Michael Howard

Latest Articles

More Bard, another park

Acorn takes Shakespeare to the Riverbank
Just as fiddleheads and lilacs sprung early this year, so have the urban-pastoral pleasures of al fresco Shakespeare.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 19, 2010

Running through Acorn’s 24-Hour Play Festival
Around 7 pm last Saturday at the St. Lawrence, a sealed envelope was sliced open and its contents, handwritten on three slips of paper, were revealed to a full house: “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 05, 2010

Rise and fall

Naked Shakespeare's Richard II
For years now, the Naked Shakespeare Ensemble has brought its signature fare — stripped-down productions and ravishingly acute attention to the Bard's language — into a slew of non-traditional settings, including the Wine Bar on Wharf Street, SPACE Gallery, and the Sacred and Profane festival.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 20, 2009

Tragic despair

Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind
A disturbing restlessness lies at the heart of Sam Shepard's rugged, dysfunctional American West. Men run off and then return, rebel and then cleave.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | November 12, 2008

All in the family(1)

Lives and cultures clash in Lanyard premiere
“Home” isn’t necessarily a discrete, concrete place.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 12, 2008

Venice in Longfellow Square

On location
All the venue’s a stage in Naked Shakespeare’s theatrical ethos.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 07, 2008

Theatrical progress

A venue-to-venue tour of Portland
As an avid theater-goer, there are times when I hanker to positively consume a fine play.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | January 02, 2008

You'll die laughing

The Players' Ring explores attitudes about dying
What happens when that levity becomes the modus operandi, so constant that relief actually comes in breakthroughs of genuine grief or anger?
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | September 19, 2007

Classics and Shakespeare

Fall brings plays from the past
Autumn approaches with a theatrical windfall, so I’ll dig right in, sans ceremony.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | September 12, 2007

Life is a highway

And Devil's Elbow is in the way
The fates of several Devil’s Elbow residents hang on the fate of an entrance ramp-to-be.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 01, 2007

Next generation

Building new theatrical performers at Acorn
Are you or the kids feeling pent up?
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | January 17, 2007

Papa performances

Bringing Hemingway back to life
Concise and elegant, the prose of Ernest Hemingway in some ways resembles particularly beautiful stage directions.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | January 03, 2007

All in the family

The Lanyard deftly handles dysfunction
A therapist can't babble, Lawrence Kimball tells us.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 02, 2006

Cross-pollination

What can actors and musicians learn from each other?
My contribution to the Band Guide issue is a meditation on some of the telling differences between the theater and band scenes, in the interest of seeing the one pick up a little of the notorious energy and audience of the other.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | February 23, 2006