Fires in the Mirror felt like a 2-hour stroll through 90s New York and considering the premise of the show I’d call that a good thing. The one-person play by Anna Deavere Smith is a series of monologues collected from…
Category: AMP Program
AMP: Fires in the Mirror, by Lina Romero
Crown Heights, 1991: violence erupts between Orthodox Jews and African-Americans. Although the outbreak only lasts a few days, ripples of after-effects were felt for years. Playwright Anna Deveare Smith interviewed over a hundred people affected by the conflict, recorded their…
AMP: Fires in the Mirror, by Kwame Daniels
In 1991, in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn, NYC, a car in a three-car procession carrying the Lubavitcher Hasidic Rabbi hit another car. It swerved onto the sidewalk, hit and killed Gavin Cato, a Guyanese Boy, and injured his…
AMP: Fires in the Mirror, by Obadiah Parker
“Theatre can’t save lives, but hospitals can,” my friend said to me with a smug look on her face, justifying her reasoning as to why the sciences are more important than the arts. I opted out of the debate because…
Artsies Mentoring Program: Lina Romero
Lina is a junior a Virginia Commonwealth University, majoring in English. Her background: Although I’m primarily a writer, theatre has always been my second passion. Growing up, I performed at every opportunity possible. I even attended a specialized arts school…
AMP: What They Did for Us, by Lina Romero
“The doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” This line, spoken by actress Shalandis Wheeler Smith, wraps the audience of Heritage Ensemble’s production of What They Did For Us…
AMP: This Bitter Earth: a Bittersweet Play on Interracial Dating, by Makai Walker
[NOTE: This production was made Covid conscious with the show at a reduced 20 seat capacity and following CDC guidelines. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and a few poorly timed ice storms, I conceded my in-person tickets for a video-on-demand…
AMP: This Bitter Earth, by Obadiah Parker
Unpopular Opinion: You scrolling on TikTok all night is NOT going to inspire you to create that genius BLM art piece you’ve been dreaming about for the past few months. Do you want to be inspired to change social norms?…
AMP: This Bitter Earth, by Kwame Daniels
In February, I saw Richmond Triangle Players’ production of Harrison David Rivers’ This Bitter Earth. It is a play centered around the relationship between Jesse, a black grad student and Neil, his white activist boyfriend. Through these characters, Rivers creates…
AMP: Krapp’s Last Tape, by Cameron Simmons
“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.” – Krapp In the era of COVID-19, most,…