Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas

Three Sisters, By RashDash, After Chekhov opened to  an open house at Curio Theatre Friday night. The production is a progressive, “punky” look on the Russian classic, featuring absurdist comedy and musical cabaret numbers while asking the audience vital questions. This is the North American premiere of the play by British feminist theatre collective RashDash.

The play focuses solely on the women characters – sisters Olga, Irina and Masha – played by long-time Curio Theatre Company members Colleen Hughes, Rachel Gluck, and Tessa Kuhn (they also played three sisters in last season’s Crimes of the Heart at Curio). The show is directed by Meg Trelease. Check out this review by Broad Street Review.  Continue Reading

From left to right: Chase Byrd, Nastassja Whitman, Trice Baldwin and Paul E Kuhn (Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas).

Curio Theatre Company is opening its 14th season this week with an American classic re-imagined. The West Philly-based theatre company will stage Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” beginning Wednesday, Oct. 10.

In this 1947 play, Miller portrays a couple, Joe and Kate Keller, living a comfortable suburban life with their son Chris. Their other son, Larry, went missing in action a few years earlier and Chris becomes involved with Larry’s former fiancée, Kate, who must finally accepts that Larry is gone forever, and face the horrible truth about what caused his death.  Continue Reading

Dinner in Three Acts is a fun and delicious way to support educational programs at Curio Theatre.

Curio Theatre Company, the community theater at 48th and Baltimore, is starting an exciting new fundraising tradition. On Sunday, May 20, the company will be “producing” a Dinner in Three Acts – a three-course dinner at selected West Philadelphia homes. This is how it works:

Act One – 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. – Guests will start with registration and appetizers at one home.
Act Two – 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. – For their entree, guests will choose one style of cuisine from a varied selection served for groups of 10 to 15 people.
Act Three – 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. – Guests will return to the theater for dessert with coffee and tea.  Continue Reading

Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas

West Philly’s Curio Theatre Company is closing out the season with another production that looks back in time to shed light on our current sociopolitical moment. Curio staged Marie Antoinette, a work that highlights political and personal excess, earlier this year. This week Catch-22, an adaptation of Joseph Heller’s classic novel, opens on the Curio’s stage in the Calvary Center for Culture and Community at 4740 Baltimore Ave.

Set during World War II but aimed as a critique of the Cold War and McCarthyism, Catch-22 follows the travails of American bombardier John Yossarian and other soldiers who are walking the fine line between carrying out their duty while trying to remain sane amid the absurdity and hypocrisy of a stultifying bureaucracy.  Continue Reading

West Philly’s Curio Theatre kicks off the new year this week with David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette, a modern take on one of European history’s most infamous characters.

Adjmi’s take on the French queen introduces us to a woman who embodies artifice, excess and privilege while the mood in the streets grows hostile.  Continue Reading

From left to right: Rachel Gluck as Lenny, Tessa Kuhn as Babe and Colleen Hughes as Meg (Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas)

Curio Theatre opened its 13th season in September with free outdoor performances of “I, Peaseblossom” at The Woodlands. Beginning Friday, Nov. 17, the award-winning theater invites the public to its principal location at 48th and Baltimore to witness Crimes of the Heart, a Pulitzer prize winning play by Beth Henley.

The Magrath sisters, Lenny, Meg, and Babe, are reunited at their family home in Hazlehurst Mississippi after Babe shoots her husband. Each one is facing down her own demons, past and present. Lenny cares for the grandfather who raised her, as he approaches the end of his life. Meg grapples with dreams that didn’t come true, and Babe squares off against her husband. It’s a portrait of a dysfunctional family, but Beth Henley play finds laughter within tragedy.  Continue Reading