Barrymore season is upon us! Every year, we look at the past season, rooting for our favorites in a myriad of categories. In case you don’t know, the Barrymore Awards are like Philly’s Tony Awards. It’s a showcase for the best, and it’s extremely exciting for everyone in the theatre community. I absolutely love getting to be a part of this. The more I get to travel around the city seeing shows, the more idea I get of what’s going up for awards. And this year, there are

I’m going to start off open and honest here. I am a queer, trans non-binary, ace person, and intimate scenes are often hard for me to watch. I respect them, and I definitely know there’s a place for them, but they’re just really hard for me. It’s really any type of medium that gets me. I know this is a combination of a lot of things, but usually, anything sexual and I’m averting my gaze. This is just me, and a part of my identity. Maybe I’m missing out on some things, b

I never thought I’d be sitting down to write a post about a musical about Siegfried & Roy. But here we are, now that I’ve seen Shangri-La-La. And yes, it was a musical about the famous pair of Las Vegas magicians. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it. And I’ve seen a lot of musicals. This one fit the basic bill. It was bright and colorful. The songs were catchy and fit with the story that was being told. For a small show, the costumes, set, effects,

There are a lot of types of humor in this world. There’s typical humor, of course, but so many little branches that grow from that. There’s self-deprecating humor. There’s sad humor. There’s Jewish humor (trust me on that one, okay?) There is just so much, and My Needy Letters to Keith Urban collects all of these different kinds of humors and puts them into one sixty minute show. There was a lot more to the show, of course, but that variety of types of humor is what rea

Want to read some pre-show questions with Michael Hagins? Check them out here! Shakespeare can be really hard for people. Elizabethan English can be hard to follow…twisted plots and relationships can be hard to grasp. But there are people out there (myself included) who love Shakespeare. Yeah, we’re Shakespeare nerds. And one of the most amazing ones I’ve ever met, and had the pleasure to see on stage, was Michael Hagins. He’s someone who has a firm grasp on Shakespeare

You know those shows that are completely not what you thought they were going to be? That’s what Show Pony was for me. I walked in expecting one thing, and not too sure about what we’d be seeing, and I walked out thoroughly impressed and, in a way, changed. I absolutely love when that happens, honestly…these are the types of shows where I have preconceived notions, and I’m ecstatic that I’m proved wrong. From the small description I got about Show Pony, I thought I was go

The idea behind Conquering the Canon is extremely simple, but also extremely complicated. It’s a one-man show about Michael Hagins, the only African-American man to have been in all of Shakespeare’s canon. Well, sign me up yesterday! First of all, I am a huge Shakespeare fan, so I’ll eat up anything about the Bard. Secondly, I love when Shakespeare is performed differently from the way it was written. There’s a lot of that these days, with gender swapping and such. And

For me, there’s something about one-person shows that evokes so much in me. Especially when I’m watching something autobiographical. Some shows bring out more, and Is This Thing On? is one of those shows. Is This Thing On? is a one hour show by Adam Bradley, and one that was something completely eye opening and beautiful. There was so much to this play…there were moments to laugh, moments to cringe out, moments to cry, and so much more. I definitely ran the gamut of emot

September is a busy month. With everything from theatres starting their seasons to Philly Fringe, there’s a lot going on. I think it’s absolutely amazing, and it’s super exciting for me and Zoe Writes Theatre, because we are raring to go. I have a super busy, but super exciting, three weeks coming up. Stuffing seven shows into a very narrow time window is quite the endeavor, but I know it will be so worth it. Can I just say I’m excited for all the one-person shows? Here

Philly Fringe is probably something in the know to everyone in the Philly theatre scene. For a glorious couple of weeks, venues known, unknown, and completely wacky, show plays that you probably wouldn’t see anywhere else. Fringe is all about doing something different…doing something daring. There are all sorts of shows that you would see at Fringe. The Yellow Bicycle Company in center city Philadelphia is one of those venues showing some truly remarkable looking plays. J

I'm so sorry for the lack of content over the past month or so! I guess even Zoe Writes Theatre needs a little break, too. But I promise you, I have some really amazing stuff coming up! With the season starting, there's going to be a ton of content. And remember to check out my Patreon, because there's going to be some incredible stuff on there, too. Zoe Writes Theatre is coming back in full force! Thanks for staying with me!