Strand Theater

I am generally not a fan of local theater. The few plays I’ve been to took me back to my days of Acting 101 at Community College, a traumatic experience for me as well as anyone who had to suffer through my performances. So when a friend offered me a free ticket to see «Well» at the Strand I was wary to say the least. But my love of free stuff won out so I decided to give it a go.
The experience truly knocked my socks off. «Intimate» doesn’t even begin to explain the setting; it truly is like walking into someone’s living room. There’s no such thing as a stage, only a centralized area where most of the action took place but even that boundary was pushed when the actors engaged with the audience and sat in the rows with the viewers. This particular play was a meta-​theatrical piece which managed to further draw the audience into the piece. You were made to feel like part of the action rather than a passive observer which worked well with tiny setting and I thought it was impressive how they used the space to their advantage in such an effective way.
I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who was not particularly engaged with the play. The storyline and acting were so engrossing that I barely noticed but according to my friends the fellow kept staring at me, twitching uncontrollably, and just generally being a nuisance. As I was leaving the director of the theater approached me and checked up to make sure I’d enjoyed myself. She had noticed his behavior and wanted to make sure that he hadn’t disturbed me too much. She said that if it were ever to happen again then I should simply catch her eye and she would take care of the situation. I assured her that I hadn’t even really noticed but the fact that she acknowledged it and wanted to ensure that I was comfortable made me the experience even better.
If this the Strand is indicative of what local theater can be then consider me a convert!

Let me start off by saying that I’m not even qualified to put the «fartsy» in «artsy-​fartsy», much less the «artsy». But a friend was having a play of hers read there, so we wound our way through Baltimore to attend.
What a neat little place. Emphasis on the «little.» As in, if you need to use the can during a show, you’ll be walking across the stage a bit.
We had a great time (mainly because the play was hysterical, and participating in a reading was a completely new experience for us) and the intimate atmosphere helped. I can imagine that even a full production in here would feel like hanging out with a bunch of friends in someone’s basement.