Shows I saw in Fall 2009

[lorimt]

I decided to go see a bunch of theater this fall, much of it of completely unknown quality. The short answer is that I really liked the ART shows I saw, and overall enjoyed the piles of theater immensely. Goldstar half-price tickets and community theater mean you can try a lot of different things for under $20. Even without that, the ART tickets are probably worth it if the show looks appealing...

• Aurelia's Oratorio (???): A very french-inspired story/lyrically based dance show, for lack of better words, with the best possible circus influences. Had some truly amazing pieces, and may be one of my favorites of everything I saw. Despite being entirely wordless, there was a clear thread of story pulling you along, as well as beautiful and lush imagery. Maybe a little too many pieces based on dancing with pieces of cloth, but also had curtain sex, which was just amusing. The opening bureau sequence, and one with a red scarf (if I recall right) were among the best, but I keep thinking of other bits worth mentioning. Because of the color intensity, I imagine standard videotaping would only capture part of the experience, but I'd be willing to watch and find out. :)
  
• Cosi Fan Tutte (Aug 7): I got a free ticket for this show at BU. It sure was an opera. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm terribly fond of opera, so this was somewhat wasted on me.
  
• Truth Values (September 12): A one-woman show about her experience as a math PhD student at MIT about 30 years ago. A very interesting show, one I would have liked to discuss more with people. I'm curious how similar/different things are now, and it also brought along a bunch of questions about where the boundary between Math as a field having lots of "quirky" people in it, and where those quirks cross a line. (Some cases, like having your office mate profess undying love for you, then follow you around staring at you, are pretty obvious...) The show itself worked better for me than I expected, but there are still stereotypical aspects of a one-person show that I'm still not a huge fan of (like rolling on the ground for no apparent reason).
  
• Never After (Sept 27): This is a lesbian fairy tale musical written by a local author and performed by a community theater company. It was definitely a show you watched for the handful of excellent bits, rather than the overall performance, but was a really good time. I meant to go see their performance of War of the Worlds as a Boston radio show, but never actually made it.
  
• The Donkey Show (October 3): Midsummer Night's Dream done as a 70's disco show. The bulk of the "seats" were on the dance floor, and the first hour or so was just dancing. This was an excellent show, that worked way better than it had any right to. Did some really interesting stuff with where they staged things, and how they made everything fit. The disco theme fit better than I possibly expected. Am planning to go see again.
  
• Shaolin Warriors (Oct 16): More like a demo than a show, has to be more stage fighting than actual displays because of the setup. Definitely interesting, and watching the Shaolin monks who speak no English herd like 100 kids starting at age 2 or so into doing a simple form was excellent.
  
• Toons Concert for a Cure (Nov 7): This is always one of my favorite Toons shows, and I liked this year particularly well. Acapella, improv (better this time than many) and miscellaneous dance. I didn't make it to as many Toons shows this year, which meant more of their repertoire was new to me.
  
• The Sparrow (Nov 8): This show is from a Chicago company fclbrokle is very fond of. The premise is that a young girl returns to her hometown and discovers she has superpowers. It was a good production, which I remember liking a *lot* during the show, but which decreased somewhat as I thought about it more. This show did lead to watching "The Curse of the Crying Heart", which has some of the best stage choreography I've seen. Someday, the DVD will show up, and I'll inflict it on people.
  
• Sleep No More (Dec 13): Macbeth, in the vague style of Hitchcock, done mostly as an interactive environment where the actors are mostly dancing. I feel like I missed a lot, and might have appreciated more spoken bits, but the set was *amazing* and the show was quite good. I saw *maybe* half the set, and only bits of the "show" proper. Might well go again, if the occasion arises.
  

Also worth mentioning

• UP: Awww
  
• Whip It: Roller derby!
  
• San Diego Zoo: OMG giant polar bear
  
• King Richard's Faire: Still want those boots, if only I could change them completely.
  
• More stuff I've totally forgotten to mention, but which was also awesome. It's been a good fall.