Sinister Kid - Patrick McCartney - The PIT Loft

Sinister Kid – The PIT Loft

Written and performed by Patrick McCartney (From Cold Lake, Elf, Conan O’Brien), Sinister Kid explores mental illness, trauma and addiction with humor and absolute truth. This deeply personal solo show starts with the death of McCartney’s mother and becomes an exploration of his alcoholism and heroin addiction, all the while taking the audience through his journey to reconnect with his mom. McCartney also shares the stage with violinist Mae Roney, whose music provides color and texture to the piece, and the show is directed by Shira Piven (Welcome to Me, Transparent).

Company XIV - Queen of Hearts - Photographer - Mark Shelby Perry

Queen of Hearts – Company XIV – Review

Queen of Hearts, currently playing through November 2, is everything I’ve come to expect from a Company XIV show, in the best way possible. Whenever I hear that Company XIV has a new show, I expect a stage filled with sexy people doing high kicks, acrobatics, and inventive covers of my favorite pop songs. It’s a few hours of escape from the real world into one of decadence and light-hearted debauchery. Queen of Hearts was all of it, but there was something more this time around that I wasn’t expecting.

Patience – Interview with Playwright Johnny G. Lloyd

In Johnny G. Lloyd’s new play Patience, a young black queer man grapples with the pressures of black excellence, building a life with his fiance, and maintaining his status as the world’s #1 ranked Solitaire player. Despite having a busy weekend closing out the Corkscrew Theater Festival, Johnny took the time to answer a few questions about the show and the challenges of making a solo card game compelling on stage.

The Magnificent Revengers - Logo

The Magnificent Revengers: This Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Is Peak Immersive Theater

The term “immersive theater” has been thrown around so much in recent years that it has lost much of its meaning and purpose as a storytelling device. Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is an example of doing it right, letting the audience explore the story as they please and have different experiences on each visit. Mamma Mia! The Party is tourist-friendly, and it’s more of an excuse for audiences to drink and dance to ABBA songs. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) Even the newest Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, which is already unconventional enough, is serving corn bread and chili at intermission.

Just as audiences are starting to get immersive theater fatigue, writer Matt Cox and director Kristin McCarthy Parker (Kapow-i GoGo, Puffs) come along with a premise that is insanely ambitious, technically challenging to say the least, and gobsmackingly brilliant. Their new play The Magnificent Revengers, which is currently playtesting at the People’s Improv Theater, is a choose-your-own-adventure revenge Western. Using their phones, the audience votes on a wide range of decisions, including whether to kill or spare an enemy, buy a boat, and which of your companions will get a pretty flower. Some of these decisions may seem minor, but there are always consequences down the road.

Broken Pieces – Interview with Writer-Actor Mateo Moreno

Anthology play Broken Pieces will play its final two performances on Saturday, July 28 at 3:15 PM and Monday, July 30 at 7:15 PM as part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Before ending its run, playwright Mateo Moreno (Bohemian Valentine, Paper Airplanes) chatted about current events that shaped the show and why he challenges his audience, even if it makes them uncomfortable.