American voters may soon thank, or rebuke, President Obama for drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But veterans who have finished their tours of duty can find themselves engaged in other battles on the homefront. Post-traumatic stress disorder has long occupied a place in the popular imagination. Less visible are the effects of war on the friends and family members of those who served.... Read more

Maybe you’ve played the game: Choose X number of items you’d like to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island. The idea is fun to play around with, because your odds of becoming marooned are slim. How else to explain the popularity of the TV series “Lost” and numerous other ship- or plane-wreck-themed shows, movies and books?... Read more

It’s the rare — and possibly deranged — American teenager who laments that the awkward adolescent years are flying by too fast. Oh, why must I get my driver’s license? Can’t I use my learner’s permit for another blissful year? Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2000 Kimberly Akimbo features just such a rare specimen of youth culture. But her motivation to savor age 16 is physical, not psychological. The Kimberly (Levaco) of the play’s title suffers from a rare progeria-like disease that causes her to age rapidly.... Read more

Theatre Kavanah, a new, local theater group dedicated to sharing stories of the Jewish experience, premiered on September 9 and 10 with staged readings of The Chosen, Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner’s 1999 theatrical adaptation of Potok’s acclaimed 1967 novel. Company founder Wendi Stein, a longtime player on area stages, considers the venture a “project,” not a company per se, pending formation of an official nonprofit entity and a concerted fundraising effort.... Read more

It has been said that theater is among the most democratic of art forms. Its roots are in ancient Greece, where theater festivals were important civic events. In today’s theaters, as playwright David Ives has written, one must negotiate for the shared armrest with the person sitting in the next seat. Democracy in action! Audience members also have the freedom, should they wish to avail themselves of it, to express their opinions of the performance while the show is under way — to players who just might register this response in real time. Hail the First Amendment!... Read more

The Off Center for the Dramatic Arts’ second annual Burlington Fringe Festival, which opens on Thursday, August 2, poses an interesting semantic question: If a venue succeeds in enabling “fringe”-type shows to become the veritable mainstream of a theater scene, is it still accurate to call a showcase of these acts “fringe”?... Read more

Of all the theater genres being produced today, perhaps none sets clearer audience expectations than farce. To buy a ticket to a farce is to accept an invitation to be amused — simply amused — by a comic situation that escalates zanily toward a riotous resolution, propelled purely by folly. If you attend a farce expecting, say, deep character development or evocations of important themes, then the joke’s on you.... Read more

The traditional image of the American father has been under revision for decades — at least long enough to make TV’s first father, Ward Cleaver, look like a nostalgic cartoon and his latter-day “Mad Men” counterpart, Don Draper, a pointed example of the bad old days of meat, potatoes and patriarchy. ... Read more

Americans on the dating scene in the mid-1990s must have reached a breaking point in their desperation. How else to explain the popularity of The Rules, Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider’s best-selling compendium of Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right, published in 1995? The next year saw the U.S. premiere of the comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, a rollicking musical revue about the trials and tribulations of seeking a soul mate.... Read more

Pop culture hasn’t been too kind to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. For every work acknowledging his monumental role in world history, such as Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace, there are dozens of cartoonish riffs on his short stature — a widely held image of the man that some Bonaparte scholars say is probably inaccurate. (Apologies to director Friz Freleng, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the cast and crew of the 1956 animated short “Napoleon Bunny-Part.”)... Read more