Ms. Bydalek is a writer, performer and administrator living in New York City. She is a proud Nebraskan and graduate of the Musical Theatre program at the University of Michigan.
While Mira Nair’s musical based on her critically acclaimed 2001 film falls short of the nuanced work it aspires to, I found myself laughing in delight at the dialogue, the performances, and the ridiculous details.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Alan Bennett’s 2009 play-within-a-play ‘The Habit of Art’ is a layered examination of the creative process and of grappling with the complicated legacies of titans.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Instead of receiving a gift in return for their effort and intention, the audience members are asked to validate Sam Morrison’s identity and pain.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
‘Note to a friend’ teeters in an uncomfortable no-man’s land between opera and contemporary theater.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Yet, like many 59E59 Theater productions past, ‘Boswell’ is tinged with signature salvific sweetness. At the heart of the piece is a story about forming friendships.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
‘Catch as Catch Can’ has been produced once before, with an all-white cast, but writer Mia Chung felt an impulse to try again with a new venue, creative team, and a cast of Asian descent.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
As I watched ‘Where the Mountain Meets the Sea’ unfold, I could think of no starker representation of our current generational divide.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Emma Rice’s adaptation skins away formality, exposing the manic, infernal heart beating behind Emily Brontë’s only novel.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
A few years after playwright Jiehae Park wrote her piece modeled on ‘MacBeth,’ the most notorious college admissions scandal of our time would captivate the news cycle.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Despite a poignant premise, execution undermines the ultimate impact of ‘The Memory Exam.’
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Under the direction of Bo Burnham, the comedian’s genesis story unfolds in ‘Kate.’ Berlant portrays a variety of characters with extraordinary physicality and ease, except for the matter of a single tear.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
Clarence Coo’s writing lends itself well to the director’s cinematic vision for ‘On That Day in Amsterdam,’ calling to mind the dreamy fiction of authors like Haruki Murakami.
By GRACE BYDALEK
||Culture
