Broome Arts Mirror – Local Theatre Reviews
The Broome Arts Mirror is a group of volunteers affiliated with the Broome County Arts Council who write previews and reviews about local performances and arts shows. For inquiries, including having someone review your local production, please contact us at bamirror@broomearts.org.
BCAC director leaving post
Executive Director Laura Knochen-Davis will be leaving the Broome County Arts Council (BCAC) as of July 28. Knochen-Davis told the arts council board of directors that she is facing some family obligations that require her complete attention. "I am disappointed not to be able to continue in my position [...]
KNOW Theatre stages provocative evening
Reviewed by George Basler The latest KNOW Theatre production is entitled Provocative, Pointed and Purely Funny: An Evening with Edward Allan Baker, and that pretty much sums up what audiences will experience. Black humor, social commentary and heartache are on full display in Baker’s three one-act plays , which opened [...]
Broome High School Emerging Artists Exhibit
Broome High School Emerging Artists Exhibit Broome High School Emerging Artists Exhibit opened with an award ceremony on First Friday, April 7th. Nine Broome County high schools have seventy students displaying their two-dimensional art work at the Broome County Arts Council. […]
'Superstar' rocks at EPAC
photo credit/Stephanie Marie Reviewed by Nancy Oliveri Holy Week approaches on the Christian calendar, and with it comes the waving of palms, the washing of feet, penance, hot cross buns, the Cadbury bunny and (holy moly!) the 47-year-old rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, [...]
TCO announces 2017-18 season
By Barb Van Atta For its 69th season, Tri-Cities Opera again will divide its performance time between Broome County’s performing arts center and the opera company’s own newly refurbished headquarters. The season will open at The Forum, 236 Washington St., Binghamton, with a fully staged production of Puccini’s lyrical [...]
BAM reviewer discovers 'Unlimited Wonders' as part of BPO concert
By Lee Shepherd Saturday’s “Unlimited Wonders” concert (March 18) at The Forum with the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton afforded me, a choir member, an orchestra-side view of concert preparation rarely seen by audiences. Daniel Hege, interim conductor for the 2016-17 season, is a first-rate [...]
BCAC announces 24 UCF grants for 2017
By Barb Van Atta The Broome County Arts Council (BCAC) is awarding $231,246 in United Cultural Fund (UCF) grants for 2017. General operating grants will help support operations of seven major arts organizations. Seventeen project grants will support projects by community non-profits and individual artists. The recipients were to be [...]
Dramatic staging brings community reading program to life
By Nancy Oliveri A community-wide NEA Big Read program promoting reading and literacy is running throughout March and this weekend will include a compelling stage adaptation of the featured book. SUNY Broome Professor Mary Donnelly has been the force behind bringing this program to our community. Said Donnelly, “The Big Read [...]
Gregori and company bring 'loverly' musical to EPAC
Reviewed by Nancy Oliveri When Andrea Gregori wrote her bucket list, there was something she definitely wanted to cross off of it: the chance to play Eliza Doolittle in a fully staged production of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady. Now she can. Gregori’s Theatre Street Productions has collaborated with the [...]
Ti-Ahwaga Players make solid effort tackling difficult play
Reviewed by George Basler Put simply, Thorton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth is a play you’ll either love or hate. Written in 1939, and first performed in 1942, the tragicomedy totally rejects naturalism (some would say logic) for abstraction, allegory and absurdity. In short, it’s one of the [...]
Sam Shepard’s ‘A Lie of the Mind’ is a rich vehicle for BU Theatre Department
Reviewed by Nancy Oliveri A capable ensemble cast of eight occupies the Watters Theatre stage for the Binghamton University Theatre department’s production of A Lie of the Mind. Sam Shepard's three-act psychological drama provides a great vehicle for the acting talents of its cast, and it has more laughs than [...]
TCO double bill brilliantly conceived and performed
Reviewed by Sherri Strichman Last night (Feb. 17) Tri-Cities Opera-goers were treated to seemingly unconnected works, written by two seemingly unconnected composers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The result was a well-received double bill, brilliantly conceived, produced and performed. The first half of the evening was [...]
KNOW Theatre does solid job with perplexing play
Reviewed by George Basler Over the past 24 years, Binghamton’s KNOW Theatre has established a solid reputation for presenting provocative and/or less well-known plays. Its latest production, Of the Fields, Lately, which opened this past weekend (Feb. 10-12), certainly fits that bill. The slice-of-life family drama, set in 1961, [...]
EPAC’s 'Steel Magnolias' is quiet, well-acted study of friendship
Reviewed by Nancy Oliveri Six women’s lives play out in a Louisiana beauty parlor in Steel Magnolias, a two-act play by Robert Harling that was made into a star-studded film in 1989. I've never seen the movie, but I found the stage version engaging, as directed by Lorraine Tennant and Matt Gaska at [...]
BU museum showcases acquisitions from local collectors
By Chris Bahr A wonderful collection of prints and drawings from the 1920s through the 1940s opened Jan. 26 at Binghamton University to a very appreciative and rather sizeable crowd. “Works on Paper Between the Wars” highlights nearly 100 of the approximately 400 works on paper donated to the University [...]
