I shook hands with director Wilbert L. Williams after A Soldier’s Play to congratulate him on such a fine casting job. Lately, I’ve come to appreciate more how critical casting is to the success a production.

For example, veteran actor and Big Easy Theatre Award winner, Harold X. Evans, gives a disquieting performance in the play’s most difficult role, as a black man prejudiced against other black people, especially the “Yah suh, Massah, step-n-fetchit type” (his words). Evans, an army sergeant, is hated by his all-black soldiers, and his murder causes little shock or remorse. Yet, his murder and its investigation are the crux of A Soldier’s Play. Read the rest of this entry »

Chicago is the setting of two offbeat romantic comedies recently released on DVD. Hannah Takes the Stairs and I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With are both quirky little stories of rather odd leading characters looking for love in the Windy City.

In Hannah Takes the Stairs we follow Hannah, played by Greta Gerwig, who resembles a young Chloe Sevigny (from her Kids days), while she struggles to find herself through her work and various male counterparts. The film leaves you with the feeling that Hannah will not end up with any of the guys that she dates. Even the final scene, with her and her office romance, Read the rest of this entry »

So we know after last month, that our government approved and used waterboarding. Stephen Bradbury, acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, gave testimony before a congressional committee, saying that when the CIA proposed using waterboarding, Bradbury’s office advised them that it wasn’t torture if they followed “strict guidelines and procedures.” Bradbury also pointed out that the CIA’s special secret recipe for waterboarding — even though committee members all had security clearance, Bradbury wouldn’t reveal the technique — was far different from the historical method. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sam Winston

Another reason to go to Baton Rouge? That’d be the new Apple Store, the first in Louisiana, with its grand opening on Thursday.

It would be way cooler if the store was in New Orleans.

by Sam Winston

He was always one of my favorites and now it looks like he’s back. With the current roster, his skills in rebounding, hustling and dunking can flourish since he won’t have to do too much. Here’s a highlight reel.