Charles Giuliano
Bio:
Publisher & Editor. Charles was the director of exhibitions for the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University where he taught art history and the humanities. He taugh tModern Art and the Avant-garde for Metropolitan College of Boston University. After many years as a contributor, columnist and editor for a range of print publications from Art New England, Art News, the Boston Phoenix, the Boston Herald Traveler and Patriot Ledger, to mention a few, he went on line with Maverick Arts which evolved into a website.
Recent Articles:
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Sister Act the Musical Front Page
At the Palm Canyon Theatre
By: - Mar 19th, 2018“Sister Act” the Musical owes its theatrical existence to the movie “Sister Act”, starring Whoopy Goldberg. Popularity begets popularity. The movie was then turned into a musical written by Alan Menken and Glen Slater, from a libretto by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, with additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane. The result is a musical Blockbuster which I believe is one of the best musicals ever produced by the Palm Canyon Theatre.
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Cyrano by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner Front Page
Adaptation of Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
By: - Mar 19th, 2018Rostand wrote Cyrano de Bergerac in 1897 in Paris and based his leading character on a French libertine of the same name. He is credited with introducing the word “panache” into English; the word then meant a plume or feather on a helmet or headdress. Cyrano by Boho Theatre continues in Chicago at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, through April 15
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Dead Man’s Cell Phone Front Page
By Sarah Ruhl at Ross Valley Players
By: - Mar 18th, 2018Sarah Ruhl is one of the darlings of contemporary theater. Her work ricochets between grounded and fanciful, with storylines usually a little off-normal, and populated with at least some loopy characters. “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is one that turns from realistic to fantasy at intermission.
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Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies Front Page
By Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Produced by Custom Made Theatre
By: - Mar 15th, 2018Custom Made’s production of Hooded, by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, sizzles. The cast, led by Jesse Vaughn as Marquis and Tre’Vonne Bell as Tru captivates. Under Lisa Marie Rollins’ excellent direction, all the characters are well developed and their interactions are precise and true
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Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Front Page
Monty Python Meets Sherlock Holmes at Long Wharf
By: - Mar 15th, 2018Ken Ludwig stays relatively faithful to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mystery novel The Hounds of the Baskervilles. Holmes is asked to help protect the newest heir (Sir Henry) to Baskerville Manor and the estate after the previous owner was found dead with a look of terror on his face. The back story includes an early evil ancestor who was killed by a large, ghostly hound dog. Sir Henry has just arrived from Canada and immediately receives a threatening letter. Ludwig has maintained the skeleton of the plot, but has turned it on its ear.
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Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) Front Page
Verdi Opera Produced by Livermore Valley Opera
By: - Mar 14th, 2018Ballo is striking and the score compels from beginning to end with highly melodious arias, ensembles, and orchestral interludes. What it lacks is any “Top 40” type hits, but it really doesn’t matter because every element thrills without being overly familiar. Yet, highlights do exist, and they are spread widely among the roles.
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Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 Front Page
Ryan H. Walsh’s Landmark Study of the Counter Culture in Boston
By: - Mar 12th, 2018For most of 1968 the then struggling Irish musician and composer, Van Morrison, was on the run from his mobbed up New York manager. Living on Green Street in Cambridge, with local musicians he performed gigs and worked on what became the iconic album Astral Weeks. This is the focus of an enthralling book by Ryan Walsh fleshed out in the context of a meticulously researched account of the vibrant counter culture of that year of living dangerously. Through what evolves as a page turner we learn about Mel Lyman and his Fort Hill Cult, their paper Avatar, founding of WBCN FM as the rock of Boston, the Boston Tea Party, the Bosstown Sound, and Boston After Dark/ Phoenix. Along the way we encounter films, The Boston Strangler and Titicut Follies,as well as LSD gurus Tim Leary and Baba Ram Dass. Long overdue this fiftieth anniversary book sets the record straight.
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Murder on the Orient Express Front Page
Agatha Christie Classic at Hartford Stage
By: - Mar 10th, 2018In case you don’t remember the plot, the mystery begins in Istanbul where in the mid-1920s, a number of passengers board the famed train, the Orient Express, for a trip to England. Surprisingly (it is winter) the first class carriage is full. One of the passengers is the famed Belgium detective Hercule Poirot returning to London from a vacation. The play begins with a brief scene of a little girl being abducted.
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The Girl Who Knew Too Much Front Page
Penny Arcade at Joe's Pub
By: - Mar 09th, 2018For three Tuesdays at Joe's Pub at Public Theatre in New York the audience attends a rehearsal of a work in progress, The Girl Who Knew Much, by the performance artist Penny Arcade.
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Gloucester Stage Company 2018 Front Page
Madame Defarge Launches Season May 11
By: - Mar 08th, 2018Gloucester Stage Company Artistic Director Robert Walsh and Managing Director Jeff Zinn, announce the six-play lineup for Gloucester Stage’s 39th Season of professional theater in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh Front Page
At Irish Repertory Theatre
By: - Mar 06th, 2018Enda Walsh has often suggested that what interests him “is about me actually getting through the day.” And indeed, the three works of Walsh’s that I did see, Once, Lazarus (2015) which he co-wrote with David Bowie, and the 22-year-old Disco Pigs, which won awards at the Dublin Fringe Festival (1996) and the Edinburgh Festival (1997), follows these same ideas.
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Bamboozled by Patricia Milton Front Page
World Premiere at at Berkeley City Club
By: - Mar 05th, 2018As a producer of new theatrical works, Central Works’ undertakings are always a crapshoot, but they usually beat the odds. In resident playwright Patricia Milton’s Bamboozled, they have tossed a winning number.
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Karen Zacharias' Spoof of Telenovela. Front Page
Destiny of Desire at Oregon Shakespeare
By: - Mar 05th, 2018On the surface, Destiny of Desire can certainly be enjoyed as a frivolous cream puff and that alone. But the playwright is going for something more. Played in a campy style, the laughs cascade like a thundering waterfall, and the audience howls of recognition and appreciation make you think you’re in Guadalajara rather than Ashland, Oregon.
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This Random World by Steven Dietz Front Page
At North Coast Repertory’
By: - Mar 03rd, 2018“This Random World”, written by prolific playwright Steven Dietz, draws from the idiosyncrasies of ‘American Millennials’ and ‘Generation X’ -ers on how they process information, situations, and unexpected opportunities in our digital age.
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Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill Front Page
Produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festiva
By: - Mar 02nd, 2018In the Jane Austen catalogue, Sense and Sensibility has always played poor sister to Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps it’s a marketing issue with the latter having the more powerful packaging (i.e.: its title). At the core of this story is a searing indictment of 19th century British laws, mores, and practices that contemporary feminists should cleave to in remembrance of the bad old days.
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Henry V by William Shakespeare Front Page
Produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival
By: - Mar 02nd, 2018Oregon Shakespeare Festival has cleverly organized the productions of the three plays which involve King Henry V. Two were offered last summer – Henry IV – Part 1 and Henry IV – Part 2. In those plays, one of the main characters is Prince Harry, also known as Hal, who would become King Henry V. Despite being heir to the throne, Hal was a dissolute wastrel who consorted with Falstaff and his derelict followers.
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In The Body Of The World by Eve Ensler Front Page
Diane Paulus Directs New Post Vagina Monologue
By: - Feb 28th, 2018Eve Ensler is best known for The Vagina Monologues. In The Body of The World, a theatricalization of her 2013 book by the same name at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center currently running through March 25, Ensler returns to the stage with a vengeance.
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Retro Word
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Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel Front Page
At Conn's Playhouse on Park
By: - Feb 25th, 2018In Intimate Apparel we see four women, three of whom have learned to abandon their fantasies and make choices based on the reality of the world. Each has made a “bargain” and each longs for what she has sacrificed.
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Grounded Word
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Breach by Antoinette Nwandu Front Page
At Victory Gardens Theater in LIncoln, Illiinois
By: - Feb 22nd, 2018Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate is a world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater. The play’s long title might mislead you into thinking you’re going to see a different sort of play. Lisa Portes directs a solid cast of five in this funny, moving, but somewhat predictable play by Antoinette Nwandu.
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Uncle Vanya Front Page
San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre
By: - Feb 21st, 2018Check it out. , San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre is presenting a new translation and a new way of staging Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece dramedy “Uncle Vanya”.
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The Flying Dutchman Front Page
Produced by Opera San José
By: - Feb 21st, 2018Suffering on a tumultuous ocean voyage, Wagner conceived of an opera based on a man eternally condemned to the sea. Eternal punishment as a literary theme is broadly established, but the libretto for The Flying Dutchman drew largely on Memoirs of Mr. von Schnabelwopski, by Heinrich Heine, who in turn had adapted folk tales of the Wandering Jew.
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Philip Dawkins’ The Burn Front Page
Steppenwolf for Young Adults
By: - Feb 21st, 2018The Burn by terrific Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins. I think you'll be hearing that name again. It is a tense and smoothly choreographed play, directed by Devon de Mayo. All five characters are on stage at all times in the 90-minute production.
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Lucia Berlin: Stories Front Page
Produced by Word for Word in San Francisco
By: - Feb 20th, 2018As stories not written with each other or the stage in mind, Lucia Berlin: Stories lacks the cohesiveness and unswerving trajectory that you would expect in a good play. But this production delivers the sharp-eyed insights of an empathetic and accomplished story teller in a well-crafted, entertaining manner.
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