Samantha Maldonado lives in Philadelphia but is originally from Western Massachusetts. Right now, she does communications and publishing work for the Free Library of Philadelphia. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2013 with a BA in Sociology and Creative Writing. Her interests include books, feminism(s), social justice, education, cities, visual art, dance, and dogs, among other things. You can follow her on Twitter and read more of her work here.
By this Author
21 results
Page 1
![An end, not a failure. (“Empty House” by Bryan Rosengrant via Creative Commons/Flickr)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/empty_theater_Bryan_Rosengrant.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=57252b055971faa4edcd6f6dfe78e1ae)
Flashpoint Theatre Company calls it quits
Flashpoint Theatre was founded in 2004 to produce socially provocative and emotionally resonant works of contemporary theater while supporting diverse, emerging artists. Financial support for that mission has dried up, and the company is disbanding.
Articles
3 minute read
![Virginia Maksymowicz, "She Talks Too Much"](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Virginia_Maksymowicz_She_Talks_too_Much.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=038603f5e54474c67f87b0c147deacd3)
Old Enough to Know Better at Crane Arts
Subversive wisdom
Old Enough to Know Better is an energizing, maximalist show that includes art of all kinds, all reflecting the stubbornness and resilience essential to female artists pursuing their vocation.
Articles
4 minute read
![Tables as doors, platforms, barriers. (Photo by Said Johnson)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/supper_people_on_move.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=fce5040fbcaffe108e157dc6683a43bb)
Silvana Cardell's 'Supper, People on the Move'
Empathy for émigrés and exiles
Supper, People on the Move is a thoughtful, important work for not only its serious exploration of the immigrant experience, but also as a powerful example of dance as a mode for social history and political advocacy. With effortless shifts between moods and movement styles, Supper reflects the desperation, precariousness, and turmoil of immigrant life.
Articles
4 minute read
![Distracted by motion.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Sincerity-1-web.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=1a254dad74a750195f1579350f6e72b0)
Team Sunshine's 'Sincerity Project'
The thin line between sincerity and artifice
The Sincerity Project takes the notion of sincerity as timeless, self-evident, decidedly apolitical, and fully accessible via performance, which makes the show feel a lot like a game of Truth or Dare at a sleepover: Amusing to an extent, if not slightly phony, and occasionally revealing of a juicy tidbit, but overall limited to the provided guidelines.
Articles
3 minute read
BalletX's Fall Series
The effort of creating beauty
The dances by Ballet X are not products so much as they are evidence of direct engagement with the process of creative discovery. The pieces are rough around the edges, daring, spirited, and so much fun.
Articles
3 minute read
![Recalling a primal past. (Photo by Bill Hebert)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/evolution.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=8124b605bda13bc4f0d2131de5648031)
Koresh Dance Company's 'evolution'
An exercise in world-building
Ev.o.lu.tion explores how to communicate frustration, desire, agony, ecstasy, longing, and identity through visceral expression. The performance is emotionally charged, so moody in its aesthetics that it begs to be absorbed and, if not interpreted, then felt.
Articles
3 minute read
![Sánchez-Eppler: working in full view. (Photo via bandcamp.com)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Alma_Sanchez-Eppler.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=55e52cea367695522e3d4f0b8a5bc0bf)
Alma Sánchez-Eppler’s ‘They Extract!’
Toward a transparent creative process
Playwright Alma Sánchez-Eppler is simultaneously working on both a play and a larger artistic experiment, by sharing the artistic process on social media in real time.
Essays
6 minute read
![Are we having fun yet?](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Detroit_at_PTC.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=71ee871a3af68f4c85dc5c68a59155e1)
Lisa D’Amour’s ‘Detroit’ by PTC (second review)
Playing house
Detroit has been criticized for being too shallow — it could have gone into a deeper, less superficial exploration of Real Issues, like class and economic despair. After all, nothing much happens. However, the play’s genius is in its refusal to go there. It keeps us, like its characters, comfortable in what we see, wholly entertained, but not quite satisfied.
Articles
4 minute read
![Gina Hoch-Stall and Adrian Plascencia of RealLivePeople. (photo credit: Lindsay Browning)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Would_I_Lie_to_You.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=1835f3742cf30dbaa0987ccfd16fe7c5)
Fringe Festival: RealLivePeople's 'Would I Lie to You?'
The lies we tell
Combining choreographed and improvised dance, movements, and spoken words, RealLivePeople present us with the lies we tell ourselves and others in Would I Lie to You?
Articles
3 minute read
![Three-dimensional line drawings in space. (Photo courtesy of Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, Drexel University)](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/convergence.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=3d8c377e67235c352ea8f10b4d733b02)
Jeremy Holmes's 'Convergence' at Drexel University
Illusory kinetic energy
“Convergence” engages the viewer with elements presented in unfamiliar ways: A solid, heavy material like wood seems pliable and floats in the air, and a simple gallery space is transformed into a hands-off playscape.
Articles
3 minute read
![Part of a portrait series from Tieshka Smith's Racism Is a Sickness, opening February 1. Image courtesy of the artist.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/meredith_selfishness_1-11-2016.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=56b9661ec395590edb1c856fd48cbdb1)
![Drummer Andrés Cisneros and students. Photo by Melissa B. Skolnick.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Andres_students.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=0fdff936a94980a7bed2995989dca616)
![Isa St. Clair as Offred. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/handmaidstaleL1031960.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=cf15d3d7ce78696c7771c41870c759d2)
![Detail of a Callot Soeurs evening dress, c. 1926. Photo by Michael J. Shepherd.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/Immortal_beauty_detail.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=9bdbbe7fcad0710e7ef1e5a7596a57d6)
![A skater tries out Monk's work. Photo by Steve Weinik for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.](https://img.broadstreetreview.com/content/uploads/OpenSource_Pyramid3_SWeinik_cropped.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=169&q=80&w=300&s=81e2e15a41d644cffd767cf61a2553e6)