The Boiling: A Tale of American Nihilism Sunhui Chang Magic Theatre in Association with Campo Santo At the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, playwright Sunhui Chang heard on a local Seattle newscast how two potentially infected individuals had voluntarily checked into a quarantine motel, only for one to be caught later on a surveillance camera walking out … [Read more...] about The Boiling: A Tale of American Nihilism
Magic Theatre
Garuda’s Wing
Garuda’s Wing Naomi Iizuka Magic Theatre in a Co-Production with Campo Santo “I’m going to tell you a story, and then maybe you’ll remember.” The last line of Naomi Iizuka’s latest play, Garuda’s Wing, is clearly aimed at us, the audience. The story we have witnessed over the past ninety minutes in Magic Theatre and Campo Santo’s world premiere production has been … [Read more...] about Garuda’s Wing
Miriam and Esther Go to the Diamond District
Miriam and Esther Go to the Diamond District Andrea Gordon Rainbow Zebra Productions LLC at the Magic Theatre Memories of parents long dead, of childhoods interrupted, and of a sibling relationship almost non-existent swirl amongst a stored-box clutter of letters, pictures, knickknacks, and clothing from lifetimes past as two sisters sort through their own and their … [Read more...] about Miriam and Esther Go to the Diamond District
The NI¿¿ER LOVERS
The NI¿¿ER LOVERS: An Amerikkan Musical Marc Anthony Thompson, Writer & Composer Magic Theatre In 1848, a young, married couple devised and successfully executed in eight days a daring, dangerous plan to escape the horrific bondage of slavery in Macon, Georgia to find freedom in Boston – the light-skinned wife disguised as a man and her darker-skinned husband, as … [Read more...] about The NI¿¿ER LOVERS
The Travelers
The Travelers Luis Alfaro Magic Theatre, in Co-Production with Campo Santo A parable. An allegory. A dream. A mind-bending, fascinating fable. Any and all of these descriptors are possibilities to describe Luis Alfaro’s newest, stage creation, The Travelers, now in a gripping world premiere by Magic Theatre and Campo Santo – a co-production both ethereal and … [Read more...] about The Travelers
Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) Sam Chase Magic Theatre What possibly can a missing sister, a jobless actor, an unhappy TV writer, an impending break-up, sea coral, and sloths have in common with monuments and legacies? In Sam Chase’s Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play), the answer is actually quite a lot. Now in a rapid-paced, video-rich, completely … [Read more...] about Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
Don’t Eat the Mangos
While entering the theatre and being tempted to do a few salsa steps to the hip-swiveling Latinx music playing all around us, it is impossible not to notice there are mangos – many rotting – piled on the floor of the tropical house’s kitchen. There is also a tree laden with ripening mangos that is intertwined into the decorative, iron-gate entrance to the house – a tree that … [Read more...] about Don’t Eat the Mangos
The Chinese Lady
“What is happening is a performance. For my entire life is a performance. These words that you hear are not my own. These clothes I wear are not my own. This body that I occupy is not my own.” In 1834, two traders of Far East Oriental imports to New York arranged for a Chinese girl of fourteen and of the wealthy class to come to the United States for two years in order to … [Read more...] about The Chinese Lady
“Oedipus El Rey”
Oedipus El ReyLuis AlfaroMagic TheatreGendell Hing-Hernandez, Armando Rodriguez, Esteban Carmona & Juan Amador“Do we lay down and take what the world has given us?Or do we break down the cycle, the system, and tell new stories?Can we live the story not yet told and the possibility not yet imagined?Or are we fated?”Ten years ago, Magic Theatre staged the world premiere of … [Read more...] about “Oedipus El Rey”
‘In Old Age”
In Old AgeMfoniso UdofiaMagic TheatreSteven Anthony Jones & Nancy MoricetteFor those of us who first met Nigerian immigrant Abasiama Ekpeyoung as a young woman in Houston and have watched her through the happy and troubled times of her long life by seeing some or all of the four prior plays of Mfoniso Udofia’s “Ufot Family Cycle,” seeing her now as an old woman in the … [Read more...] about ‘In Old Age”
“The Resting Place”
The Resting PlaceAshlin HalfnightMagic TheatreJames Carpenter and Cast of The Resting PlaceHow many times a month, a week do we read yet another headline of one person’s atrocious act against innocent others -- be it extortion, murder, or sexual abuse of other adults or of children? And while any passing thoughts and sympathies we may pause a few minutes to contemplate … [Read more...] about “The Resting Place”
“The Gangster of Love”
The Gangster of LoveJessica HagedornMagic TheatreLance Gardner & Golda SargentoTwo pairs of eyes widen to reveal mammoth rings of white around dark, darting balls as a brother and sister sway with the ocean’s waves, looking for the first signs of the Golden Gate. While the girl’s eyes sing with wonder and excitement, the boy’s silently scream of anxiety and maybe … [Read more...] about “The Gangster of Love”
“Reel to Reel”
Reel to ReelJohn KolvenbachMagic TheatreWill Marchetti & Carla SpindtWhat does a marriage of fifty-five years sound like? Her middle of the night mumbles, snorts, and snores? His habit of opening a squeaky cabinet ever so slowly to hear each tick? Her end of day footstep that is “like a sack of flour dropped off a three-inch cliff”? His upset voice … [Read more...] about “Reel to Reel”
“The Eva Trilogy”
The Eva TrilogyBarbara HammondMagic TheatreJulia McNealWith ocean waves crashing somewhere in an unseen nearby and invisible sea gulls noisily swooping overhead, she sits on the stage’s lone brick doorstep. Forehead furrowed deep for someone only in midlife, cheeks alternating between long and pooched but always with cheerful dimples, and red hair giving away her Irish heritage … [Read more...] about “The Eva Trilogy”
“Grandeur”
GrandeurHan OngMagic TheatreCarl Lumbly“Time is the greatest writer of us all.Time has written over what I’ve written. Time has made me more moving than I set out to be and less potent than I was before.”Time’s march toward some inevitable but as-yet-undefined end for one man is an underlying tension point in Han Ong’s new play, Grandeur, now in its world premiere at Magic … [Read more...] about “Grandeur”
