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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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    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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    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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    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,…

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    “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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    Q&A with Lauren Gunderson

    Hello Lauren, we are excited to welcome your work to A Noise Within. I read in an interview with you and St. Ambrose University that your theatre career began as a young actor. Was that the moment your love of theatre began? Yes! I started performing professionally in Atlanta when I was 10 and quickly…

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    Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Gift of Storytelling

    By Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad, Resident Dramaturg at A Noise Within  Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spider Woman was a critical failure when it was first published in 1976. Yet it has had what one commentator (Isaac Butler, writing in The New Yorker in December 2022) has called “a remarkable afterlife.” Puig himself adapted the…

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    Q & A with Michael Michetti

    Welcome back to A Noise Within, Michael. At ANW, you have directed Frankenstein, A Picture of Dorian Gray, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet etc. What was it about Kiss of the Spider Woman that attracted you to the story? When Geoff and Julia asked me if I was interested in directing it, I knew the…

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    Q&A with Guillermo Cienfuegos

    This is your debut at A Noise Within, welcome by the way. Can you share with us your journey before ANW?  I’ve been working as an actor (under my given name Alex Fernandez) in theatre, film, television, and voice over since 1990, when I graduated from the training program at the American Conservatory Theatre. I’ve…

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    Anna in the Tropics First Rehearsal Recap

    Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics ripples with raw passion and intriguing drama that pulls the workers of a Cuban-American cigar factory through an explosive transformation as a lector reads them Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. In his opening remarks for first rehearsal, Director Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx (he/him) said: “We’re looking for a distilled elegance and beauty in…

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