Author Archives: Violet Woodward Pu

This weekend, take the opportunity to watch a literal fairy tale unfold here in New Haven with Yale Opera’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The production, which utilizes William Shakespeare’s text and music by Benjamin Bratten, is the opera’s annual Shubert Theater show. The Bard’s comedy, written at the end of the 16th century, »

It’s less than 24 hours before the first performance of “Nero,” and the titular lead is still looking to the director and crew for line prompts for an alarming number of scenes. Watching such a tableau, one thinks of bad improv. But “Nero,” the brainchild of composer John Hansen-Brevetti ’07 and writer Greg Edwards ’05, »

From a very early age, self-taught artist Laura James was puzzled by the conventions of religious art. “At home we — had a big book of Bible stories, where everyone was a yellow ochre color,” she said. “Servants were always a kind of grey color and strangely apelike.” But each of the 38 paintings comprising »

Near the middle of Craig Lucas’ “The Singing Forest,” Loe Rieman (Robin Bartlett), an aging Holocaust survivor, describes the titular phenomenon. Recalling the terror of the concentration camps, she poetically describes the “chorus” of screams emanating from a group of prisoners being hanged. Half-horrified, half-awed, Loe is affected deeply by her traumatic past — an »

Long Wharf Theatre’s latest show is a grab bag of kooky delights. “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” a campy “penny dreadful” by Charles Ludlam, evokes a murder mystery mood with a Mel Brooks flavor. If “Irma Vep” were a casserole, the recipe would call for one part cross-dressing, a liberal dose of allusions to cultural »

After a stupor-inducing tailgate — or perhaps in lieu of it — those making the pilgrimage to Cambridge this weekend shouldn’t leave Boston’s numerous cultural attractions unexplored. The “city on a hill” boasts museums, movie festivals, plays and interesting landmarks to provide a change of pace from the Elm City. Whether you have a few »

The old adage goes that politics — along with sex and religion — should never be brought up in polite conversation. Though the various incarnations of Yale theater, from the glossy productions at the Rep to the free admission shows in college common rooms, may be a far cry from a strait-laced family dinner, large-scale »

Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Jr. had a well-attended birthday celebration. Monday night, faculty and students packed Stage II of New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre to watch a performance of “Mrs. Farnsworth,” written by acclaimed playwright A.R. Gurney DRA ’58. But while Gurney sat in the audience — and even had his birthday party in the lobby »

Forget Halloween. While countless Yalies will no doubt don Bush and Kerry masks for Sunday’s festivities, the week’s real fun will be seeing the two presidential candidates duke it out for the final time Tuesday night. After a hard trudge to the polls and the retinal fatigue of watching red-and-blue maps all day, many civic-minded »

For the next few days, a part-amusing, part-depressing parade of dysfunctional relationships, unintentional social sabotage, and the politics of keeping a marriage afloat will be on display — and not just because it’s Parents’ Weekend. For those whose families won’t be making the trip, the Yale Musical Theater Company’s production of Steven Sondheim’s 1970 musical »

Many undergraduates are familiar with Tom Stoppard’s existential tragicomedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” Some were no doubt exposed to the three-act play in high school; depending on section leader preference, about half of all students who take English 129a are required to read it at the culmination of the semester. But watching the Yale »

Throughout “Fully Committed,” the audience is treated to a virtually unwavering glimpse into the life of Sam Peliczowski, a frazzled restaurant receptionist working in New York City. Negotiating a vegan prix fixe menu for Naomi Campbell via her fast-talking, flamboyant agent Bryce; scrubbing diarrhea from the bathroom floor at the behest of his deep-voiced, merciless »