A Heroine’s Inner Flame, Fueled by an Excess of Feeling
The New York Times
Rachel Saltz
May 9, 2008
Written in 1951, “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale” was Tennessee Williams’s revision of the more familiar “Summer and Smoke.” He preferred “Eccentricities,” he wrote in an author’s note. “It is... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Variety
Mark Blakenship
May 6, 2008
It's time to re-evaluate "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale." When the play debuted on Broadway in 1976 after being tweaked for 25 years, it bore a double burden: It was written by Tennessee... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
The New Yorker
May 26, 2008
Tennessee Williams’s 1951 revision of “Summer and Smoke” hasn’t been seen in New York for more than thirty years, and this superb revival could leave one wondering why. Alma Winemiller, an unwed... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
TheatreMania
David Finkel
May 6,2008
Alma Winemiller is such a nervous bird that her father sits her down to criticize the compulsive "gestures and facial expressions" she makes singing at Glorious Hill, Mississippi holiday functions. As... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Show Business Weekly
Andrea M. Meek
May 12, 2008
Like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, the high-strung Alma Winemiller in The Eccentricities of a Nightingale reflects Tennessee Williams’s... [read more]
Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Edge New York, NY
Steve Weinstein
May 10, 2008
Wow, wow and wow. And wow. Many people know "Summer and Smoke" from the movie that starred Geraldine Paige. But what most people don’t know is that that play is a reworking of an earlier work, both... [read more]
Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Theater Scene.net
Diedre Donovan
May 7, 2008
There may not be any second acts in American life, but there may be second chances for failed American plays. The Actors Company Theatre has bravely remounted Tennessee Williams’s Eccentricities of a... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Curtain Up
Simon Saltzman
May 6, 2008
Where did the fire come from? — Alma No one has ever been able to answer the question. — John Tennessee Williams’s extensive and aggressive re-write of Summer and Smoke is something of a... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
NYTheatre.com
David Johnston
May 6, 2008
The Actors Company Theatre presents a revival of Tennessee Williams's The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. This description is from the company: "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale charts the... [read more]
THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
May 6, 2008
For those who take theater seriously, “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale” by Tennessee Williams, his reworking of “Summer and Smoke,” is a revival of extreme importance. Rarely seen, the play is a... [read more]
Showtime! - Broadway Blog
BroadwayWorld.com
Michael Dale
May 12, 2008
While Broadway audiences are getting a taste of Tennessee Williams' revised text for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Off-Off-Broadway's The Actors Company Theatre (T.A.C.T.) is treating New Yorkers to a rare... [read more]
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Back Stage
David A. Rosenberg
May 6,2008
Tennessee Williams was never satisfied. Obsessed with demons in his private and public lives, he revised many of his plays, none more drastically, perhaps, than his 1947 Summer and Smoke. Resurfacing... [read more]
Eccentricities by Tennessee Williams
jbspins.blogspot.com
J.B.
May 6, 2008
Alma Winemiller must be eccentric. She is far too demonstrative in her music. Not that music is an inappropriate pursuit in itself—she just puts too much of herself into it for the tastes of... [read more]
Strange Fascination
Off Off Online
William Coyle
May 6, 2008
The Actors Company Theatre’s (TACT’s) production of The Eccentricities of a Nightingale at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row faithfully and utterly brings to life the pathos and deep longing for... [read more]
Murder and Hymns
The New York Times
Anne Midgette
November 13, 2007
Images of metal bars, white on black like Wedgwood patterning, run around the shallow stage where the Actors Company Theater revival of “The Runner Stumbles” is set. The bars sometimes denote a... [read more]
The Runner Stumbles
Back Stage
Ron Cohen
Nov. 4, 2007
Milan Stitt's intense drama The Runner Stumbles gets an intense revival under the aegis of the estimable Actors Company Theatre. Stitt's play, which was produced on Broadway in 1976 and ran for nearly... [read more]
The Runner Stumbles, But Not The Production
Broadway Bullet
John R DeLamar Jr.
Nov. 13, 2007
It's been more than three decades since the Milan Stitt drama, The Runner Stumbles, has been seen on Broadway, even on a proffesional New York Stage, but thanks to our dear friends at The Actor's... [read more]
The Runner Stumbles
Theater Mania
David Finkel
Nov. 5, 2008
Before there was Doubt, there was a tradition of theater works about priests whose faith is either tested or is already as weak as an oak leaf on a November bough. One of the most esteemed is Milan... [read more]
THE RUNNER STUMBLES
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
Nov. 5, 2007
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) digs back into play history to revive “The Runner Stumbles,” a drama by Milan Stitt that was done on Broadway in 1976 and also became a film. Did a priest in Michigan... [read more]
Runner Stumbles: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Subpoena?
Broadway World.com
Duncan Pflaster
Nov. 9, 2007
Picture it: Solon, Michigan. 1911. A young nun is found dead, and when rumor gets around that she was living in the rectory with the local priest, he is accused of her murder, and put on trial... [read more]
An English Village Bedeviled by Ideas Out of This World
The New York Times
Neil Genzlinger
May 7, 2007
Now the archaeologists at the Actors Company Theater have unearthed the literary forerunner of Royston Vasey. It’s the town that is the setting for “The Sea,” a funny-in-that-British-way play by... [read more]
The Sea - Five stars
Time Out - New York
Jeff Lewonczyk
May 3, 2007
Audiences familiar with British playwright Edward Bond’s grim, violent 1965 play Saved (featuring a famous scene in which a baby is stoned to death) may be surprised to discover that The Sea (1973... [read more]
Theatre Reviews - The Sea by Edward Bond
Stage and Cinema.com
Harvey Perr
April 30, 2007
It is a beautiful and wondrous thing to see how artfully the creative crew of “The Sea” have put together their play on a much more limited budget with more limited resources. While it amounts to the... [read more]
April Leftovers
TheaterMania.com
Peter Filichia
April 30, 2007
I was asked to be a Lucile Lortel Award nominator for the 2007-2008 season, so I’ve been going to many more off-Broadway shows. My term started on April 1, so I want to give you my opinions so far... [read more]
Alighting in the Confines of a Lonely Cuckoo's Nest
The New York Times
by NEIL GENZLINGER
December 8, 2006
David Storey’s “Home,” a portrait of four fragile people in a home for the mentally disturbed or disabled, is achingly beautiful, especially as staged by the Actors Company Theater at the Samuel... [read more]
Home
nytheatre.com
by Jo Ann Rosen
December 8, 2006
The revival of David Storey's Home, now at the Beckett Theatre, is a double launching for The Actors Company Theatre (TACT): that is, it is TACT'S first season on Theater Row and it is a full... [read more]
HOME (2006 REVIVAL)
Wolfentertainmentguide.com
by William Wolf
December 8, 2006
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) previously did a reading of “Home,” but now is presenting it as a full-fledged revival, a welcome step, as the same cast has the opportunity to make David Storey’s... [read more]
HOME - Backstage Review - CRITICS PICK
Backstage
by Karl Levett
December 7, 2006
Two nattily dressed English gentlemen meet in what seems to be a local public park. They are Harry (Larry Keith) and Jack (Simon Jones), and they sit and reminisce, uttering half-finished phrases in a... [read more]
HOME - TheatreMania Review
TheatreMania.com
Dan Bacalzo
December 8, 2006
The simple charms of David Storey's 1970 play Home cannot be denied, and this revival by The Actors' Company Theatre (TACT) is thoroughly enchanting and superbly acted. Home begins with the meeting... [read more]
HOME: Small Talk
BroadwayWorld.com
by Michael Dale
December 9, 2006
To say that nothing really happens in David Storey’s 1970 Tony-nominated play Home, now getting a charming, moving and extremely well-acted mounting from The Actors’ Company Theatre (TACT), would be... [read more]
HOME
Variety
By Marilyn Stasio
December 11, 2006
David Storey's "Home" has been in deep storage for 35 years, its revival appeal curbed by the indelible memory of the 1971 Broadway production starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson as two duffers... [read more]
HOME Review
Performing Arts Insider
Richmond Shepard
December 28, 2006
The Actors Company Theatre, the finest play-reading group in NY, has just finished a fully-stage rendition of HOME by David Storey. In Act One, it is fascinating how the consummate actors, Larry... [read more]
THE HOT L BALTIMORE
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
May 15, 2006
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) usually digs further back into theater history for its staged readings that rediscover interesting works for reappraisal. Lanford Wilson’s “The Hot L Baltimore... [read more]
The Hot L Baltimore
New York Calling/Wolf Entertainment
William Wolf
May 7, 2006
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) usually digs further back into theater history for its staged readings that rediscover interesting works for reappraisal. Lanford Wilson’s “The Hot L Baltimore... [read more]
Both Your Houses
Curtain Up
Elyse Sommer
March 11, 2006
Mercutio's famous putdown quoted above, was aimed at the feuding families whose children's star crossed love affair fell victim to their squabblings. The houses alluded to in Maxwell Anderson's title... [read more]
Both Your Houses
New York Calling/ Wolf Entertainment
William Wolf
May 7, 2006
Maxwell Anderson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Both Your Houses” was produced in 1933, but it could just as well have been written today. The evidence was amply evident in the staged reading by The... [read more]
He And She (In Concert)
BackStage
Harry Forbes
November 21, 2005
Unless you were at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1980, when -- for a series of lesser-known American plays -- BAM unearthed Rachel Crothers' feminist He and She (one of the best of that season... [read more]
Watch on the Rhine in Concert
BackStage
Harry Forbes
October, 2005
It's good to be reminded that a vehicle now most remembered as a Bette Davis late-night staple holds its own quite well on stage, thank you, and in this case a stage without the frills of a full... [read more]
Watch on the Rhine
Lively Arts/Performing Arts Insider
Richmond Shepard
October 21, 2005
The best play reading troupe in America, ACTORS COMPANY THEATRE (TACT), has done it again in their marvelous reading of Lillian Hellman's powerful play from 1942 WATCH ON THE RHINE. With a top-notch... [read more]
WATCH ON THE RHINE
New York Calling
William Wolf
October 18, 2005
The Actor’s Company Theatre (TACT) has given many fine reading performances of important plays, but I can’t think of any that moved me more than its presentation (Oct. 15-17, 2005) of Lillian... [read more]
Robot original makes a comeback
New Jersey.Com
Jim Beckerman
Arpil 29, 2005
Robots are everywhere these days: from the cartoon cutups of the movie "Robots" to the droids in the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" to the little automatic gizmo that vacuums... [read more]
The Robots Are Coming! TACT Presents Staged Concert Revival of Karel Capek's R.U.R. April 30-May 2
Playbill.com
Kenneth Jones
April 25, 2005
TACT (The Actors Company Theatre), known for its stylized concert performances of neglected plays, presents Karel Capek's R.U.R., which gave us the word "robot," April 30-May 2 in... [read more]
Get the Latest Dish on the NYC Theater Scene with John Rowell
Show Business
John Rowell
April 25, 2005
TACTFULLY YOURS: As I have often remarked in this column, we in New York are lucky to have several fine theater companies in our Off-Broadway midst who continue to remember the past, researching and... [read more]
R.U.R.
Wolf Entertainm Guide
William Wolf
May 1, 2005
First staged in 1921, Czech author Karel Capek’s futuristic play “R.U.R.,” which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots, offered a prophetic view of a mechanized society in which robots are produced in... [read more]
HOME
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
March 15, 2005
Of all The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) readings I have attended, “Home” is the most moving. David Storey’s play is a difficult one to stage because it is quite ephemeral and delicate with room for... [read more]
Staying Alive in a Haze of Memories
The New York Times
Neil Genzlinger
March 14, 2005
In a sublime script-in-hand staging, the Actors Company Theater is making an excellent case for a full-scale revisiting of "Home," a gently unsettling play by David Storey that was seen on Broadway in... [read more]
Simon Jones Stars in Max Frisch's The Firebugs, Ignited by The Actors Company Theatre Nov. 20-22
Playbill
Kenneth Jones
November 17, 2004
TACT (The Actors Company Theatre), the troupe that stages stylized concert performances of "neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit," presents The Firebugs by Swiss writer Max Frisch Nov... [read more]
COME ON BABY, LIGHT MY FIREBUG:
Show Business
John Rowell
November 15, 2004
COME ON BABY, LIGHT MY FIREBUG: The always interesting TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) continues to resurrect obscure and fascinating plays, and this month, the group unearths the 1958 comedy, The... [read more]
Voice Choises - The Firebugs
Voice.com
Soloski
November 15, 2004
The Firebugs A literal rendering of the German title of the Max Frisch play would read “Conventional Man and the Fire Founders,” but the Actors Company Theater, under the direction of Scott Alan... [read more]
THE FIREBUGS
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
November 24, 2004
Brave is the company that attempts a reading of Swiss writer Max Frisch’s play “The Firebugs,” and TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) did just that in its traditional staged reading format (Nov. 20-22... [read more]
Rattigan's Rare WWII Drama, Flare Path, Gets Concert Revival by TACT in NYC Oct. 16-18
Playbill.com
Kenneth Jones
September 30, 2004
Flare Path, Terrence Rattigan's play about World War II British fighter pilots and the women they love, will open the 2004-05 season of TACT — The Actors Company Theatre.Co-artistic director Simon... [read more]
Flare Path in Concert
Backstage.com
Victor Gluck
October 22, 2004
Presented by the Actors Company Theatre (TACT) at Florence Gould Hall, French Institute/Alliance Français, 55 E. 59 St., NYC, Oct. 16-18. If you thought the drawing-room drama had no more ability... [read more]
FLARE PATH
Performing Art Insider & Lively Arts
Richmond Shepard
October 22, 2004
Want to have a marvelous theatrical experience? The Actors Company Theatre /TACT) is without a doubt the best play-reading troupe in this town (or any other town that I’ve seen). Their staged... [read more]
FLARE PATH
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
October, 25 2004
There were only five chairs on stage plus three musicians in the background on the side. In a matter of moments an illusion was created that we were near an airbase in wartime England with life and... [read more]
The Triangle Factory Fire Project
Katie Riegel
May 10, 2004
In 1911 a fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in downtown Manhattan's Asch Building at the juncture of Washington and Greene Streets killed 146 workers--mostly young immigrant women--in the space... [read more]
The Triangle Factory Fire Project Makes for Fresh, Bracing Theater
American Theatre Web
May 15, 2005
On its own, Christopher Piehler’s The Triangle Factory Fire Project would be a potent retelling of the events of March 25, 1911, when a fire at the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory consumed three floors... [read more]
The Triangle Factory Fire Project
Curtain Up.com
May 15, 2004
Combining a great tragedy and a headline making courtroom trial makes for a heady mix for using the theater as a vehicle for dynamic social commentary. Christopher Piehler\'s The Triangle Factory... [read more]
In 2 shows, key players held to account
New York Daily News
Howard Kissell
May 28, 2004
Political reality is certainly a subject our theater should deal with more often — and more intelligently — than it does. Examples of the strengths and pitfalls of using it are on view a few doors... [read more]
THE TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE PROJECT
ELJ All Arts Annex
Kessa Di Santis
May 20, 2004
On March 25, 1911 a rapid blaze at the Triangle Waist Company, a factory near Washington Square Park in Manhattan, led to the deaths of one hundred forty-six workers, most within 25 minutes from when... [read more]
New Play The Triangle Factory Fire Project Opens Off-Broadway May 19
Playbill.com
Robert Simonson
May 19, 2004
The Actors Company Theatre, the Off-Broadway troupe known as TACT, takes a break from its concert-reading format May 19 to officially open a fully-produced company created world premiere, The Triangle... [read more]
An early darkhorse contender for an Obie in 2004-05
New York Theatre Wire
Robert Hicks
June 1, 2004
Playwright Christopher Piehler used personal witness accounts to give firsthand authenticity and heartfelt immediacy to the myriad tragedies in act one of his new dramatization of the 1911 fire that... [read more]
THE TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE PROJECT
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
May 20, 2004
Every time I pass the plaque on the New York University building at Greene Street and Washington Place commemorating the 1911 shirtwaist factory fire, I try to imagine the horror that claimed the... [read more]
DELIVERED WITH FIRE
New York Post
By Donald Lyons
May 20, 2004
On March 25, 1911, fire ripped through the top three floors of the Asch building, at Washington Place and Greene Street. The site was home to a manufacturing concern, the Triangle Shirtwaist... [read more]
GLENN LONEY'S SHOW NOTES - Triangle Factory Fire Project
New York Theatre Wire
Glenn Loney
May 30, 2004
THE TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE PROJECT [****] Playwright Christopher Piehler—working with the ensemble of the Actors Company Theatre—has recalled for modern audiences a ghastly chapter in the American... [read more]
A History that Strikes Close to Home
Offoffonline.com
by Karen Barrow
May 21, 2004
A good play is a wonderful distraction. A great play tugs at your emotional core. A truly great play does all that and also affects its audience by triggering memories and influencing one’s view of... [read more]
Get the Latest Dish on the NYC Theater Scene with John Rowell
Show Business
John Rowell
January 10, 2004
CAMPBELL’S OR PROGRESSO? Any theater company whose motto includes celebrating "language, the actor and the spoken word" is just fine with me, and The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) does that, and also... [read more]
The Chalk Garden
Show Business
John Rowell
March 12, 2004
• HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? I’m always thrilled when theater companies make it part of their mission to stage neglected or rarely produced plays, and TACT, The Actors Company Theatre, is one of the... [read more]
"The Chalk Garden in Concert"
Backstage.com
Harry Forbes
March 19, 2004
The wit and exquisite construction of Enid Bagnold's 1955 comedy come across to a remarkable degree in TACT's semi-staged reading. The humor and poignancy are all the more surprising after enduring an... [read more]
Blossom Time: The Chalk Garden Gets Concert Reading by TACT in NYC March 13-15
Playbill
Kenneth Jones
February 20, 2004
TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) presents a concert reading revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden for three performances only, March 13-15, at Florence Gould Hall in Manhattan. The troupe, run... [read more]
The Good Soup (La bonne soupe) in Concert
Backstage.com
Victor Gluck
January 28, 2004
Garson Kanin's adaptation of Felicien Marceau's Parisian hit "La bonne soupe" opened on Broadway in 1960 as "The Good Soup" starring Ruth Gordon -- and folded quickly. TACT (The Actors Company... [read more]
THE GOOD SOUP (LA BONNE SOUPE)
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
January 27, 2004
TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) has performed another service in introducing its fans to a play (three performances only from Jan. 24-26, 2004) that hasn't been staged in New York since 1960, when... [read more]
Fathers and Sons in Concert
Backstage
Victor Gluck
December 9, 2003
Although Brian Friel's skillful adaptation of Ivan Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" had a successful run at Britain's National Theatre in 1987, it has not had a New York performance until now. TACT... [read more]
The Marriage of Bette and Boo in Concert
Backstage
Karl Levett
October 29, 2003
Christopher Durang has always had a unique theatrical voice. His heady mix of wit, anger, and pathos are probably best illustrated in his play "The Marriage of Bette and Boo." It was given a memorable... [read more]
THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO
WOLF ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
William Wolf
October 21, 2003
The Actor's Company Theatre (TACT) has launched its new season, its 11th, and the initial result, a dramatized reading of Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" (Oct. 18,19 and 20, 2003... [read more]
A CurtainUp Review U.S.A.
Curtain Up
Elyse Sommer
May 5, 2003
If you thought the war was lousy, wait until you see the peace --- Colonel Edgecombe. The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) which performs plays either rarely done or largely forgotten in what it... [read more]
U.S.A.
NY Theatre Review
Martin Denton
May 5, 2003
In a time when too much of what's produced in the theatre is a revival of a show either too familiar or too trivial to offer substantial enlightenment, it's a privilege and pleasure to come upon... [read more]
The Potting Shed: A Staged Reading
Back Stage
Victor Gluck
February 7, 2003
Graham Greene's metaphysical detective story, "The Potting Shed," was written as a drawing-room drama, a genre that has ceased to exist. Nevertheless, after a slow start, Scott Alan Evans' staged... [read more]
Greene's The Potting Shed Served Well by TACT
American Theatre Web
January 24, 2003
Seeing plays, well-known or otherwise, in the setting of a rehearsed reading can be a blessing and a curse. One the one hand, a reading will give audiences the opportunity to hear a work performed... [read more]
Productions Featured in Etcetera and New & Noteworthy Pages by Elyse Sommer
Curtain Up
Elyse Sommer
November 23, 2002
The Rivals. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals is the 2nd in the TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) 10th Anniversary season at the company's new home at the French Institute Alliance Français. The... [read more]
THE RIVALS
Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
November 23, 2002
The Actors Company Theatre (TACT), devoted to readings of rarely produced plays of literary merit, has scored again with an enjoyable reading performance of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 classic... [read more]
A CurtainUp Newsbriefs
Curtain Up
Elyse Sommer
November 25, 2002
The Rivals. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals is the 2nd in the TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) 10th Anniversary season at the company's new home at the French Institute Alliance Français. The... [read more]
'LONG ISLAND SOUND' SPLASHES WITH BITING COWARD WIT
American Reporter
Lucy Komisar
September 8, 2002
You can be rich and dumb at the same time. NEW YORK -- Noel Coward's recently-discovered comic play is a romp laced with great bons mots (if that is not redundant) and his signature biting... [read more]