TDF Stages Archive

By Mark Blankenship As Sky Masterson in the current Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls , Craig Bierko has asked luck to be a lady hundreds of times since the production opened last fall at the Nederlander Theatre. Since he's been playing Sky for months, Bierko is faced with the particular challenges of a long […]

By Isaac Butler The past looms large in Zakiyyah Alexander’s 10 Things To Do Before I Die . In the play, directed by Jackson Gay for Second Stage Uptown, two estranged sisters pick over their past and ten boxes of their dead father’s belongings while trying to make sense of their lives. The older sister, […]

Pete Mannion still remembers his first visit to the TKTS Discount Booth in 1976. He and his whole family boarded the LIRR from Bayside, Queens for a Saturday in the city. After a visit to a beloved aunt on the East Side, the Mannions headed for Times Square and picked their entertainment for the day. […]

by Isaac Butler "Alright everyone, gather round the piano."  It's the final day of major rehearsals during previews for the new musical Coraline , and there are a few rejiggered bars of music to integrate. Director Leigh Silverman (whom I'm observing courtesy of a fellowship with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation) is working swiftly […]

The long run of Lynn Nottage’s extraordinary Congo-set drama Ruined —roughly eight months, if you count its start at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre last fall before it came to Manhattan Theatre Club in February—is finally taking its toll on actress Condola Rashad, 21, who makes her professional debut in the role of Sophie, a pretty young […]

by: Linda Buchwald @rockofages RT What is the worst 80s catch phrase? "Man I love being a turtle!" (via @JessicaWellsRH) Were live from the Tonys Preview Concert where @thetonyawards is tweeting Saycon's outfit. NATALIE – @Henry, UM, I'm practicing for my recital on Tuesday.  Will call later. These phrases may read like a foreign language, […]

Imagine a play about a dysfunctional family gathering to sort through the wreckage after the aging patriarch has suddenly left the scene. After partly reverting to their childhood roles and reliving old squabbles, the absent father’s adult children begin to realize the need to get past blaming everything on their parents. Yes, Lloyd Suh’s new […]

I Am From El Café , the first play presented at Landmark High School in midtown Manhattan, boasted a cast of twelve actors, who also doubled as playwrights and directors. The play was a 30-minute piece which touched the social, academic and familial problems faced by today’s teens. These students were participating in TDF’s new […]

They say timing is everything in show business, and Epic Theatre Ensemble’s A More Perfect Union , which opens this week, definitely has timing on its side. Vern Thiessen’s new play follows the complicated politics of the United States Supreme Court, a subject that’s freshly in the news with the announced retirement of Justice David […]