Making its debut this past weekend, Aaron Kopec's Help Wanted is a deeply witty allegory about human desire at the dawn of the information age. The story, set in a 1940s workplace, cleverly weaves aspects of IBM's early history with sexual desire and office...

So I saw Aaron Kopec's Help Wanted  last night. It was opening night. The tiny Alchemist theatre was absolutely packed. Having seen other shows written by Kopec, I'd expected to like the show.  Didn't expect to love it, though. And I did. It's so rarely I'm offered a pleasant surprise. The act of previewing shows or even writing listings on them means that I'm doing research on them and getting...

Aaron Kopec, playwright of Murder Castle and Faust, has explored dark parts of the psyche in productions at the Alchemist Theatre. This summer, however, Kopec offers up Help Wanted, a show that should be less sinister and more subtle...

This year, Pink Banana Theatre's annual program of one-acts tackles the end of the world. As it turns out, the end of all things is a mixed experience. Some bad sketch comedy opens Pink Banana's “One-Acts...

    Operating outside of the standard commercial theatre framework, Alchemist Theatre tends to have kind of a fresh sense of promotion. Their advance promo art for their latest show Help Wanted has kind of a flashy fusion to it. Kind of a cross between promo imagery for The Sopranos and Mad Men. Look closely and you'll see a few different pop cultural references . . . One of those images is tak...

Michael Gene Sullivan's adaptation taps into the disturbing universal elements of George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984. The play consists of two extended interrogation scenes separated by an intermission in a vivid Project Empty Space production...

There’s something really primal about the metaphor of a prison onstage. There’s a long list of shows that I’ve loved that have been prisoner dramas…Next Act’s Coyote On A Fence in ’05. In Tandem’s Two Rooms in ’06. Pink Banana’s production of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me from a couple of years back. The brilliant thing about Craig Wright’s The Unseen is that is abandons all...

A local theatre critic once suggested that Shakespeare should only really be done by trained professionals. Right. The thing is . . . there'™s a kind of universal vitality to Shakespeare that almost begs for contemporary mutation. I want to see Shakesepare done by trained professionals, yes. I also want to see Shakespeare done by trained monkeys. I want to see Shakespeare done by mannequins on ...

There was a crispness to the early autumn air south of downtown. It was opening night of Carte Blanche’s�Studios’�somewhat stylish staging of The Taming of the Shrew. As things began to get rolling, it became apparent that Mike Keiley was having an off night. The distinct style of his stage presence was visible through a somewhat low-energy performance. There were extended moments where Keil...