Kevin Vavasseur

A PIANO PLAYED WELL NEEDS FINE TUNING There’s much to learn in August Wilson’s brilliant play The Piano Lesson. There’s no little old lady running scales but there doesn’t need to be. Because the piano itself and its circumstance – how it came to be, who suffered for it, who died because of it, who…

GIMME MO, MO, MO What would happen if every African American in the United States left the country en masse? And not only would we leave physically but as we left, all of our contributions, innovations, inventions and influences that have benefitted American culture would leave with us. The disappearance of the African American presence…

DOES TIME HEAL ALL WOUNDS? It is not news to write that violence permeates all corners of modern society. Psychological, emotional, sexual and physical violence are rampant. And while violence anywhere is horrific, it can be even more so within a domestic living situation. To be the victim of such abuse or witness a loved…

GETT IN THE MIDDLE A Gett, as described in the program for The Gett, a new play written by Liba Vaynberg and currently running at Rattlestick Theater is described in part as, “A dated and witnessed document wherein the husband expresses his unqualified intention to divorce his wife and sever all ties with her under…

MADELINE SAYET LIFTS US UP WHERE SHE BELONGS Near the start of her solo show Where We Belong, currently playing at The Public Theater, playwright-performer-academic Madeline Sayet evocatively states, “Today’s story: is how I became a bird”. This Mohegan Indian performer says this after the first chapter of her story, which describes her experiences at…

CAUGHT BY THE TALE The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare is kind of a weird play. It’s a comedy because a pair of young lovers are united in the end but many awful things happen before these two, crazy kids can tie the knot. The King of Sicilia (Leontes) unjustly suspects his pregnant Queen (Hermione)…

EVERYTHING’S OK Douglas McGrath presents as a nice, well-put together, middle-aged man. Onstage, McGrath wears a nice button-down collar shirt, stylish blazer with a matching kerchief in the pocket, nice khakis paired with nice, comfortable shoes. His thinning grey hair, cut in a nice, flattering style, tops his clean-cut look. Had he walked off-stage mid-show…

THE COST OF MISSING THIS RAVISHING SHOW Every week in the opening sequence of the eighties television series Fame, dance instructor Lydia Grant would state without irony, “…fame costs and right here is where you start paying – in sweat.” Sweat might be the least of what a person may be called upon to pay…

CROSS-EXAMINING THE AFFIRMATIVE & NEGATIVE IN THIS DEBATE In 1965, at the Cambridge Union, Cambridge University, England, eminent social critic and author James Baldwin publicly debated leading American conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. The motion of their debate: “The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro”. In front of an almost all-white…

OH, OUR MAN, I LOVE IT SO Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Does America export democracy or expand empire? Can an idealistic young man maintain his ideals in the harsh reality of working in the field for the CIA? These are just a few of the questions posed in Mark Wilding’s new play Our Man…

A NEAR DISASTER HANDLED BY A MASTER Jones and Schmidt, the creative team behind one of Broadway’s longest running hits, The Fantasticks, also wrote another, lesser-know musical called Philemon. That show is about a destitute street clown who unwittingly becomes a rebel hero during the Roman persecution of the Christians – not exactly the most…

AS EVERYBODY WILL LIKE IT To the mind of an ordinary Elizabethan, a forest in France might conjur thoughts of fairies, whimsy, beauty and adventure. While there is a Forest of Arden in England and a long-ago Forest of Ardenne in France, the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” is as much…

EARTHA HAS MOMENTS, BUT COULD USE A REPAIR KITT From almost any angle, singer/actress Eartha Kitt was a fascinating person. Born in 1927 into poverty and abuse in the American Deep South, she overcame her hardscrabble early years to become an internationally recognized and lauded performer. She found success in motion pictures, on Broadway, the…

A BLOODY BUSINESS WHICH INFORMS “When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning or in rain? When the hurley-burley’s done, when the battle’s lost and won…” These opening lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth have probably been spoken by the witches in almost every production of this play since Shakespeare last sat in the back of…

EXCEPTIONAL EXCEPTION High school is a time of many rules, sometimes excessively so. How to dress, who to hang with, what’s in, what’s out, where to go, what to listen to — do you identify with the group or be true to yourself? And that’s just from one’s peers. Run afoul of authority figures and…

QUE SERí,  SERí Those of us of a certain age may remember the now classic opening credits of the popular, seventies, television sitcom The Odd Couple.   Right before the catchy theme music would commence, a deep voiced announcer would state the show’s simple premise, “Can two divorced men share an apartment – without driving each other…

WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS FAT HAM The Father/Son relationship can often be difficult. It can be hard even when the father and son like, let alone love, each other. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the young prince is so enamored of his recently deceased father, King Hamlet, he refers to him as a “Hyperion.” In…

DOES GOD MAKE A CASE? I liked Samuel D. Hunter‘s A Case for the Existence of God. I didn’t love it, just liked it. Admittedly, I’m in the minority opinion on this one, as many people unabashedly love this well-executed production, currently performing at Signature Theater. Of course, what I like or love is immaterial…

LIKE A ROLLING STONE I imagine that some time back, the Theater Gods were sitting around talking. They had the idea to collaborate on a stupendous theatrical event. They thought to combine the best of film, stage and television production techniques with flawless acting, inspired direction, artful lighting and brilliant sound — all in support…