Contributing Writer
Surely Goodness and Mercy By Ron Cohen As her title suggests, Chisa Hutchinson has written a lovely blessing of a play in Surely, Goodness and Mercy. For those not up on the Old Testament, the title is taken from the final lines of Psalm 23 of David: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow…
Debra Jo Rupp photos by Joan Marcus The Cake By Ron Cohen When a Colorado baker refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, the controversy went all the way to the Supreme Court. In her play The Cake, being given its New York premiere Off-Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club, Bekah…
David Ganly and Niall Buggy (back) Photos by Patrick Redmond On Blueberry Hill By Ron Cohen On Blueberry Hill is a testament to the power of acting that’s both skilled and inspired. This Irish drama, in a production from Ireland’s award-winning Fishamble theater company, is basically two interlocking monologues, each of…
Jeff Daniels photos by Julieta Cervantes To Kill a Mockingbird By Ron Cohen Aaron Sorkin has done a monumental job in transplanting Harper Lee’s revered novel To Kill a Mockingbird into dramatic form. And it’s being performed in an emotion-grabbing production that helps elevate an extraordinary Broadway season for straight plays to even…
Nicholas J. Ashe, J. Quinton Johnson, Jeremy Pope, Caleb Eberhardt ,John Clay III Photos by Matthew Murphy , By Ron Cohen In 1968, the writings of Lorraine Hansberry were adapted into a posthumous play entitled To Be Young, Gifted and Black. The title, later shaped into a song by Nina Simone, became…
Marin Ireland Photo Credit: Ahron R. Foster Blue Ridge By Ron Cohen Alison, the central character in emerging playwright Abby Rosebrock’s heartfelt if somewhat muddled drama Blue Ridge, is a high school English teacher who can get really angry. How angry? When the school principal who’s also her lover does her wrong…
Aoife Kelly and Phil Gillen photos by Jeremy Daniel By Ron Cohen The course of true love never did run smooth. That probably wasn’t big news circa 1598 when Shakespeare wrote that immortal line in his A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And it certainly wasn’t any more astounding some 400 years later when the master…
By Ron Cohen Deborah Johnson, a central character in Patricia Ione Lloyd’s impassioned drama, Eve’s Song, has a prominent corporate job as a vice-president of acquisitions. She lives in a well-to-do suburb, and at dinner time holds polite conversations with her two children, Lauren, a college student, and Mark, a smart high-schooler, about…
Raúl Esparza Photos by Joan Marcus By Ron Cohen Ever wonder what it would have been like to be in near proximity to Adolf Hitler with his demonic rabble-rousing in full power? Well, in real life, that’s probably not a consummation devoutly to be wished. But as a theatrical experience, it’s a…
Glenn Close and Grace Van Patten photos by Joan Marcus By Ron Cohen The story of Joan of Arc has been told many times, many ways, but playwright Jane Anderson and Glenn Close bring a new and vital dimension as well as sublime emotional depth to the tale in the drama Mother…