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Miguel Garzón Martinez

As You Will, An Unscripted Original Shakespeare Performance

August 9, 2023

It takes great skill and imagination to make an impromptu idea flow with conviction and commitment. And, so it is with the wonders of As You Will, a company of engaging, talented actors who invent Shakespearean “epics” from thin air, or more literally from the confines of the renowned, Off-Off Broadway theater UNDER St. Marks. The production is presented as part of the 2023 Little Shakespeare Festival. The actors/directors ask the audience to provide a name for a Shakespearian play that has never been produced, or written, for that matter, and from which they will spend 50 minutes creating, directing, and acting in whatever the title from the audience suggests. My evening was the wonders of "Julius MacHamlet," and, oh what a delicious dish served cold it was, if revenge be the name of the presentation. [more]

Wheel of Fortune

August 5, 2023

What appears to be filmmaker Jing Ma’s first stage play, "Wheel of Fortune" is a touching story of a depressed man about to turn 30 and without a job or a girlfriend. His bad luck changes when his mother visiting from Delaware becomes a Tarot card reader and predicts a change of life with the “Wheel of Fortune” card. Directed by the author, the play has a few too many scenes and set changes (like a film script) for the tiny stage of UNDER St. Marks Theater but it remains both engrossing and poignant. [more]