single Carrot’s P.O. Box Unabomber. In his 1…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Chekhov, a Little Bit Crazy by John Barry

A House, a Home Adapted from Chekhov’s Three Sisters by Ben Hoover Through April 14 at the EMP Collective At Glass Mind Theatre’s A House, A Home—based on Anton Chekhov’s …

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Staging Ground by John Barry

On Sunday afternoon, the capacity crowd at Theatre Project snakes out into the front hall and is chatting with members of the cast of Double Edge Theatre, which has just finished its final w…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Another Dimension by John Barry

Over the summer, Annex Theater artistic director Evan Moritz was in the Fifth Dimension—known more colloquially as the fifth floor—of the H and H Building, downtown, talking with some fr…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Fog of War by John Barry

Richard III Written By William Shakespeare, Directed by Ian Gallanar At PFI Historic Park through Oct. 28 One thing you’ll learn from the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s version …

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Working the Off-season by John Barry

There are two types of bands: those that constantly record and play gigs, and those that go into brief hibernations as they try to take themselves to a new level. Those hibernations result i…

SOURCE: citypaper.com at 12:00AM
Friday, June 29, 2012

Sphere playwright on Thelonius Monk at DC Black Theatre Festival by John Barry

Max Garner is a Baltimore writer whose two person play  Sphere: The Thelonius Monk Story, directed by Rosalind Cauthen, will be at Woolly Mammoth Theatre this weekend as part of the DC Blac…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:09AM
Friday, June 15, 2012

Foot of Water, conceived and performed by Single Carrot by John Barry

Single Carrot Theater’s Foot of Water opens with this thought, spoken by the narrator (Jessica Garrett): “Love is like a balloon….When you are inside the balloon, love is c…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:00AM
Saturday, June 9, 2012

White Noise by John Barry

White Noise, performed by Wanderlust Theatre at the Fridge this weekend, is a play that’s impossible to separate from the exhibit of paintings by DC artist Tom Block. So I’ll begin by de…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:47AM
Friday, June 8, 2012

Michael Stebbins, juggling Rep Stage by John Barry

I first saw Michael Stebbins, Artistic Director of Rep Stage, in 2005 juggling several phone lines and over a dozen roles in the solo show  Fully Committed.  Juggling seems to be what Ste…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:26PM
Thursday, May 24, 2012

Naoko Maeshiba, dancing on the edge of theatre by John Barry

Dancer/Choreographer/Director Naoko Maeshiba, at least to me, was one of Baltimore’s hidden artistic treasures until I had the chance to see  in 2009. Her journey began in Japan, where sh…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:04PM
Friday, May 18, 2012

Three zombie Sisters at Bell Foundry in Baltimore this weekend by John Barry

The ACME theatre, which I’ve done a brief piece on, will be going up with a new version of the Three Sisters this weekend. But don’t expect mustached colonels in late 19th century Russia…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:45AM
Thursday, May 17, 2012

Chesapeake Shakespeare expands to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by John Barry

On May 7th, the Baltimore theatre world received some good news:  the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, currently located in Howard County, announced its purchase of the downtown Mercantile S…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:39AM
Thursday, May 10, 2012

The many faces of Baltimore actor Bruce R. Nelson by John Barry

If you’ve watched professional theatre in Baltimore, you’ve probably seen Bruce R. Nelson. But it may have taken you a little while to realize it. When I walked into the Boehmian Café i…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:40PM
Friday, April 27, 2012

Kaddish, based on a Nobel winning novel, makes its world premiere in a tiny Baltimore space by John Barry

Director Barbara Lanciers was ready to premiere Kaddish, her version of Imre Kertesz’s novel “Kaddish for an Unborn Child” at the Baltimore Theatre Project. It’s a producti…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:17AM
Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Eve Muson on directing Lynn Nottage’s Las Meninas by John Barry

How director/professor Eve Muson took a Nottage play from a college production to the professional stage I remember, somewhere at the tail end of the Regional II version of the Kennedy Cente…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:43AM
Monday, April 9, 2012

To Juilliard and back again: Kelli Wright reinvents herself by John Barry

I met Kelli Wright outside the Strand Theatre the day before the premier of Blood-bound and Tongue-tied. She had the lead role, Jocasta, a woman with a literal Oedipus Complex. But she had a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:05AM
Monday, April 2, 2012

Thoughts on Center Stage’s 50th anniversary season by John Barry

Center Stage announced its upcoming 50th season on Friday, March 30th at Case[werks], a gallery across from Baltimore’s Penn Station. Kwame Kwei-Armah (Photo: courtesy of Center Stage…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:48AM
Friday, March 23, 2012

A noted Hungarian theatre critic examines the nature of criticism by John Barry

As Hungarian theatre artists are under siege, a leading critic speaks out A week ago, Andrea Tompa, President of the Hungarian Theatre Critics Association, came to Baltimore’s Center Stage…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Friday, March 16, 2012

Gypsies by John Barry

The Katona Jozsef Theatre‘s production of Gypsies isn’t to be confused with Gypsy, the 70′s Broadway hit, but there may have been a few people in the audience expecting a r…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:04PM
Saturday, March 10, 2012

Arena Players, proud of its roots, ready for its future by John Barry

Arena Players has been a Baltimore landmark for decades. Since its founding in 1952, it’s the oldest continuously running black theatre in the country. For decades, the Players served as a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:13AM
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Director Jessica Burgess on speaking the language of Cho by John Barry

“There are sixty nine hundred languages in the world,” according to the linguist George, the central of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive.” Half of them are doomed to disappear in the…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:56AM
Thursday, February 23, 2012

Two Free Productions In Baltimore this Weekend. by John Barry

Two interesting shows are coming up this weekend, that I’d just put out on alert in Baltimore. They’re both mind and genre-bending. And they’re free. First at Maryland Institute Colleg…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:58AM
Saturday, February 18, 2012

Postcard from Morocco by John Barry

In Baltimore, theatre fans tend to look to Towson University’s Department of Theatre for up-and-coming actors and directors. And opera aficionados look toward Peabody Chamber Opera for tal…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:21AM
Friday, February 3, 2012

A Skull in Connemara by John Barry

Though Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara, is set in Leenane, Ireland, it’s hard not to think of a front yard in Hampden during Halloween. In Todd Rosenthal’s set for CenterStage,…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:45AM
Friday, January 13, 2012

Come for the gumbo. Stay for the plays by John Barry

Preston Street in Baltimore was packed with cars. That was thanks to Itzhak Perlman, an out-of-town violin player who had decided to drop by the Baltimore Symphony and play Vivaldi’s ̵…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:35PM
Friday, January 6, 2012

New year, big deal for Baltimore by John Barry

I started writing this article as a retrospective of Baltimore theatre in 2011. But I couldn’t help thinking a little bit about what Baltimore is looking at in 2012. In Baltimore, thanks t…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:43AM
Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Baltimore and Bulgarian theatremakers meet by John Barry

Nathan Cooper, the artistic director and actor for Baltimore’s Single Carrot Theatre, recently returned from the Festival for Independent Performing Arts in Sofia, where he spent four days…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:33PM
Friday, December 2, 2011

Krapp’s Last Tape by John Barry

After watching the Gate Theatre production of Krapp’s Last Tape, I couldn’t help thinking that it’s a play that John Hurt has been waiting for decades to act in. First …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:39AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards