Amanda Centeno Archives - TheaterScene.net

Amanda Centeno

Pop Punk High

September 28, 2018

Anderson Cook’s jocular book is a silly amalgam of "Grease" and "Rock 'n' Roll High School" with shades of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Composer and lyricist Ben Lapidus’ Green Day-themed score is an appealingly thrashing affair with numbers such as “I Don’t Give a Fuck.” With rock star animation, Mr. Lapidus also portrays Derek conveying teenage angst for comic effect. [more]

High School Coven

August 12, 2017

Set in a California, Bay Area high school, there we meet the four students who prattle on in contemporary lingo. Gradually, and without any explanation we learn that they are witches. An episode of Bewitched has more background information. After 30 minutes, a semblance of a plot emerges, a run for class office. Eventually it is revealed that the candidate running was raped over the previous summer at an off campus party where alcohol was consumed by her male opponent. This past event becomes the play’s main focus. [more]

A Dream of Red Pavilions

January 29, 2016

A Dream of Red Pavilions is set in 18th century China during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. The framing story which gives the plot its mythic quality involves a stone and a flower that are reborn as cousins, the rich scion Baoyu and sickly Daiyu, who fall in eternal love. Like" The Forsyte Saga" or "Downton Abbey," the social context depicted is the rise and fall of an aristocratic family. Beginning with the birth of Baoyu, the oldest son on whom the Jia family’s future fortunes rest, the play which takes place in 30 short scenes follows the affairs of these nobles and their servants over 20 years until Baoyu’s young adulthood. [more]