Top 10 Plays We Want to See in 2012
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| Matias Sendón |
| Pensotti's "mega-fictional" stage tango |
5. The Past Is A Grotesque Animal (El pasado es un animal grotesco)
South American stage auteur Mariano Pensotti's inventively kaleidoscoped take on the cataclysmic collapse of Argentina' economy in the 2000s and its impact on a generation of Argentineans opened this month at NY's Public Theater. You can save the plane fare by seeing it at REDCAT, February 23-26.
Andrea Lopez Norma Angelica and Julieta Ortiz on the tracks
4. Rome at the End of the Line
Acclaimed Mexican director Alberto Lomnitz brings his staging of playwright Daniel Serrano's whimsical and poignant study of friendship to 24th Street Theater in September. Artistic Director Debbie Devine describes it as "a lifetime of friendship at a railroad crossing (in 75 minutes)." That's good enough for me.
Zombie Joe It's not brain surgery, it's Denise Devin
3. Urban Death
I came relatively late to director Zombie Joe's delirious, funny and jaw-dropping evening of Gothic horror vignettes. Now I can't rest until every Angeleno gets out to NoHo to see this indescribable hour of pure theatricality and magical stage genius. It re-opens at ZJU in March.
Iris Schneider David LM McIntyre gets stage managed by Helen Hunt
2. Our Town
In 2009, director David Cromer blew the dust off Thornton Wilder's philosophical paean to homespun, small-town America and wound up blowing the NYC critics away. For some, Cromer's name alone makes this Off-Broadway import a must-see. For others it is Helen Hunt, who is reprising her star turn as the Stage Manager from the New York run. It opened at the Broad Stage earlier this week.
Efren Delgadillo
1. Dionysia
Perhaps the high point of the year will come when Poor Dog Group finally gets to officially premiere their wickedly subversive and visually spellbinding re-imagining of a Greek satyr play. I caught it last year in Jesse Bonnel's meticulously directed one-day workshop staging and thought it the best thing I saw all year. You can judge for yourself when it gets a run at Getty Villa in November.
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