(Photo credit: Doug Catiller, True Image Studio)
Pro-wrestling and theatre. When you think about it, it’s not a weird combination. Isn’t pro-wrestling recycled theatre with jocks? The stage is the wrestling ring, and the script determines the outcome. The only things that change are the characters (wrestlers), the storyline, and the performance. The Chance Theatre puts on a spectacle with the pro-wrestling satire The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Continue Reading
Photo credit : (Camryn Long & Doug Catiller)
“We are the kids of war and peace/From Anaheim to the Middle East”[1]
A lot has been said about the similarities between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. One way they differ though is how they impacted popular music. While the Vietnam War spawned a subgenre of protest songs that are highly regarded to this day, the protest songs commenting on the Iraq War are not numerous or as well remembered. Green Day’s 2004 rock opera American Idiot is the exception to the rule. In addition to becoming a commercial and critical success, American Idiot spawned a Broadway musical adaptation of the album, and now it’s playing at the Chance Theater. Continue Reading
(Photos by Camryn Long)
The Orange County Premiere of Cry It Out is now playing at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills. This play is a dramatic comedy about new mothers dealing with the struggles of motherhood in modern times. It’s set in 2019 and somewhere in Port Washington, Long Island. Chance Theater’s production of Cry It Out is incredibly entertaining, comedic, and serious. It is a beautifully cathartic telling of three different women living very close to each other but with very different lives. Continue Reading
(All photos by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio)
In 2002, Dael Orlandersmith’s play, Yellowman, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It’s understandable. As far as categories are concerned, Yellowman could not be considered anything else. With only two actors playing an entire cast of distinct and lively characters, this play is chock-full of opportunities for the chosen pair to showcase their talents. And the cast of Chance Theater’s production certainly showcase their talents. Masterfully directed by Khanisha Foster and passionately performed by Julanne Chidi Hill (Alma + ensemble) and Dante Alexander (Eugene + ensemble), Yellowman is a vicious exploration of self-hate within Black America and an attempt at love by two of its children.
All photos by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio
The Chance Theater brings back live, in-person theater for the first time since the pandemic with the Orange County premiere of EDGES, a musical written by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the award-winning songwriters of La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen. EDGES is an earlier work from the award-winning duo, and the signs of their talent are all over this script. Still, this script’s bones (structure) feel uneven, and this striped-down production shows off the flaws in the material instead of improving on it. Continue Reading
Heartstrings, heartstrings, heartstrings — writer Brian Hill hits you and keeps hitting you in the heart until the curtain closes at the end of the production. He understands the heart — or at least a portion of it — in this grounded two-hander about friendship, loss, and life now playing at the Chance Theater in Anaheim through a digital live streaming production. Continue Reading
