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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A Noise Within
Q & A With Kwayi Grimstad Ndjamen
Hi Kwayi, I saw you as Cratchit Child / Ensemble in A Christmas Carol and you were wonderful. What do you love about acting? I really like acting because you can be someone else that’s not you. In a way, you can escape from your life and be and embody a different person with different…
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A Noise Within
An Iliad: The Theater of War
By Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad Unlike the poet-narrator of Homer’s classical epic poem The Iliad, the Poet who relates the tale of the Trojan War in An Iliad apparently has firsthand knowledge of the subject matter. Although Homer (if an individual author with that name ever existed) recounts events that happened in the distant past, the…
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A Noise Within
Q&A with Shakespeare Consultant Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad
You may recognize Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad as a scholar who has previously shared her extensive knowledge in Shakespeare and theatre with us at A Noise Within. You may also recognize her name from our playbills and study guides as the author of many insightful commentaries on the plays that we have produced. Now, you have…
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A Noise Within
Our Education Department Looks Forward
Written by Paul Ramirez The Monologues! The Professional Development! The Shakespeare! Oh my! We recently talked to our Director of Education and Community Outreach Alicia Green to ask how the pandemic impacted the Education Program and how the Department plans to overcome these challenges this upcoming year. “The night before the lockdown, our actors were…
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Education
