Roy Berko

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

Its Winters, Texas, July 24 and 25, 1998.  Yes, Texas, the place of the weird and the weirder, where fundamentalism, hidden homosexuality, rampant twangs, death while having sex and tripping over a pair of wooden legs (of a person, not a table), two gun toting women who think they are Thelma and Louise of movie fame, a bar full of men forced …more…

Roy Berko

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

What happens when two friends, Nick Riley, a drummer and performer, and Jeremy Paul, a director and actor, meet over a number of months to talk “stuff?”  Of course, they create a devised theatre piece, combining interactions, vinyl, drumming and audience interplay, and name the proceedings NICK & JEREMY.  Then, they make arrangements to have it staged at Cleveland Public Theatre, …more…

Roy Berko

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

What happens when you combine a well-crafted script with an interesting story, a focused director, an excellent cast, and effective visual effects?  The results is a funny and compelling production, like GOOD PEOPLE, now on stage at the Cleveland Play House.

GOOD PEOPLE was written by David Lindsay-Abaire, who received a Pulitzer Prize for the play RABBIT HOLE.   He also was awarded the …more…

Roy Berko

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

“A man’s home is his castle, unless it’s a zoo” is the banner used to describe author John Guare’s THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, which is now confounding audiences at Beck Center for the Arts.

The multi-award winning Guare, who not only authored BLUE LEAVES, but

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, which is now being staged at Karamu Theatre, is noted for his highly theatrical …more…

Roy Berko

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

John Guare, author of SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, which is now being staged at Karamu Theatre, is noted for his highly theatrical scripts.  His writing often tries to expand the theatre’s boundaries, which reflects his attitude that “the chaotic state of the world demands it.”

Guare’s 1990 play is based on the real life story of con artist David Hampton.  Hampton came to …more…

Roy Berko

Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

Sigmund Freud founded the discipline of psychoanalysis.  His concepts centered on sexual drives, parental influences, transference, dream interpretation and unconscious desires.  Known as an atheist,  he was not without religion.  He was an assimilated secular Jew.

C. S. Lewis was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist who wrote such works as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia.  …more…

Roy Berko

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

It is the purpose of the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program to give the students a chance to work with America’s leading theatre artists, appear on a professional stage, and, during their last year, journey to New York to showcase their talents.  The class of 2014 is about halfway through their experience.  Again, in IDentity THEFT, SEVEN LIVES …more…

Roy Berko

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

There have been lots of plays, movies and musicals about nuns.  Nuns, who are traditionally known as those fearsome enforcers of strict rules, wielding punishing rulers, and giving lesser human beings the evil eye.  The purveyors of such wisdom as “don’t wear patent leather shoes because they reflect up,” “don’t go on a date to a restaurant with white tablecloths because it …more…

Roy Berko

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

There is a recent trend for Cleveland area professional theatres to couple with local university drama programs.  Cleveland Play House has married itself to both Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve’s MFA programs.  Cleveland Public Theatre and Oberlin College have such an agreement.  The connection between Beck Center and Baldwin Wallace’s nationally ranked musical theatre program, has resulted in not only …more…