Rutherford Cravens News

The Catastrophic Theatre presents Middletown by Will Eno, running May 23 - June 14, 2014, Thursday - Saturday at 8pm. All tickets Pay-What-You-Can.

When it comes to modern musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's INTO THE WOODS is definitely among the most beloved. The show had its world premiere in 1986, opened on Broadway in 1987, and won the 1988 Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical in a year that was otherwise dominated by Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. With a handful of revivals and countless regional productions, INTO THE WOODS is a show that both audiences and theater companies love, and Main Street Theater's beautiful production of the classic perfectly illustrates why.

Main Street Theater begins 2014 with Into the Woods, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's exploration of everyone's favorite fairytale characters. Main Street Theater's production will return the material to its storytelling roots with a small company and simple accompaniment on its intimate Rice Village stage.

Main Street Theater begins 2014 with Into the Woods, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's exploration of everyone's favorite fairytale characters. Main Street Theater's production will return the material to its storytelling roots with a small company and simple accompaniment on its intimate Rice Village stage.

Even after interviewing Classical Theatre Company's Artistic Director and Director of William Shakespeare's HAMLET JJ Johnston, I was highly skeptical about this production. HAMLET set in the post September 11th world with inspiration from Edward Snowden sounded like a gaggle of confused metaphors looking for destruction. For whatever reason, I couldn't wrap my head around this vision for the piece. Walking into the theatre didn't allay those concerns. The set looks more like a modern prison than a castle, with stark grays, dull blues, and a splash of orange in its color palette. Surveillance cameras are positioned along the top of the structure. There are corrugated Plexiglass windows, rivets, rust, and fencing to be seen as well. "Denmark's a prison," says Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2 of the play, and Jodi Bobrovsky's set design nailed that on a literal level.

Main Street Theater is closing their excellent 38th season with the wildly entertaining, often hilarious, and deeply moving CLOSE UP SPACE by Molly Smith Metzler. The zany dramadey is a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist and had its world premiere in 2011 in a Manhattan Theatre Club staging at New York City Center Stage I. This premiere production received mixed reviews that all seemed to get too caught up on the idea that the premise isn't entirely original.

Close Up Space by Molly Smith Metzler will make its regional premiere at Main Street Theater - Rice Village (2540 Times Blvd., Houston, TX), directed by Andrew Ruthven. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist play will run tonight, May 23 - June 16, 2013.

Main Street Theater closes its 38th MainStage season with Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space, a comical and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate... in any language. With previews tonight, May 18, 19, and 22, Close Up Space opens May 23 and runs through June 16 at Main Street Theater - Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd.

Main Street Theater closes its 38th MainStage season with Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space, a comical and poignant new play about how hard it can be to communicate… in any language. With previews May 18, 19, and 22, Close Up Space opens May 23 and runs through June 16 at Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd.

Due to popular demand, Main Street Theater has extended the run of Henry V through April 28.

William Shakespeare's HENRY V is quite possibly his most well-known and celebrated history play. The famous climatic St. Crispin's day speech is full of nationalistic and patriotic rhetoric that resonates deep within the soul, mind and body while quickening the blood. Luckily for Houston audiences, Main Street Theater and Prague Shakespeare Company, Continental Europe's premiere professional English-language classical theatre company, is currently presenting a stellar production of William Shakespeare's HENRY V.

Main Street Theater collaborates for the second time with international partner Prague Shakespeare Company to present Shakespeare's Henry V. Featuring live Taiko drummers and an ensemble of 14 actors, the production will run in Houston in March and April and in Prague in the fall. MST and PSF produced Shakespeare's Richard III last season which was critically acclaimed both in Houston and in Prague.

Close Up Space by Molly Smith Metzler will make its regional premiere at Main Street Theater - Rice Village (2540 Times Blvd., Houston, TX), directed by Andrew Ruthven. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist play will run May 23 - June 16, 2013.

Main Street Theater collaborates for the second time with international partner Prague Shakespeare Company to present Shakespeare's Henry V. Featuring live Taiko drummers and an ensemble of 14 actors, the production will run in Houston in March and April and in Prague in the fall. MST and PSF produced Shakespeare's Richard III last season which was critically acclaimed both in Houston and in Prague.

Stages Repertory Theatre is partnering with the Shakespeare Globe Centre of the Southwest to present a free 45-minute performance of ROMEO & JULIET for Houston-area high school campuses and other facilities. Director Rutherford Cravens brings together four students - Christine Arnold, Nicole Gamache, Miguel Garcia, Paige Warton - from the University of Houston School of Theatre and professional actor Eva Laporte for the five-person adaptation.

The Main Street Theater, Houston's production of Richard III, directed by Guy Roberts, opens tonight at Divadlo Na Pradle in Prague, Czech Republic, as part of the Prague Shakespeare Festival.