Past Performances
Director: Suzanne Richard
OPEN CIRCLE THEATRE PARTICIPATED IN
THE CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL WITH A NEW CABARET:
Is there ANYBODY OUT THERE?
July , 2009
2007 Songs for a New World – directed by Suzanne Richard
One thing not to miss: Watch, when Brown assembles a series of expansive chords at the end of a big number, how sign master Monique Holt and choreographers Shula Strassfeld and Peter DiMuro stagger and stack the ensemble’s gestures in a visual echo of the music’s build—it’s thrilling, and it makes you think about how many channels of communication we take for granted, and how many we usually overlook. Turns out a show driven by the idea of possibilities—of openings to new worlds—was a very fine choice indeed.
City Paper August 17, 2007
2006 Evita – directed by Joe Banno
“In creating little collisions of expectation and possibility, the troupe finds expressive, often exciting modes of communication that are less about limits overcome than about boundaries shattered—taking vocabularies or styles or images that wouldn’t exist but for those limits and those boundaries, fusing them with theatrical techniques both traditional and experimental, creating something that, at its best, is vital and energizing and new.”
City Paper August 18, 2006
2005 The Caucasian Chalk Circle- directed by Grady Weatherford and Monique Holt
“ Open Circle comes at the play with an inventive fusion of sign language, spoken dialogue, singing, and dance, with a healthy mix of actors who can fling themselves headlong into a wheelbarrow and others who need to stash their crutches somewhere before they can flee pursuing soldiers across a bridge thrown up by castmates' backs. .., Open Circle scales the sharp-peaked mountain of a play with no little panache.”
Washington City Paper July 14, 2005
2004 Jesus Christ Superstar - directed by Suzanne Richard
(received 4 Helen Hayes nominations)
“Director Suzanne Richard found a way, without altering a word or a note, to give a freshness to this piece, make it surprisingly relevant to the moment, and, in the process, reveal the rock solid dramatic structure that underlies Rice's script….. They do it all with a staging that, due to Open Circle's approach of utilizing the abilities of artists with disabilities, is both unique and tremendously satisfying.”
Potomac Stage, November 7, 2004
2003 Laughing Wild – directed by Suzanne Richard
“Suzanne Richard’s performance was executed with stunning intensity. Watching Richard…it becomes clear that an actor with a visible disability is sometimes able to add depth to a role: vulnerability, strength or, in some cases, even a slight edge of discomfort for the audience that heightens the excitement of the performance.”
The Washington Blade, July 11, 2003
2005 Low Level Panic –directed by Suzanne Richard
“Low Level Panic probes how we as a society view women and more importantly how we view women with disabilities. Not just an exercise in lip service, Suzanne Richard the Artistic Director of Open Circle Theatre seeks to help us understand that women with disabilities have all the same desires, feelings and emotions that women without disabilities have. Open Circle has succeededin bringing overdue issues to the stage and the stage to everyone.”
DC Theatre Review, November 11, 2005