CATCO/CATCO Is Kids Opens 2020-21 Season with ‘Plays Toward an Antiracist Tomorrow’

CATCO and CATCO is Kids return, joining the brave artists pivoting to streaming work during the pandemic, with a new Artistic Director, Leda Hoffmann, in an exciting partnership with the King Arts Complex for KAC’s The HeART of Protest social justice collaboration. Hoffmann came to Columbus and CATCO from acclaimed runs at Strawdog Theatre in […]
Theater Review: CATCO’s Vibrant and Charming ‘Application Pending’

CATCO kicks off 2020 with a dazzling high-wire act: a fast, fun production of Greg Edwards and Andy Sandberg’s Off-Broadway hit Application Pending directed by Steven C. Anderson. Application Pending features Christine Evans (Vanessa Sawson) on the first day she’s plucked from her life as a kindergarten classroom assistant and thrown to the wolves – […]
Theatre Preview: Available Light Summons Unabashed Empathy in Columbus Premiere of ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’

Cheryl Strayed cuts a deep and personal swath through the American moment in her novels and memoirs. Her time as an advice columnist for The Rumpus stood as both an outlier and an apotheosis, turning her hard-won life lessons into the sharp caring her readers needed. Playwright Nia Vardalos – best known for My Big […]
Review: A Messy, Rewarding Task of Living in ‘Remain in Light’

Available Light end their roller coaster of a 2018-2019 season with Remain in Light, written and directed by executive director Matt Slaybaugh. This kaleidoscopic, physical collage tackles some of the biggest questions facing us today: how do we find meaning? What makes us happy? How do we get out of bed and try to make […]
Review: CATCO’s Funny and Heartfelt ‘Life Sucks’

CATCO’s crowd-pleasing and laugh-filled production of Aaron Posner’s Life Sucks, directed by Steven C. Anderson, returns the greatest rewards if the audience ignores the “Adapted (Sort of) from Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya” credit. Someone who loves Uncle Vanya as much as I do spent much of the first act looking for deeper connections and shared […]
Review: Available Light’s Barbed and Moving ‘This’

Available Light score another home run with their crackling production of This, the Off-Broadway comedy by Melissa James Gibson, directed by Acacia Duncan. This opens with a party game straight out of BF Skinner and never lets up in its relentless picking-apart of human rituals and contemporary ennui. Merrell (Shanelle Marie) and Tom (Jason Kientz) […]
Theatre Review: CATCO’s Charming ‘Every Brilliant Thing’

Every Brilliant Thing is the one-character piece that introduced playwright Duncan MacMillan (written with original star Jonny Donahoe) to the world stage. A rare, charming play with suicide at its heart, the show’s popularity has not abated since the 2014 premiere. Evidence of that love includes an HBO filmed version of the Off-Broadway run and […]