Reviews for Ground Floor Theatre Performances
Review: JACK AND AIDEN by Lane Michael Stanley and Tova Katz, Ground Floor Theatre, November 30 - December 16, 2023
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 03, 2023
A bold, almost brutal portrait of the gay urban village, JACK AND AIDEN is stark and powerful. Stanley's vivid language, Katz's music, and Turner's direction hurl these two actors into unresolved life crises.
Ground Floor Theatre in east Austin has just presented the world premiere of an important musical. A collaboration of Lane Michael Stanley (book) and Tova Katz (music and lyrics), Jack and Aiden explores the lives of two gays, one cis, one trans, caught up in the life of hook-ups and cyber technology, where hooking up is easy and falling apart is easier. The couple’s emotions and desires draw them closer into a relationship; and that’s a …
Review #2 of 2: Jenna & the Whale by Ground Floor Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 24, 2023
In widely opposed formats, JENNA AND THE WHALE and MOBY DICK agree; life is a state of perpetual ignorance that death may or may not cure.
(Warning. spoilers.) (Trigger warning: suicide.) “Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.” ― Herman Melville, Moby Dick “They say, Jonah, he was swallowed by a whale, but I say there's no truth to that tale, I know Jonah, he was swallowed by a song.” ― Paul Simon, Jonah The …
Review #1 of 2: Jenna & the Whale by Ground Floor Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 14, 2023
Magical realism meets the devastating emotions left by loss and suicide in this brilliantly acted and designed work. The vastness of the ocean, the web embracing all life, the making and breaking of connections—all are here.
Stories of a single complicated life achieve complexity when they intersect thecomplicated lives of a whole community. Any absurd story with these qualities takes on the immensity of the ocean and marine life large enough to swallow one’s own. This summer of 2023 with its excessive heat and many reports of shark attacks humbles us with its oceanic immensity. The vastness bears down on us, creates pain in us, and changes us. This may be …
Review: Sanctuary City by Ground Floor Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 29, 2023
The SANCTUARY CITY of urban New York is anything but a refuge; playwright Majok portrays a dark world lit only by the tenuous flame of friendship. Her ninety-minute piece grips and provides an unexpected, devastating twist.
Ground Floor Theatre's Sanctuary City plays on a starkly bare stage where the principal set pieces are metal scaffolding units and the principal decoration is a dark urban mural with random tagging. This set could represent anywhere or nowhere. There's a sense of brooding about it. It looks like a prison or a random inhabited space in a wasteland. In a sense, it is both. The lives here are those of "B" and "G," …
Review: Dot by Colman Domingo, Ground Floor Theatre
by Justin M. West
Published on May 31, 2022
Colman Domingo's flawed script for DOT and Lisa B. Thompson's direction hinder, over-shout the talents onstage.
The Ground Floor Theatre has a solid reputation for producing progressive and thought-provoking pieces. The last show I reviewed here, Some Humans Were Harmed…, left a lasting impression on me in a way that few have. So, too, did writer Lisa B. Thompson’s prior production, The Mamalogues, though I failed spectacularly to produce a review. I was therefore beyond disappointed to find that Thompson’s work as a director on Coloman Doming's Dot so widely misses the mark. …
Review: Unexpected Joy by Ground Floor Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 09, 2021
Musical theatre is back in Austin. In this homecoming story set about 2016, tension in this family of rock singers starts high and launches higher. It gives the pandemic its final stomping into the ground.
Musical theatre is back in Austin. The Ground Floor Theatre (GFT) production of Unexpected Joy reestablished the place as a venue for well-produced musical theatre in Austin. In the hands of director Lisa Scheps and the design and production team at GFT, the musical with book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Janet Hood, gave us an evening of entertainment and thoughtfulness that could and should be seen everywhere in our nation. …