MVRHS Musical: ‘Anything Goes’
Be ready to tap into the 1930s with the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Department’s upcoming production of “Anything Goes.” How could you go wrong with music and lyrics by Cole Porter,...
A bond through storytelling
As a child, I grew up listening to my father read vivid stories, transporting me to other worlds. It’s been many decades since I’ve had that treat, but seasonal resident Nancy Binzen is offering...
Live radio play of ‘A Christmas Carol’
Brooke Hardman Ditchfield and Brian Ditchfield at Circuit Arts are quite dynamic duos in the creative arts scene on the Vineyard. The director of Circuit Stage and Circuit Arts executive director, respectively, have launched...
‘Romeo and Juliet’ plays at M.V. Regional High School
It’s not often that we see Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” performed by star-crossed lovers of the right age. What a treat, then, that students from the MVRHS will share the classic with us...
M.V. Playhouse: ‘THE UNExPECTED 3rd’
There is one unifying thing that everyone shares from the moment we are born … we are all getting older. Obie-winning actress and playwright Kathryn Grody shares her perspective on this thing we call...
‘Billy Baloo’ redux
Michael Mason may have died in February 2023, but he’s living on through his labor of love, “Billy Baloo,” now onstage at the M.V. Playhouse. The tale was his life’s work, and his family...
Storytelling on stage
The cast of “Miss Maybelline’s Nocturnal Flights of Fancy” at the M.V. Playhouse sings — quite literally at times. Although the play is not a musical as such, Miss Maybelline, while over 100 years...
‘Overcome’ and the tyranny of normal
Good theater engages us in innumerable ways. It makes us think and feel, draws us into the present moment and keeps us there. It also provides a peephole into someone else’s experience — one...
This season at the Playhouse
From an African American neighborhood in 20th century Oak Bluffs to 1800s Colorado Rockies, and with a Black New York City schoolteacher and the British author of “Peter Pan,” the plays and characters in...
Wicked, but it’s oh, so good
If you want to laugh, cry, sigh, or grin, this year’s 10th-anniversary edition of the “Wicked Good Musical Revue” is for you.
I spoke with founding director Molly Conole and musical director David Behnke, and...
Love is complicated in ‘Twelfth Night’
Love was in the air … actually, it was all over the stage, in the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s splendid contemporary musical rendition of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” by British actor-playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, with...
The curtain calls
Even if you never dreamed of appearing before the footlights, “Theater Fun for Adults” at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse is the place to be on Thursday nights from 5 to 6:30 pm. Thirteen of...
Onstage in 2023
Despite some minor hitches (well, if you can call the AC conking out in August a minor hitch), the Martha's Vineyard Playhouse managed to present a full season of theater this past summer.
In the...
Tiny Tim saves the day
The Oak Bluffs Public Library staff brought down the house with their performances of Doris Baizley’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The staff’s adaptation followed the general story line, with a few...
Gwyn McAllister presents a twisted Christmas in ‘Santacide”
Gwyn McAllister, a resident of New York and Martha's Vineyard, may be best known on the Vineyard as a frequent contributor to The Martha's Vineyard Times. However, on the island of Manhattan, McAllister is...
Abby Bender and her ‘Granger Things’
The one thing you are guaranteed with anything that Built on Stilts director Abby Bender cooks up is the unexpected. This year’s fall offering is “Granger Things,” an immersive theater and dance experience where,...
A community within a community
I recently attended a performance by the Peter Luce Playreaders (PLP) at the Tisbury senior center. The playreaders are a group who come together each Wednesday to read plays. As I made my way...
Love and hope in the Rockies
“Billy Baloo,” the new fun musical onstage at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, is an act of love … or, in this case, multiple acts.
From the moment the actors walk onstage, you know they are...
‘Billy Baloo’ is born
When Michael Mason died in February this year, he left behind a loving family, but he also left behind his life’s work in the form of a musical tale that takes place in the...
Island Theatre Workshop presents ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
Island Theatre Workshop (ITW) is humming again with activity as it prepares for its big fall production, “Little Shop of Horrors.” ITW has been an important Vineyard institution since its founding in 1968 as...