Please click on the title above to link to the MX review. (Thanks, MX!)
BG--
05 May 2009
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Welcome to Asheville Performing Arts Reviews: Online and Ontarget
Thanks to our contributers and the readers of Mountain Xpress for voting APAR: Online and Ontarget 3rd best blog in WNC for 2006!
Please respond to reviews by clicking on "Comments" at the end of the review, and adding yours.
Contribute new reviews by emailing them to Bernhard Grier at berngrier @ gmail.com.
Please respond to reviews by clicking on "Comments" at the end of the review, and adding yours.
Contribute new reviews by emailing them to Bernhard Grier at berngrier @ gmail.com.
About Me
- Asheville Performing Arts Reviews: Online and Ontarget
- I am not a real person, just a blog. That means I need help from the community to continue to exist. That makes you pretty powerful. Wow. Please keep reading. Please keep writing.
How it Works
Welcome to Asheville Performing Arts Reviews.
This blog is designed to act as a resource for performing arts organizations in Asheville by enabling anyone who has an opinion to write a review of a show they have seen. Hopefully this will work in conjunction with the reviewing community already established around town, but will enable audience members to post their own reviews and also comment on the reviews of others. To this end, APAR aims to collect every published review about a particular show, in addition to our favorite kind: the reviews generated by you, dear reader.
With time, certain online reviewers will emerge as those that you can count on agreeing with, and you will recognize others as reviewers whose opinions will generally differ greatly from yours. What a great opportunity! The more voices we add to this online reviewing community, the more useful a resource it will become.
So please: get out there, see some shows, and start reviewing!
If you are interested in posting a review here for something you've seen, please do NOT post:
1) Preview articles regarding an upcoming performance (this is not a review)
2) "Pat-myself-on-the-back" articles
3) "My-friend-is-in-this-and-I-really-want-to-let-everyone-know-how-great-I-think-they-are" articles
4) Reviews that lambast a person, show, or company with no good reason
Please DO post:
Considered reviews of theatre, dance, or other performing arts shows about which you have a strong opinion
And don't be afraid to post honestly, even if you hated a show, so long as you feel justified in hating it. Think of it this way: someone else will almost certainly comment on your post to try and refute the points you made in your original post, resulting in a lively and informative discussion that will be of benefit to the public.
OK, if you've made it this far, you're probably serious about this. Thank you. To post a new review, email it to Bernhard Grier at berngrier@gmail.com. We will then post your review as a new message and anyone will be able to comment on it. If you are leaving a review about a show that has already been posted, just click on "comments" and add your own. It's as simple as that! And please remember to sign your reviews, so folks can begin to grow accustomed to everyone's different styles.
This blog is for reviews composed by people with discerning opinions about shows they see in and around Asheville. This could prove a valuable resource for all concerned, but only if we maintain impeccable honesty and high standards for posts. And don't worry--out editor will keep an eye out for any posts that should be deleted. If you ever feel like your post was unfairly deleted, by all means, let us know and we'll talk.
Please don't misconstrue these standards as "snooty" or "hoity-toity". This is intended as a positive and powerful resource for all involved.
Thank you and happy posting!
This blog is designed to act as a resource for performing arts organizations in Asheville by enabling anyone who has an opinion to write a review of a show they have seen. Hopefully this will work in conjunction with the reviewing community already established around town, but will enable audience members to post their own reviews and also comment on the reviews of others. To this end, APAR aims to collect every published review about a particular show, in addition to our favorite kind: the reviews generated by you, dear reader.
With time, certain online reviewers will emerge as those that you can count on agreeing with, and you will recognize others as reviewers whose opinions will generally differ greatly from yours. What a great opportunity! The more voices we add to this online reviewing community, the more useful a resource it will become.
So please: get out there, see some shows, and start reviewing!
If you are interested in posting a review here for something you've seen, please do NOT post:
1) Preview articles regarding an upcoming performance (this is not a review)
2) "Pat-myself-on-the-back" articles
3) "My-friend-is-in-this-and-I-really-want-to-let-everyone-know-how-great-I-think-they-are" articles
4) Reviews that lambast a person, show, or company with no good reason
Please DO post:
Considered reviews of theatre, dance, or other performing arts shows about which you have a strong opinion
And don't be afraid to post honestly, even if you hated a show, so long as you feel justified in hating it. Think of it this way: someone else will almost certainly comment on your post to try and refute the points you made in your original post, resulting in a lively and informative discussion that will be of benefit to the public.
OK, if you've made it this far, you're probably serious about this. Thank you. To post a new review, email it to Bernhard Grier at berngrier@gmail.com. We will then post your review as a new message and anyone will be able to comment on it. If you are leaving a review about a show that has already been posted, just click on "comments" and add your own. It's as simple as that! And please remember to sign your reviews, so folks can begin to grow accustomed to everyone's different styles.
This blog is for reviews composed by people with discerning opinions about shows they see in and around Asheville. This could prove a valuable resource for all concerned, but only if we maintain impeccable honesty and high standards for posts. And don't worry--out editor will keep an eye out for any posts that should be deleted. If you ever feel like your post was unfairly deleted, by all means, let us know and we'll talk.
Please don't misconstrue these standards as "snooty" or "hoity-toity". This is intended as a positive and powerful resource for all involved.
Thank you and happy posting!
1 comment:
From the C-T
BG--
Review: Talented cast breathe new life into old story
TIM REID I TAKE 5 CORRESPONDENT • PUBLISHED MAY 8, 2009 12:15 AM
Spring is a wonderful time to see Asheville Community Theatre's “Enchanted April,” the story of four women who shake off the winter doldrums by renting a sunny castle in Italy for April.
Matthew Barber's script, based on the 1920s novel by Elizabeth Von Arnim, centers on the changes that can occur when people step out of their everyday routine and open themselves to life's myriad possibilities.
Cary Nichols gives a marvelous performance as Lotty, who, weary of Engand's rainy winter and her predictable life as wife and homemaker, proposes that she and a fellow club member, Rose (Delina Hensley), rent a castle in Italy.
Both women feel trapped in apparently loveless marriages. Lotty's husband, Mellersh (Michael Lilly), is a stodgy English gentleman who sees her primarily as an accessory to his busy routine. Rose and her husband, Fredrick (Jeff Messer), hardly speak to each other, their relationship shattered by the death of a child.
To help pay for their stay, Lotty and Rose arrange to share the castle with two other women whom they meet there. Guerin Piercy gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as Caroline, a great beauty who enjoys the advantages her looks give her, but yearns for someone who will love her for herself. Mrs. Graves (Pat Perkerson) is an austere old crone who is too busy making judgments on other people's behavior to see the loneliness in her life.
Hosting the visitors are the castle's genteel owner, Antony (Doug Hauschild), and his zany housekeeper, Castanza (Ginger Haselden), who speaks no English but whose frenetic gestures and muttering keep the audience laughing.
Just when the Italian sun begins to thaw the visitors' hearts, Lotty invites her husband to join her. The play is worth watching just to see Mellerish's discomfort when the castle's cantankerous plumbing system blows up during his bath.
Rose's husband, Fredrick, also shows up unexpectedly, and both men discover their wives have bloomed under the Italian sun.
Indeed, change is what it's all about in “Enchanted April” as all four women are transformed by their new surroundings and the opportunity to reevaluate themselves and their lives.
The well-designed set helps reinforce the characters' metamorphosis as they go from water-logged England to sunny Italy. Director Andrew Gall and a talented cast breathe new life into this admittedly dated but somehow timeless story of change and the hope that springs eternal.
Tim Reid reviews theater for the Citizen-Times.
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