Articles by Jane C. Elkin

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/10/12

Going to St. Ives

You’ll see Colonial Players at its best in the cat-and-mouse game of two women

What could be more suitable for Mothers Day than the tale of two mothers sharing tea and sympathy over Blue Willow china: helping each other deal with life’s unexpected twists and turns, bartering favors tit for tat — life for death? Over the past three years, Annapolis stages have featured four plays by the prolific Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated playwright Lee Blessing: Chesapeake, Two Rooms, Fortinbras and now Going to St. Ives, showing through May 19 at Colonial Players. His work...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/3/12

Compass Rose Studio Theater’s Oliver!

I was choked up from the moment the somber workhouse orphans marched onstage

Lionel Bart’s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist has seen a lot of action in 50 years: 10 Tony nominations and five Oscars, including 1969’s Best Picture. It’s the tale of an innocent orphan among a den of thieves in Victorian London, a story I’ve seen and performed countless times. Yet Compass Rose Studio Theater’s production is in some ways the most memorable, the most heart-wrenching. I was choked up from the...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 4/26/12

The Belle of Amherst

This Bay Theatre Company show will appeal to any with emotion and ears to hear

“How was the play?” my son-in-law, the family sports, poker and comics buff, asked. “Good,” I said, “but two hours of Emily Dickinson wouldn’t be your style.” “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell,” he said. Poem 96 of her 1800 published posthumously. He knew it by heart. You could have knocked me over with a fountain pen, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dickinson’s...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 3/22/12

Bowie Community Theatre’s Art

An abstract painting sets cast and audience wondering how well you know your friends — and yourself

In 1994, French playwright Yasmina Reza wrote an intellectual comedy about friendship, the foundations upon which it’s built and the walls we erect to preserve it. Three Moliere Awards, one translation and a Tony later, Art entertains audiences with a message that seems more relevant than ever in this era of cyber friendships. Real friendships drive us to extremes and back again in the name of harmony, as anyone who has nurtured a connection for the long haul knows, and Bowie...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 2/23/12

Compass Rose Studio Theater’s The Miracle Worker

See the miracle four young student actors achieve with the guidance of pros

Imagine for a moment that you can neither see nor hear, that you careen through life as an animal trapped in a silent, black maze.Omnipotent beings collude against your wild frustration until only your savagery can wear them down enough to earn you meager bribes and scraps of their exasperated affection. Such is the life of six-year-old Helen Keller. In Compass Rose Studio Theater’s The Miracle Worker, Annalie Ellis’ portrayal of pain and confusion is...

Article - News; by Jane C. Elkin - 2/23/12

What’s Your Winning Story?

These contests need writers

You have a story to tell. It’s the image that stays with you, whether you want it to or not. It’s that anecdote you tell at parties that makes people say, you ought to write that down. Your story could be a winner in more ways than one. Maryland is fertile ground for budding authors, and writing contests abound. Annapolis creative writing teacher Laura Oliver, whose new book, The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers,...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 2/9/12

Bay Theatre’s Love Letters

Kleenex needed for this unrequited romance about the surprise of the human condition — as we all know it.

Love Letters is a simple show about a complex relationship chronicled through 50 years of letters. It needs, playwright A.R. Gurney says, “no theater, no lengthy rehearsal, no special set, no memorization of lines and no commitment from its two actors beyond the night of performance.” If those actors happen to be a couple? All the better. Bay Theatre’s Nigel Reed and Valerie Leonard, married five years and costarring in their fifth...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 2/2/12

Opera AACC Resuscitates Naughty Marietta

Superb casting, sumptuous costumes, stunning sets and whimsical dance can transcend even the flimsiest plot

Remember Nelson Eddie and Jeanette MacDonald singing Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life, At Last I’ve Found You in their 1935 debut film, Naughty Marietta? No? How about Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein? Ah, I thought so. Now Opera AACC proves that a dated classic can overcome parody. I didn’t expect to like this contrived operetta, the overblown fluff of my mother’s classical record collection. I was...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 1/12/12

Colonial Players’ Cinderella Waltz

The dysfunctional family of this fractured fairy tale is the medieval equivalent of trailer park trash in a neighborhood populated by Grimms’ all-stars.

Ladies: Did you grow up on Cinderella dreams? How did that work out for you? Gentlemen: Is the prince for real? Parents: Which frustrates you more — the Disney princess culture or books such as the best-selling Cinderella Ate My Daughter that denigrate it? No matter your stance, you’ll find much to applaud in Colonial Players’ Cinderella Waltz, Don Nigro’s 1978 farcical retelling of the classic. Bring your...

Article - Features; by Jane C. Elkin - 12/8/11

Giving the Reindeer a Break

Volunteers take flight each year so that isolated Tangier Island has a green Christmas

The miracle of flight has long been Santa’s secret to guaranteed overnight delivery, but sometimes the reindeer need a break. During the pre-Christmas rush they’re in demand everywhere, including some pretty remote locales. So how does the big guy make a day trip to a place like Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, a place where even the closest landlubbers depend on ferries to make the 12-mile crossing? The answer is lots of planning and...