Email Author Alexis Soloski

2009 Stories by Alexis Soloski

• LOCKED AWAY

  published October 6, 2009

  The women in Theodora Skipitares's new puppet play aren't bad; they're just built that way. Skipitares, who boasts a 25-year career of remarkable... More >>

• THE KENNEDY CURSE

  published October 6, 2009

  The recent death of Ted Kennedy has returned attention to his blessed and cursed family—not that attention had ever wandered very far. Brian... More >>

• NEW YORK STORIES

  published October 6, 2009

  There are apparently eight million stories in the naked city, but in this new musical from writer-composer Adam Gwon, he aims to tell just four of... More >>

• FAMILY MATTERS

  published October 6, 2009

  What’s the best way to stage Neil Simon’s seminal evocation of a New York childhood? Apparently you get a guy from Chicago to do it.... More >>

• Channeling the Abolitionist in Frederick Douglass Now

  published September 29, 2009

  The first three words of Roger Guenveur Smith's solo show, Frederick Douglass Now, currently running at the Irish Arts Center, sound as... More >>

• Lizzie Borden Not Bad for a Hatchet Job

  published September 22, 2009

  In his closing speech, Lizzie Borden's defense attorney addressed the jury, saying, "To find her guilty, you must believe she is a fiend.... More >>

• Aftermath and Domestic Crusaders Examine the Muslim Experience

  published September 22, 2009

  Approximately 600,000 Muslims reside in New York City, but precious few appear on our stages. Heather Raffo has played several Iraqi women in... More >>

• Bekah Brunstetter's Oohrah!

  published September 15, 2009

  Bekah Brunstetter's new drama Oohrah! offers at least one innovation. Though a rifle is introduced in the second act, no one expires... More >>

• Governors Island Hosts 'New Island Festival'

  published September 15, 2009

  George W. Bush's administration lacked a reputation for benevolence. Nevertheless, in 2003, it sold Governors Island's 150 acres to the city of... More >>

• Doug Hughes's Labor of Love and Reprisal, Royal Family

  published September 8, 2009

  One minute into an interview with director Doug Hughes, a stage manager drags him back to the rehearsal room. Hughes returns, but a designer... More >>

• Fall Guide: Female Playwrights Look to Big Fall Season

  published September 8, 2009

  Aphra Behn, the Restoration dramatist, appears frequently on syllabi, but rarely onstage. The first professional female playwright, she led... More >>

• PURE EVIL

  published September 8, 2009

  Don’t believe a word Philip Seymour Hoffman says. Sure, the rumpled actor delivers dependable (and often remarkable) performances, but in his... More >>

• Foundry Theatre's Provenance of Beauty Puts on Some Wheels

  published September 1, 2009

  On a late summer's day in the South Bronx's Barretto Point Park, children splash in fountains, families picnic on lush lawns, and muscular... More >>

• IN THE NUDE

  published September 1, 2009

  We can think of many reasons not to strip off—unflattering tan lines, various insect bites, too many Mister Softee swirls. But the... More >>

• STREET SMARTS

  published September 1, 2009

  Named for Parliamentarian Charles Stewart Parnell, this thoroughfare runs throughout North Dublin—and supplies the material for Sebastian... More >>

• Peer Gynt and Midsummer Night's Dream Hit New York Parks

  published August 25, 2009

  In Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare takes a dim view of nature: "The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull," he proclaims.... More >>

• IS THIS DEMOCRACY?

  published August 25, 2009

  On March 20, 2003, George Bush announced the commencement of war in Iraq. He hoped missile strikes would "disarm Iraq, free its people, and defend... More >>

• SING THE BLUES

  published August 25, 2009

  For their first official presidential date, President and Mrs. Obama attended an August Wilson play. Perhaps they’d like to continue to... More >>

• THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY

  published August 25, 2009

  People these days don’t actually worship the god of wealth (that article about traders who built a shrine to Alan Greenspan was totally... More >>

• Three Days at the New York International Fringe Festival

  published August 18, 2009

  On the third day of the 13th annual New York International Fringe Festival, at approximately 7:50 in the evening, I saw God. A pleasantly... More >>

• SWEET REVENGE

  published August 18, 2009

  The Book of Exodus declares, “If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot... More >>

• BLAST OFF

  published August 11, 2009

  The theater company Banana Bag & Bodice have created some compelling performance works, but they’ve yet to create a show that’s truly... More >>

• CLASS ACT

  published August 11, 2009

  Irish playwright Lennox Robinson subtitled this 1933 comedy “An Exaggeration in Three Acts,” and we trust the Mint will offer a suitably... More >>

• G'Day, Fringe!

  published August 11, 2009

  The British are coming! Also the Chinese, the Japanese, the Italians, the Spanish, and especially the Australians. Admittedly, the 13th annual New... More >>

• JoAnne Akalaitis' The Bacchae at the Public

  published August 4, 2009

  At the beginning of Euripides' The Bacchae, which wowed Greeks in 405 B.C., the god Dionysus returns to the city that, years earlier,... More >>