A conversation with director Deb deCastro Braak on 'The River Niger'

“I want people to leave the theater and do something”

Philadelphia director Debra deCastro Braak talks about The River Niger, a Broadway success in 1972 that is rarely performed these days. In post-civil rights era America, Joseph A. Walker’s play shows violence balanced by poetry — “giving voice to those who have been silenced.”

Henrik Eger

Jun 09, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

'The Hound of the Baskervilles' at Lantern Theater

A lesson in comedy

A comic Hound of the Baskervilles schools us not only in detection, but also in the art of comedy.

Naomi Orwin

Jun 07, 2015 · Articles · 2 minute read

Richard Tuttle Retrospective at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

An enigma wrapped in a mystery

Visitors to the Fabric Workshop and Museum are always accompanied by a docent, which quickly makes sense, given the hopscotch layout and inscrutable installation. It helps to have a guide when you think you’re entering a nice little fabric museum and find yourself on the cutting edge of. . .something entirely different.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Jun 07, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Frank Sinatra: An appreciation

It was a very good life

This year, the world is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Frank Sinatra, who was born to make music using the latest media to bring his performances to the masses. Like all great artists, he was consumed by an ambition that knew no bounds — after mastering the media of his time, he went on to transform them into something no one could have imagined.

Armen Pandola

Jun 07, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' at the Wilma

Embodying Stoppard

Stoppard is a playwright of the mind. The new production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Wilma grounds his words in the body. But does it work?

Naomi Orwin

Jun 06, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Has Philadelphia become a cultural backwater?

What do Philly and Spokane have in common?

A great city isn’t a matter of size, but of whether it challenges itself with the best the world has to offer. Philadelphia doesn’t.

Robert Zaller

Jun 06, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

'A Pleasure and a Calling' by Phil Hogan

Is it possible to stalk everybody?

Is a slow-motion thriller possible? Is there such a creature as an omni-stalker? Phil Hogan tackles these questions in his 2015 release.

Rick Soisson

Jun 04, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Artists seeing dance

A lighthearted exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art surveys the many ways artists have responded to dance.

Sharon Skeel

Jun 04, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Speaking Out for Equality at the National Constitution Center

The quiet beginning of the gay rights movement

While the exhibit, covering a half century of gay rights progress, is impressive in its breadth, it’s lacking in depth, as if the archivists geared things primarily for an audience suffering from attention deficit disorder.

Gary L. Day

Jun 04, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

The Order of Things at the Barnes Foundation

Everything in its place

In a gutsy move, the Barnes Foundation asks three contemporary artists to respond to Albert Barnes’s display eccentricities. Those responses are not particularly reverent.

Judy Weightman

Jun 02, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read