Marcus Middleton Archives - TheaterScene.net

Marcus Middleton

Chiaroscuro: A Light and Dark Skin Comedy

June 6, 2025

If "Chiaroscuro" occasionally falters under the weight of its ambition, it ultimately dazzles with its daring. Rahman has crafted a bold, theatrical puzzle box — part satire, part sermon, part séance — that speaks to the depths and contradictions of Black desire in all its shadowed hues. The play doesn’t just shine a light; it refracts it—casting humor and heartache in tandem. With "Chiaroscuro," Rahman leaves us with a final, luminous testament to her unique voice—both searing and sublime. [more]

Isabel

June 25, 2024

"Isabel" is a story written by reid tang and directed by Kedian Keohan. It uses various stylistic techniques to tell the story of a trans sibling relationship. It has elements of dark comedy mixed within a dramatic arc of psychosexual exploration of gender, all wrapped within a framework of dark mystery but without a clear point of view. The performances are uneven, the “smoke” special effect is distracting, and the staging misses defining the locales of the scenes. The production comes across as more of a dress rehearsal than a fully-realized staging. [more]

House of Telescopes

April 19, 2024

Playwright Kairos Looney has given us a gift in these painfully beautiful moments. We explore a family’s various ways of approaching love for and duty to each other with the result that we are all human coming as no surprise. Where sometimes there are breaks in communication, it is not about who gets “to be the better person,” but more about how we find that way to erect that bridge that brings us all together again. [more]

Amani

February 25, 2023

Denise Manning as Amani is totally believable as a 9-year-old who has had to grow up quickly without parents and her naiveté about love as she maneuvers through growing pains is touching. Her scenes with her father move from precocious to acutely heartfelt to ultimately switching roles when she has to lay down tough love right back at him. It is a performance layered with so many emotions all at once. Although the play is performed without an intermission, it is clearly broken up into three acts, with the second act culminating in a “I deserve to live” soliloquy for Amani that, as performed by Ms. Manning, is breathtaking in its scope. [more]