From back row left to right: Aetna Gallagher, Ken Opdenaker, Maria Konstantinidis, Brandon Pierce, Rachel Gluck and CJ Keller (Photo by JR Blackwell)

The Curio Theatre Company will stage a play opening this Friday that should resonate deeply in our ever-connected, hyper-talkative social media saturated world, a place where everyone talks but few communicate.

The Bald Soprano, the first work by Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco, makes us laugh at all of this absurd small talk run amok. Originally set in the London home of the fictional couple The Smiths, who are having their friends, The Martins, over for dinner, the play has been updated to include – through clever screen projections –  all of that online gibberish that we all know too well. The play’s script stays true to the original set in the 1950s, but works in modern takes on the non-sequitur.

“Every day we are trapped in the web (pardon the pun) and we argue, sell, cajole, entertain and most of all, cross our wires on the internet,” said director Charlotte Northeast. “This show has pieces of that layered in to illustrate that whether we are speaking in the 1950’s or today, we haven’t mastered this whole talking and REALLY communicating thing.”  Continue Reading

UPDATE (11/10/2015): Curio Theatre’s Benefit scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14 has been postponed to a later date. Stay tuned for more announcements.

Two local arts organizations, University City Arts League (UCAL) and Curio Theatre, are holding delicious and fun events soon, which will help them raise some cash.

The annual Chili Bowl fundraiser supports the Arts League’s pottery studio. (Photo courtesy UCAL)

• UCAL’s annual Chili Bowl event will be held this Sunday (Nov. 8), from 1 – 4 p.m. at 4226 Spruce Street. Everyone is invited to purchase a hand-crafted bowl for $20 and fill it with chili (kids eat free with a bowl-purchasing adult).

The chili, including vegetarian and vegan, is donated by local restaurants: Corner Bakery, Tortas Frontera, City Tap House, Rx the Farmacy, Harvest, Renata’s Kitchen, Milk and Honey Market, Qdoba, Distrito, The Restaurant School, and the Green Line Cafe. After guests stuff themselves with chili they can vote for their favorite.

All of the proceeds from the Chili Bowl supports UCAL and its beloved ceramic studio. Guests are encouraged to get to the Arts League early to insure that they get a ceramic bowl. Each bowl is individually crafted, a unique piece created by a potter, and they are in limited supply. For more information about the event, visit the UCAL website.  Continue Reading

So it’s the not-too-distant future and an oppressive Christian theocracy has overthrown the U.S. government. Most women are not allowed to read. Things are fairly grim. That’s the setting for the opening performance of The Curio Theatre Company’s 11th season.

Curio is staging the Philadelphia premiere of Joe Stollenwerk’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a work based on the Margaret Atwood novel. The show previews on Oct. 15, and the opening is slated for Oct. 23.

In a solo work, Curio company member Isa St. Clair plays Offred, who takes us back to a world after a staged terrorist attack in a cautionary tale that predicts our worst fears of fundamentalism. Offred is a heroine who struggles to maintain her individuality, personhood, and hope for a better future.

The Handmaid’s Tale closes on November 14. Curio shows run on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-$25 per person. Tickets and more information are available online at www.curiotheartre.org.

Two West Philly long-standing arts institutions are offering new after-school programs. University City Arts League (4226 Spruce St.) is offering new classes for every age group, with a whole new set of classes just for middle-schoolers (grades 5-8). New classes include Animation, African Dance, Tai Chi, Mixed-Media 2D Art, and Poetry, and registration is still open. The following classes have already filled up: For K-2: Puppet Making, Tumblehop, Escultura; for grades 3-6: Beginner Digital Art. For more information and to register, visit this page.

Curio Theatre, which is housed in the historic Calvary Center for Culture and Community at 4740 Baltimore Avenue, is offering a new after-school opportunity for neighborhood schoolkids. Beginning in October, Curio Theatre Company is launching an after-school program for students in grades 1-8 for $100 per week. This service will end at 6 p.m. each day. This new program employs professional theatre educators who will offer the following services: prompt pick-up at the end of the school day, individual tutoring for assignments, and theatre lessons following every school day. Healthy snack options will also be offered. Currently, walking service is being offered to students from Penn Alexander School, the City School – Spruce Hill, and St. Francis de Sales schools. Please call 215-525-1350 or email: steven@curiotheatre.org for more information and registration. Also check out Curio Theatre School on Saturdays from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Here are a few chances to visit Curio Theatre before it closes its doors until the next season. The local theater company will present a series of free performances this weekend and on Monday, June 22.

CuriosiTeens! (Photo courtesy of Curio Theatre Company)

Curio’s young company, CuriosiTeens! will present three performances of Bang Bang You’re Dead, a powerful drama written by William Mastrosimone in the wake of the school shootings of the late 1990s. The goal of this production is to search out and answer a very complex question: “Why?”. The first performance is tonight at 7 p.m., and there will be two shows tomorrow (Saturday, June 20) – at 2 and 7 p.m. All shows are on Curio’s Main Stage (48th and Baltimore). Please call 215-525-1350 or email steven@curiotheatre.org to reserve your tickets.

On Monday, Curio’s 2015 New Play reading series concludes with Antagonyms written by Rachel Gluck. “When a man returns to his home city after fifteen years of running, four people must struggle to maintain control over their lives, and keep the past in the past.” The play is directed by Jack Tamburri. The cast features Isa St. Clair, Trevor Fayle, Colleen Hughes and Andrew J. Carroll. The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. on Curio’s Corner Stage, 48th and Baltimore Ave.

Curio Theatre Company continues its reading series supporting emerging Philadelphia playwrights and invites everyone to tonight’s reading of Candy Candy by Chris Davis. The series is co-produced by Philadelphia Dramatists Center.

The peformance is directed by Liam Castellan and features Curio actors: Andrew Carroll, Joel Guerrero, Diana Rodriguez, Kelly Cova, Rachel Gluck, Brendan Norton, and Steve Carpenter. It will be held in the Curio Theatre Company Second Stage at 4740 Baltimore Avenue, starting at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, and light refreshments will be provided. And here’s some information about the play from Curio’s website:

“This high octane bilingual comedy follows the televisual fantasies of a young girl named Candy who dreams of escaping her quotidian life in Mexico.”

Visit curiotheatre.org for more information.