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Performing Arts

  • A new play about Black poet and author Phillis Wheatley looks at her return from London 250 years ago.
  • Hanley talks about the alternative rock band's Boston roots and legacy 30 years after the release of their first album, Aurora Gory Alice.
  • Playwright Ian Shaw recently spoke to GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen about the inspiration and process behind the creation of “The Shark Is Broken,” as well as what it’s like to play his father onstage.
  • The New Repertory Theatre said it could no longer sustain itself, citing pandemic challenges and declining donations.
  • The playwright is a Pulitzer Prize recipient for his modern day adaptation of the story, "Fat Ham."
  • The Huntington Theater Company’s production of "Fat Ham," the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner, centers pleasure and self-actualization over harm.
  • The famed opera has been criticized for its racist portrayals of Asian-Americans.
  • Join Ford Hall Forum for a spirited conversation with Stevie Walker-Webb, acclaimed Tony-nominated director of Ain't No Mo', actor, activist and director of the play Fat Ham, Dawn Simmons, Associate Director of Fat Ham, and co-producing director of Front Porch Arts Collective, and Regine Vital, theatre artist, educator, and Actors' Shakespeare Project Associate Producer.
    The evening's moderator is Pascale Florestal, Director of Education, Front Porch Arts Collective, and Visiting Guest Artist Professor in Practice at Suffolk University.

    The panel discusses the evolution of Shakespeare's work and how race and other intersections influence these stories and reflect of the world today. They explore fresh new perspectives and distinct voices offered in two upcoming Boston theater productions, Fat Ham and The Taming of the Shrew.

    Fat Ham, a Huntington Theatre production in partnership with front Porch Arts Collective and Alliance Theater, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning new play that is a smart and sharp reinvention of Shakespeare's masterpiece which took Broadway by storm this spring.

    In The Taming of the Shrew, premiering at the Modern Theatre this fall, Artistic Director Christopher Edwards and the talented cast turn this beloved play inside out, flip it upside down and stretch it to the limits in a way that only Actors' Shakespeare Project can - to find what truly sits at the heart of this hilarious and contentious comedy.
    Partner:
    Ford Hall Forum
  • Pascale Florestal is a first-generation Haitian American Queer Woman. As the Education Director Pascale created and manages The Young Critics and Apprenticeship Program. She is the Associate Producer of The Reading Series, Black Out Events and other productions. Pascale is an Elliot Norton Nominated Director, Educator, Dramaturg, Writer and Collaborator based in Boston, MA. Recent directing Credits: Fairview with SpeakEasy Stage, Spring Awakening at Brandeis University, The Colored Museum with The Umbrella Performing Arts Center, Once On This Island with SpeakEasy Stage, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing with Emerson Stage, Everybody with Boston Conservatory and others. As an Assistant to the Director, she has worked with Timothy Douglas, Liesl Tommy, Billy Porter, Paul Daigneault and M. Bevin O'Gara. Pascale served as the Associate Director to Gil Rose on X:The Life and Times of Malcolm With Odyssey Opera and Kimberly Senior on Our Daughters, Like Pillars at The Huntington Theater. Pascale also serves as the Associate Director for The Broadway National Tour of Jagged Little Pill. In 2021, Pascale was named one of the WBUR ARTery 25 Artists of Color Transforming the Cultural Landscape in Boston. In 2020 she won the Inaugural Greg Ferrell Award for her excellence in teaching and supporting young people. Pascale is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music and is a full member of the SDC Union.
  • Regine Vital is a storyteller, theatre artist, educator, and current Associate Producer at Actor's Shakespeare Project. Most recently, she was seen onstage in ASP’s productions of As You Like It (Celia) and Seven Guitars (Louise). As an actor, director, dramaturg, teaching artist, and coach, she has worked with several theatre companies, programs, and schools. She teaches performance studies, composition, literature, and public speaking at Boston area universities; text and performance to high school students; and has taught continuing adult education classes in literature. A hometown girl from Somerville, MA, she is the previous Manager of Curriculum and Instruction at The Huntington. Regional credits: The Huntington, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, American Repertory Theatre, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, ArtsEmerson, Company One, SpeakEasy Stage, Central Square Theatre. Fringe/Local: Fresh Ink Theatre, Boston University School of Theatre, Moonbox Productions, Plays In Place, Flat Earth Theatre, HUB Theatre of Boston, Open Theatre Project, Concord Players, Birch Tree Productions, Green Door Labs. NYC/Podcasts/Film: The Huntington, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Broadway Podcast Network, The Penumbra Podcast, Revolutionary Spaces. Education: BA, Boston University; MA, University of Massachusetts, Boston; MA candidate, King’s College London/Shakespeare’s Globe.