The Magic Flute at ArtsEmerson

Cast and Creative Team Set for BECOMING A MAN World Premiere Stage Adaptation at A.R.T.

January 18, 2024

The cast and creative team has been revealed for Becoming a Man, an A.R.T.-commissioned world-premiere play about the courage—and the community—we need to become ourselves.

An Introduction: Boston Theatre in the '10s and What it Means for the '20s

January 20, 2020

As we embark on our voyage through the 2020s, it will be exciting to see if Lopez's lofty ambitions become a reality. After all, Boston theatre has just come through a huge decade of change in which our city's pertinence to the theatre world has grown. Let's look at how our relevance as a city has changed in regards to theatre as an art form in the past decade: 

BWW Review: SLAM BOSTON at Open Theatre Project

December 04, 2019

In order to write about Open Theatre Project's 7th Annual Slam Boston (a series of home-grown 10 minute plays hosted at Boston Playwright's Theatre), one must first open up the discussion of the 'D' word. That's right, Boston. Let's talk about that 9-letter word that not only kills in Scrabble, but also purports to have the mystical power of selling tickets, encouraging productive conversation, and absolving institutions of the need to engage with their more inherently exclusive practices. Diversity.

BWW Review: TEMPEST RECONFIGURED at Fort Point Theatre Channel

November 15, 2019

In two recent reviews of The Magic Flute and Fences, I have bemoaned Boston theatres' lack of accommodation made for the marginalized communities they attempt to serve. In sharp contrast,Tempest Reconfigured, a project produced by Fort Point Theatre Channel, takes the storyline of Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest and centers the perspectives of richly disparate voices from Boston's artistic communities. Producer Marc S. Miller explains that the idea behind the project was to invite community-based arts groups to respond to, reinterpret, reinvent, subvert, and analyze the themes from Shakespeare's text. The result is a communal evening, part performance, part ritual, that transforms Boston Public Library's stoically academic Rabb Hall into a place of wonder, beauty, anguish, and catharsis, not unlike the fictional island which Prospero and his daughter Miranda inhabit in the play. 

BWW Review: Isango Ensemble's THE MAGIC FLUTE, Presented by ArtsEmerson

November 07, 2019

ArtsEmerson continues its tradition of hosting world-class theatre pieces in Boston by presenting Isango Ensemble's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The troupe, comprised of 21 black South African musicians, alternates nebulously between delivering recitative, dancing ebulliently, and playing marimbas, rawhide drums, and an eclectic mix of instruments in the on-stage orchestra. Upon entering the Cutler Majestic, the fusion of cultures is jarringa?'- an exposed stage behind an opulent proscenium arch is interrupted by simple structures of distressed wood and corrugated steel panels. The (predominantly white) audience is immediately won over by the novelty of hearing Mozart's iconic overture played entirely on wooden marimbas. The expertise of the musicians in questiona?'- as percussionists, vocalists, actors, dancers, et. ala?'- is reason enough to reserve tickets, and as the novelty of hearing western music arranged on djembes and glass bottles wears off, the precision of the performances continues to impress.

South Africa's Celebrated Isango Ensemble Returns To Boston With THE MAGIC FLUTE

October 12, 2019

ArtsEmerson will welcome back the Isango Ensemble with their re-imagination of Mozart's classic opera, The Magic Flute, as the first of five reprise productions in its 10th Anniversary Season. The internationally celebrated group of Cape Town artists and musicians return to take on the beloved and timeless tale with marimbas, oil drums, inventive design, and bold energy, as a young prince tries to win the love of a princess whose mother is the Queen of the Night.

ArtsEmerson Announces Its 10th Anniversary Season

May 21, 2019

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theatre, proudly announces its 10th Anniversary Season featuring five new commissioned works and five reprises from six different countries. The 2019/20 season continues ArtsEmerson's commitment to international work and to contemporary artistic forms including circus, mixed media, music theatre and first person narrative all from diverse perspectives. The landmark anniversary season will feature the world premiere of Detroit Red (produced by ArtsEmerson and written by Will Power) which uplifts Malcolm X's under-examined, life-shaping experiences as a young man who called Boston home. It will also feature the U.S. Premiere of Plata Quemada (TEATROCINEMA), the gritty true story of Argentina's most daring bank heist.