Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)

Cleveland Public Theatre is noted for championing works by local artists.  The theatre’s newest offering, EARTH PLAYS (Part Two of the Elements Cycle)  invited directors, performers and writers to focus on the themes of the earth and sustainability, using the technique of devised theater.

Rather than using a script written by a playwright, devised theater encourages collaborative creation, which may take the …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)

Nöel Coward is noted as being one of the most creative dramatists, writers, composers, lyricist, painters and wit of the Western World.  In fact, through his creations he is noted for virtually inventing the concept of “Englishness.” It has been noted that, “he was defined by his Englishness as much as he defined it.”

From the early to mid-twentieth century, on both …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

When it opened in New York last year, SONS OF THE PROPHET was called “the first important new play of the fall season”

As you watch Dobama’s production of Stephen Karam’s play, you may find yourself laughing, laughing at people in physical and psychological torture, and ask, “How can I be laughing at this?”

In contrast to what many think, the opposite of laughing …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

Who wrote THEODORA, SHE BITCH OF BYZANTIUM, TIMES SQUARE ANGEL, or VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM?  Don’t know?  You are not alone.  These, and more escapist romps with similar bizarre names, are the products of Charles Louis Busch, an American actor, playwright and female impersonator.  Many of his works, including PSYCHO BEACH PARTY, which is now in production at Blank Canvas Theatre, were …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

Bessie Smith, the subject of THE DEVIL’S MUSIC, the eighty-minute  bio-concert now in production at the Cleveland Play House, was noted as the “Empress of the Blues.”

Smith had a magnificent voice, an in-your-face attitude, loved the dramatic, and was noted for her near perfect diction, unique phrasing, and incomparable timing.

Though her career was a success, her personal life imitated the blues she …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

Ian, my thirteen year old grandson, who I often bring along to judge whether theatre productions are both appropriate and will be enjoyable for kids, just kept repeating, “That was fun,” as we returned to our car for the trip home.

He had seen the BLUE MAN GROUP when they appeared locally in 2010.  I had assumed that the present invention would be …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)

Sean Derry, the artistic director of none too fragile theater, is known for his love of off-the-wall scripts and characters.  He fears no plots, language or the macabre.  In Martin McDonagh, the author of none too fragile’s latest brain teaser, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE, he has met his mate.

McDonagh, who is the first dramatist since Shakespeare to have four works professionally …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

What do courtship, sex, money, lack of sex, romance, birth, wanting more sex, parenting, children, squabbling, still wanting more sex, and anniversaries all have in common?  Marriage, of course!

Sounding much like a couple counseling session, and believe me as a life coach and counselor I’ve been part of these a lot, YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY SHUT UP!, which is now in …more…

Roy  Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

If you were an investor in Broadway shows and someone came to you proposing a rock musical about a mother with worsening bipolar disorder, that was going to be performed as an operetta (all singing, few spoken sentences), with no show stoppers, no dancing, no chorus numbers, few laughs, and an unnerving ending, written by an author who has never had a …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

Charles Smith, author of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JAMES, which is now getting its Ohio Premiere at Ensemble Theatre, is an award-winning writer, and playwright-in-residence for the Indiana Repertory Theatre.  He is also head of the Professional playwriting program at Ohio University.

Smith writes political and historical tomes which center on race, identity and politics in America from an African-American perspective.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING …more…