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  • A Noise Within

    ATTEND THE TALE: A SWEENEY TODD FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

    By Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad (Resident Dramaturg, A Noise Within) Ever since its debut on Broadway in 1979, Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd has usually been described as a “dark comedy,” a “comic-horror musical,” or with such epithets as “hilariously terrifying.”  (“Murder most tasty!” jokes one reviewer of the current Broadway revival.)  But as entertaining and…

  • A Noise Within

    An Outsider’s Guide to Loving Sweeney Todd

    Growing up, my friends and I were what I’d call “casual musical theatre enthusiasts,” diving into our favorite songs from The Heathers and Hamilton musicals for months on end, but then moving on to another interest just as quickly. Stephen Sondheim was not on my radar then. Until very recently, everything I knew about Sweeney Todd…

  • A Noise Within

    Nostalgia and A Christmas Carol

    As my fifth month of my internship at A Noise Within comes to a close and A Christmas Carol enters its final few performances, I have been thinking about what brings audiences back to this play, year after year. Roughly half of the audience members have come to the play before, and many of them…

  • A Noise Within

    Beyond Bah Humbug: Understanding How Social Inequity in A Christmas Carol is Part of its Enduring Appeal Today

    Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol paints a portrait of Victorian England that seems to evoke a bygone era. But on closer inspection, our world today shares many of the social inequities that Dickens captured so vividly, and that he himself experienced as a child. And this portrait of social inequity and personal redemption—from its…

  • A Noise Within

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Comedy of Consent, and it’s Dark Undertones

    A good portion of the American youth population came of age during many high-profile #MeToo scandals, and as a result, scores of young people are ever mindful to consider “‘the three C’s’ – consent, consent, and consent.” In the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream the bedrock principles of consent are not just ignored but…

  • A Noise Within

    A Noise Within helps prepare the next generation of theatre-makers in the LA area

    A Noise Within (ANW) is well known for its “resident artist” program, a core group of 20+ seasoned actors and creative theatrical professionals, who are featured in nearly every show at ANW. Lesser known are the other performers who might make up any given ANW production, and the theatre company’s commitment to making connections with…

  • A Noise Within

    Guest Blogger: Introducing Melia Person, A Noise Within’s Marketing Intern

    Hello theatre lovers! My name is Melia Person, the marketing intern here at A Noise Within and I’m absolutely thrilled to be the guest blogger this month. When I embarked on this internship journey through the Los Angeles County Arts and Culture program, the inner workings of repertory theatre were a mystery to me. Despite this,…

  • A Noise Within

    On Censorship: Banned Books Thought Piece

    By Miranda Johnson-Haddad Originally published August 21, 2023 by Picture This Post For my birthday this year, my husband gave me a tee-shirt depicting a shelf of eleven banned books, their titles clearly visible on their brightly colored spines, with the caption “I’m with the banned.” The inspiration behind his gift was that one of…

  • A Noise Within

    “Why I Had to Adapt The Bluest Eye

    By Lydia R. Diamond In high school my English teacher, a brilliant woman who saw a writer in me decades before I’d see it in myself, gave me Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and so much of it went over my head. Looking back, I realize that I protected…

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