By Betsy Labiner. Originally published on Taming of the Review on March 16, 2023. Pru Payne, written by Steven Drukman and directed by Sean Daniels, is a hard show to categorize. It’s timeless, firmly rooted in the 1980s but inarguably current. It’s funny, but bleak. It’s gentle and caustic in turns. It’s resigned, yet hopeful. […]
By Kathleen Allen. Originally published by the Arizona Daily Star. If Elizabeth Hardwick and Dorothy Parker had a baby, it would be Pru Payne. Pru is the acerbic, acid-tongued character in Arizona Theatre Company’s Pru Payne. Like Hardwick and Parker, Pru is a critic, a towering intellectual, and can be seriously scary when she puts pen […]
Steven Drukman’s devastatingly honest play sheds light on mental illness and the invigorating power of love. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com. When Arizona Theatre Company redesigned its programming two years ago, a cloud of ambivalence engulfed a complacent viewing public. The company’s commitment to supporting uncharted material by a working crop of playwrights signaled ATC’s pivot […]
ATC has had the pleasure of working with countless talented and insightful directors throughout its years as a company. With ATC’s addition of Noël Coward’s Private Lives, comes the addition of accomplished director KJ Sanchez. Growing up on a ranch as the youngest of 12, Sanchez had her sights set on becoming a physical therapist. […]
With any play, the scenic designer has a responsibility to bring the words in the script to life based off of hints laid throughout it. Some scripts are more literal when it comes to describing the set, while others can be as vague as naming a simple room. Pru Payne is graced with the creative […]
Funny word: playwright — so often misspelled, given that “wright”and “write” are homonyms. But any playwright can tell you that plays are wrought — crafted — more than they’re written. You might ask four different wheelwrights to make you four different wheels; you wouldn’t ask any to write you one. Hand-wrought jewelry looks lovely on […]
THE GLASS MENAGERIE delivers a solid and heartbreaking cast at Arizona Theatre Company. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com. We can never know how Tennessee Williams might have fared had he remained a poet. By happy chance, his lyric acuity parlayed into a singularly rare narrative form, revolutionizing the theater landscape post-World War II. If the structure […]
ATC audiences will be treated to a star-studded cast in Steven Drukman’s world premiere of Pru Payne, as Tony Award nominee and Emmy and SAG Award winner Gordon Clapp joins Mimi Kennedy as Pru’s love interest, Gus. A theatre, television, and film actor widely known for his role as Det. Greg Medavoy for all 12 […]
By Kathy Allen. Originally published by the Arizona Daily Star. The Wingfield family is back. And you do not want to miss a visit with them. The Wingfields are the dysfunctional clan at the center of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” currently on stage at the Arizona Theatre Company. Williams’ 1944 play, which has been on ATC’s stage twice before, […]
Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com Arizona Theatre Company has announced that the world premiere of Pru Payne, winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, is coming to Tucson and Phoenix this spring. The show, written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Steven Drukman, is a funny and emotional journey about the evolution of love and identity in the […]