BWW Review: A Raw LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE Vividly Depicts a Stacked Justice System →

In the American Coast Theatre Company's West Coast premiere of LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE, playwright Warren John Doody has brilliantly adapted Dr. Elizabeth Dermody Leonard's verbatim transcripts of interviewed, incarcerated women into a brutal, unrelenting look at our current justice system. Susan K. Berkompas directs her very talented and committed cast with the precision of a surgeon in a tightly-paced, illustrative narrative of what put these five women in prison. They each were found guilty of murdering their respective abusive husbands or boyfriends.

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Earth To Us Podcast →

In this episode, we talk with Warren Doody, the playwright of “Life Without Parole,” a stage play about battered women who are in prison for murdering their abusers. We ask ourselves the question, “Are their crimes justified?”

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FringeNYC Review: Life Without Parole →

There are stories so true and yet so bleak that many people don’t really want to hear them. Life Without Parole is one of these. Yet the play, produced by Working Artists Theatre Project in association with Karah Gravatt and Robert Tyrer and presented by the New York International Fringe Festival, is as powerful as any new play I have seen in years. Its message is a stark one. Women who are abused by the men in their lives often have no choice but to end the cycle of violence with their own violent actions. Often this happens after their children have been forced into the sphere of danger. And these women are often treated without sympathy by our criminal justice system and are subsequently sent to prison for life. It happens over and over again and there seems no end to it….

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'Development' a tale of madness in the desert →

The venue for acting is odd but kind of fun, with tea and snacks in the kitchen and fresh air on the deck in the grassy backyard.Oh yes, and tools and car supplies in the garage.For a month, actors with Theatrikos Theatre Company have been rehearsing in the Flagstaff garage of Linda and Tony Sutera, longtime members of the company.

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On Theater: Wedding jitters exacerbated with wonderfully witty bite →

Think of striking oil in your own backyard and you’ll have the perfect metaphor for “Enlightenment.com,” the second and final offering of Vanguard University’s professional arm, the American Coast Theater Company.

The playwright, Warren Doody, has taught English at Vanguard for 14 years and written several other scripts, one of which, “Development,” will be part of Vanguard’s 2012-13 season. As for “Enlightenment.com,” it’s as sharp, fresh and funny as anything you’ll see this year.

Love in the digital age is the theme for this ultra-modern comedy, which blends its sitcom plot with the farcical antics of its minor characters, which is a misnomer; all six of the players make major contributions.

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Theater Review: Finding 'Enlightenment'

The sky was twinkling with stars (hanging lights), the carpet red and the moon mostly full Friday for the world premiere of "Enlightenment" at the Doris Harper-White Theatre.

Playwright Warren Doody must have celebrated into the wee hours Saturday morning as his play was a rousing success. Director Richard Jesswein staged the new romantic comedy with deft aplomb. Like the mariners of old, he charted a course in untested waters and followed his instincts and the stars to get the actors and audience to the same destination … enlightenment…

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