Welcome to the World of Vincent P. Barras

After teaching for 23 years and working in theater for 25 years, I've decided to start a blog to record my reviews and let people know the productions in which I will be working. I will also offer my reflections on things not necessarily related to theater, such as the tragic shootings in Connecticut. My next project will be directing IPAL's Summer Youth Musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat . Call 364-6114 for tickets for the show lasting July 17th through the 26th, Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings at 7:30 and Sunday matinees at 3:00 pm.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

Theatre veteran and recent Rosie Award recipient for "Best Attendee," Jody Powell brings Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks to Theatre 810 for a two weekend run, beginning June 27th and ending July 5th. Starring Mary Gail Lamonte DeVillier and Milton Resweber, it's the perfect example of acting trumping a script, elevating it to a level unworthy of its words but definitely worthy of its two pros on stage.

Link to Review of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

Wanderlust's Intriguing Eurydice

Sarah Ruhl takes the famous Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice and reworks it from the girl's point of view in Eurydice, a Wanderlust production directed with genuine emotion by Elsa Dimitriadis.

Link to Review of Eurydice

LRE's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Dale Wasserman's play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest turns fifty this year, and Lauren-Reilly Eliot premieres its fifth play at Cité des Arts. It runs January 17th through February 2nd, so don't miss this great example of male chemistry on stage.

Link to Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

UL's Anton In Show Business

Deserea Noreiga's directing project Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business had a weekend run at Theatre 810, and it was the perfect intimate comedy for Theatre 810 unique space.

Link to Review of Anton in Show Business

The Undertaker and His Wife

Travis Guillory's quirky The Undertaker and His Wife, just finished its run at Cité des Arts. It's escapist, absurdist fun that pokes fun at a macabre genre.

Link to Review of The Undertaker and His Wife

ART's Searing In the Bones

Why is it so hard to say something nice? Well, you haven't met the Denton family, which brings dysfunction to a new level. Cody Daigle's sparse, unflinching play looks at death and proves that some things are just too devastating for families to overcome.

Link to Review of In the Bones

UL's Shattering Clybourne Park

You won't soon forget UL's production of Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park, directed by Nathan Gabriel. It's a devastating, but ultimately hysterical look at race relations centering around the house for sale in Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun.

Link to Review of Clybourne Park

AUI's Supermen, Short and Sweet

Acting Unlimited Inc. produced a short 80 minute production of Adam Douglas' Supermen, the story of the two Jewish creators of the comic strip Superman. Directed by Cody Daigle, the play has some nice moments especially when actors know how to take advantage of strategic pauses.

Link to Review of Supermen

Riveters' Hair Creates the 1960s

The Riveters Theatre Troupe has followed up its highly successful Cabaret with The American Love-Rock Musical Hair, which first opened in 1968 and got a major, Tony-award winning revival in 2009. It's got a talented cast of appealing singers sadly strangled by an overly-loud band. The show will run September 12, 13, and 14 at 7:30 pm in Burke-Hawthorne Hall on UL's Campus.

Link to Review of Hair

ART's Barrier Island Breaks Down Walls

ART's premier production of David Stallings' Barrier Island, featuring crisp direction and a good cast, will perform one more weekend, September 5th through the 7th. Directed by Steven Landry and assisted by Debbi Ardoin, it explores the fragile relationships between people just as Hurricane Ike is barreling its way to the coastal town.

Link to Review of Barrier Island

LRE's thought-provoking Dinner with Friends

With a Pulitzer-prize winning script and a cast of four competent actors, the Lauren-Reilly Eliot Company brings to life Donald Margulies' Dinner with Friends, a play that tackles marriage, friendship, and the bonds that hold them together and tear them apart. It runs Sunday September 1st, and another weekend until its closing date on Sunday September 8th.

Link to Review of Dinner with Friends

AUI's She Kills Monsters Parallels Life

The title's a little misleading, for it seems like it should be She Kills Demons, as Agnes Evans battles against the dread that we really don't know people, not even our own family members. No matter the title, Qui Nguyen's brisk tale explores high school life--and death--through the prism of the fantasy role-playing game Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Link to Review of She Kills Monsters

BRLT's Good Production of Les Misérables

Baton Rouge Little Theatre's impressive production of Les Misérables proves why this play resounds so much with its audience. The music reverberates with the audience, and even if this production doesn't quite soar to greatness, it has many things to savor.

Link to Review of Les Misérables

A London Journey: Reviews of 16 plays

Though I actuallly caught twenty-three productions, including one opera and one symphony orchestra, I reviewed only sixteen of the productions. The reviews are on my London West End page. Some of them are still playing if you are interested in catching them. Bon Voyage.

Link to West End Reviews

ART's Regional Premiere of The Oath

Though the subtitle is A Southern Gothic Tale, it’s really a universal story of the toll that secrecy and subterfuge takes on people, and that’s not restricted to just the South. Don’t miss a thought-provoking evening of good theatre.

Link to Review of The Oath

Come Down, Come Down: John White Must Go!

Too many good teachers are leaving; to many problems exist in Compass; too much uncertainty and too much hubris. Here is my fury unleashed at the dysfunctional education system in Louisiana under the grossly-underqualified State Superintendent John White.

Link to John White Article

Superintendent's Radical Makeover of LA Schools.

"Teachers, parents, and students need to know and understand the proposed changes Governor

Bobby Jindal and Superintendent John White are asking the BESE board to approve next Tuesday.

Here is only a summary of a few topics."

Review of the Educational Reform Proposals Submitted to BESE

Link to Ill-Advised Reforms

Reflections on the year 2012

"I've never been one for making resolutions, though I have several friends who fervently do so. I prefer to reflect on the past, on the situations that now carry extra significance which I either could not see before or have since added in hindsight. 2012 is as good a year as any, though the years tend to blur as time slides past us."

Reflections of 2012

Link to my Reflections of 2012

My Plays

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