Susan Brall

Review: ‘The Girls of the Garden Club’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

The Girls of the Garden Club, written by John Patrick, directed by Larry Simmons and produced by Maureen Rogers, is presently playing at Laurel Mill Playhouse located on historic Main Street in...

Review: ‘Anything Goes’ at Silhouette Stages

Silhouette Stages’ production of Anything Goes with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and book by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay, and Russel Crouse is presently playing at Slayton House...

Review: ‘Oliver!’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, produced by Maureen Rogers and directed by John Cusumano, is strutting its stuff across the boards of the Laurel Mill Playhouse. The iconic musical is based on Charles Dickens’...

Review: ‘Spider’s Web’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

Agatha Christie’s suspense story, Spider’s Web, opened this weekend at the Laurel Mill Playhouse located on Main Street in historic Laurel, Maryland. This show is produced by Maureen Rogers and...

Review: ‘Labour of Love’ at Olney Theatre Center

Just when Americans think we have a monopoly on political rancor, along comes a show from across the pond to remind us that we aren’t the only ones dealing with extreme political partisanship....

Review: ‘Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley’ at Venus Theatre

Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley is a raw and personal journey through grief. Tricia McCauley, the local actress whose brutal 2016 murder rocked the theater community, was a personal friend and...

Review: ‘Kindertransport’ by Sandy Spring Theatre Group

Kindertransport by Diane Samuels is being presented by Sandy Spring Theatre Group at the Arts Barn in Gaithersburg in partnership with the City of Gaithersburg. The play is produced by Jerry...

Review: ‘Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight’ at Silver Spring Stage

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson, produced by Bill Hurlbut and directed by Erin Bone Steele is presented at Silver Spring Stage. The company has recently...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ by Rep Stage

Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street presented by Rep Stage, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by High Wheeler, took to the boards this week at Howard Community College....

Review: ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Jen Sizer and produced by Maureen Rogers, opened September 7 at the Laurel Mill Playhouse. Written by Dale Wasserman (based on Ken Kesey’s novel), the...

Review: ‘Anything Goes’ at September Song Musical Theatre

For a long Labor Day Weekend, September Song is presenting Cole Porter’s Anything Goes at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster, Maryland. Produced by Allen Cross and Joan Eichhorn and directed by...

Review: ‘Margherita’ presented by Seventh Street Playhouse at Greenbelt Arts Center

Margherita by Anthony E. Gallo, presented by the Seventh Street Playhouse at the Greenbelt Arts Center under the direction of Beatrix Whitehall, is a drama about the long extramarital relationship...

Review: ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare, directed by Sally Boyett and Donald Hicken, is being performed on the grounds of St. John’s College in the...

Review: ‘Laughing Stock’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laughing Stock, a farce, written by Charles Morey, directed by Daniel Johnston, and produced by Maureen Rogers is at Laurel Mill Playhouse, until Sunday, July 15, 2018. Laughing Stock is perfect...

Review: ‘The Other Mozart’ at Columbia Festival of the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts began last week in Columbia, Maryland. After a wonderful weekend of music and other performances as well as a place for local artists to display their work at the...

Review: ‘5 Courses of Funny Fare’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

5 Courses of Funny Fare, written by Jim Wise and produced by Maureen Rogers and John Cusumano, and playing through this Sunday at Laurel Mill Playhouse, is really five One Act Plays, loosely tied...

Columbia Festival of the Arts Returns Starting June 14th, 2018

The highly anticipated Columbia Festival of the Arts begins on June 14th with the highly acclaimed The Stoop Storytelling Series at the Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. If you have never...

Review: ‘The Invisible Hand’ at Olney Theatre Center

The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar is a riveting political drama now playing at Olney Theatre Center under the direction of Michael Bloom. It will move you and keep you on the edge of your seat while...

Review: ‘Big Fish’ by Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

Big Fish, directed by TJ Lukacsina, opened this weekend at Slayton House in Columbia, Maryland. With the musical, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by John August, Big Fish opened on Broadway...

Review: ‘The Speed Twins’ at Venus Theatre

The Speed Twins by Maureen Chadwick is presently playing at Venus Theatre in Laurel Maryland. This is the National Premiere of the British drama and is directed by Deborah Randall who is also the...

Review: ‘Moon Over Buffalo’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

Moon Over Buffalo, written by Ken Ludwig, opened at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, directed by Larry Simmons and produced by Maureen Rogers. Moon Over Buffalo is a farce in the Shakespearean tradition....

Review: ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ at Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

The classic musical farce, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, danced and sang its way on stage this...

Review: ‘This Little Light’ at Venus Theatre

This Little Light by Jennifer Faletto opened this week at Venus Theatre. Deborah Randall is the director of this remarkable play. In her director’s notes, Randall calls This Little Light a comedy....

Review: ‘Titanic in Concert’ at the Heritage Players

Titanic in Concert, story and book by Peter Sone, lyrics and music by Maury Yeston, opened this weekend at the Heritage Players at the Rice Auditorium in Catonsville. This 1997 Tony Award-winning...

Preview: Howard Community College’s Arts Collective Presents ‘W.I.G. Valentine Affair’ at HCC

Underscoring the romance of the Valentine Holiday, W.I.G. Valentine Affair is presented by Howard Community College’s Arts Collective (AC) and its popular improv troupe, “What Improv Group?!?!”...

Interview: Jeremy Goldman on ‘Cabaret Night’ by Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

Silhouette Stages is best known for its spectacular musical productions. However, every once in a while, they like to give some of their talented members a chance to shine on their own by presenting...

Review: ‘Company’ presented by Fredericktowne Players

Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, is now playing at the JBK Theater at the Frederick Community College presented by the Fredericktowne Players. It was...

Review: ‘Holiday Memories’ at HCC Art’s Collective

Holiday Memories plays this weekend only at Howard Community College in the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center’s Studio Theatre produced by the Howard County Arts Collective and directed by...

Review: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life a Live Radio Play’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic. One we want to see every holiday season. Growing up, it was a household staple for us even though we were Jewish. The theme, the importance of kindness, the meaning...

Review: ‘Omnium Gatherum’ at Silver Spring Stage

In keeping with performing plays from five different decades in celebration of their 50th Anniversary Silver Spring reached back to right after Sept. 11, 2001, to do Omnium Gatherum by Alexandra...

Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by the enigmatic Harper Lee and dramatized by Christopher Sergel, opened at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, directed by Jen Sizer and produced by Maureen Rogers. A great...

Review: ‘Cry Baby’ at Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

Cry Baby opened at Slayton House in Columbia, MD this week. The play is based on a 1990s movie by John Waters of Hairspray fame and directed and choreographed by Tommy Malek. The play was turned into...

Review: ‘Into the Woods’ at Fredericktowne Players

Into the Woods, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, is now playing at the JBK Theater at the Frederick Community College, presented by the Fredericktowne Players. Into...

Review: ‘Deathtrap’ at Silver Spring Stage

The opening of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap this weekend marked the start of the 50th Season for Silver Spring Stage. The play, which opened on Broadway in the late 1970s, is a suspense thriller with lots of...

Review: ‘Aglaonike’s Tiger’ at Venus Theatre

Aglaonike’s Tiger, written by Claudia Barnett and directed by Deborah Randall, is playing now at the Venus Theatre in Laurel, MD. The drama is based on the first recorded woman astronomer of Ancient...

Review: ‘An Inspector Calls’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly, is currently playing at Laurel Mill Playhouse, produced by Maureen Rogers and directed by Ilene Chalmers. Priestly was from the working class, albeit white...

Review: Silver Spring Stage 2017 One Act Festival

Silver Spring Stage opened its 2017 One-Act Festival which has been part of their season for fifty years. Each weekend several short plays from the past and present are produced. There is usually no...

Review: ‘Thurgood’ at The Olney Theatre Center

Thurgood, a one-man-show by George Stevens, Jr., is playing at the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at the Olney Theatre Center in Olney. The play is a about the late Supreme Court Justice and respected...

Review: ‘The Lion in Winter’ at 4615 Theatre Company

The Lion in Winter, written by James Goldman and directed by Jordan Friend, opened this weekend at The Highwood Theatre in Silver Spring; it is being performed in repertory with King John. The play is...

Preview: ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

This weekend, Laurel Mill Playhouse (LMP) will be doing two tributes. The first is to the wonderful Carol Burnett Show that graced our TVs from 1967-1978. The show included those wonderful comedic...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

Sitting outdoors is probably the best venue to watch Shakespeare, and watching a production in July of his classic comedy A Midsummers Night’s Dream under the direction of Tom Delise is the ultimate...

Review: ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ at Silver Spring Stage

One Man, Two Guvnors directed by William T. Fleming and produced by Karen Flemling is now playing at Silver Spring Stage. This play is a British farce by Richard Bean, based on The Servant of Two...

Report: ‘Manual Cinema: The End of TV’ at the Columbia Festival of the Arts

Manual Cinema: The End of TV proved to be an interesting last night for the Columbia Festival of the Arts for this year. It was presented at the Smith Theatre at the Horowitz Center at Howard...

Review: ‘Stoop Storytelling Series: My Favorite Film’ at the Columbia Festival of the Arts

On Friday, June 23rd, the Columbia Festival of the Arts brought up the curtain on another edition of the wonderfully unusual, Baltimore-based performing arts group, Stoop Storytelling, at the Smith...

Review: ‘The Curious Savage’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

The Curious Savage by John Patrick, directed by Nick Cherone and produced by Maureen Rogers, is a comedy which premiered in 1950, and it provides much laughter and warmth. The story seems simple. Mrs....

Review: ‘Inheritors: The Nature of Keys’ at Howard Community College’s Arts Collective

Inheritors: The Nature of Keys is an original collaborative drama by Howard Community College’s Art Collective, directed by S. G. Kramer, that opened at the HCC’s Horowitz Center Studio Theatre on...

Preview: Columbia Festival of the Arts Come Home to the Lakefront, Celebrating Columbia’s 50th Anniversary

Under new Director David Phillips, the Columbia Festival of the Arts will be back at the Lakefront in Town Center Columbia this year. Phillips, who has a background as Associate Dean for the Visual,...

Review: ‘Silent Sky’ Reprised at Silver Spring Stage

Friday marked the reprisal at Silver Spring Stage of a very timely Silent Sky, by Laura Gunderson. Produced by Seth Ghitelman and directed by Bill Hurlbut, it is the fascinating story of Henrietta...

Review: ‘Tunnel Vision’ at Venus Theatre

Tunnel Vision, written by Andrea Lepcio and directed by Deborah Randall, at Venus Theatre is a powerful and a thought-provoking play. Venus Theatre, under the direction of Founder Deborah Randall, has...

Review: ‘Celebrations!’ Columbia Pro Cantare Celebrates 40-Year Anniversary at Jim Rouse Theatre

Columbia Pro Cantare celebrated a few occasions with its final performance of the Season with Celebrations! If you will note, Celebrations! is plural, because it not only marked the 40th Anniversary...