C.M. Crockford

Philadelphia

Writer and Editor at Freelance

BIRDSONGS out now @thealienbuddha. Edits books, loves horror. Wally is my Hodge. Words @MassReview @vastchasmmag @broadstreview @strange_matters

Featured in: Favicon

flipboard.com Favicon

pastemagazine.com Favicon

nerdist.com Favicon

letterboxd.com Favicon

looper.com Favicon

insidehook.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

christandpopculture.com Favicon

broadstreetreview.com Favicon

thespool.net + 6 more

Articles

Quintessence presents Shakespeare’s Midsummer and Antony & Cleopatra…

1 month ago | broadstreetreview.com | C.M. Crockford

Mt. Airy’s Quintessence Theatre Group welcomes spring back to Philadelphia with its “Reckless Romance Repertory” featuring twin productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Antony & Cleopatra, both running through April 27, 2025 with the same cast and creative team. Two of the Bard’s most romantic and sensuous plays are an ambitious undertaking for director Alex Burns. Neither are perfect, but both productions feature passion, music, spectacle, and captivating theater.
Arden Theatre Company presents Michael Hollinger’s Holy Grail of…

2 months ago | broadstreetreview.com | C.M. Crockford

Michael Hollinger’s new one-act, now getting its world premiere at the Arden (extended through March 2, 2025), comes in behind a recent spate of local productions untangling the knotty, ugly history of cultural appropriation and racism in America, like InterAct’s Stepmom, Stepmom, Stepmom and Curio’s Thanksgiving Play. It’s also the one that feels the most like a well-meaning white man (like me) wrote it—because he did.
Winds of Change & Desolation

Dec 18, 2024 | brightwalldarkroom.com | C.M. Crockford

“Nobody trusts each other now…and we’re all very tired.”– The ThingLaura Ingalls Wilder’s autobiographical novel The Long Winter vividly recounts the eponymous winter season of 1880/1881, one of the most severe in recorded American meteorological history.
Curio Theatre Company presents Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving…

Oct 28, 2024 | broadstreetreview.com | C.M. Crockford

FastHorse’s satire, which originally premiered in 2018, hits some easy targets at first, but escalates in hilarity and insight as the characters’ attempt to workshop their school play falls apart. Director Tim Martin’s cheerfully politically incorrect video interludes, and strong performances from Felicia Leicht and Nathan Joseph, help make this production impossible to miss for locals also wrestling with the meaning of the upcoming holiday.
Fever Dream Repertory presents Steve Yockey’s Mercury

Oct 7, 2024 | broadstreetreview.com | C.M. Crockford

Naturally, I was part of the former category. Somewhere between a bloodier, far queerer Twilight Zone and Hitchcock’s quirky comedies, director Bill Felty’s intimate, intense production has arrived just in time for the season of witches, demons, and the darkness lurking beneath every surface. Horror, drama, and dark laughs Taking place in front of a simple revolving set, the play focuses on two couples in flux: Patricia and Heather, and Nick (Christopher Castagna) and Brian (Brandon Tyler).
Love in the Age of Cronenberg

Sep 5, 2024 | strangematters.coop | C.M. Crockford

Mick tells Tom that one ex “used to have these crazy goddamn dreams where instead of her boyfriend, I was some kind of demented killer. I woke up one night, she stuck a goddamn fork in my shoulder.” Tom expects the story to end with a breakup. Mick instead says he married her, even if it didn’t last. Does “Tom” later think of this story once his family discovers his true identity as Joey Cusick, a legendary Philly gangster?
Southern Literary Tradition: On 'Snake Lore' by Jane Morton

Aug 2, 2024 | phillychapbookreview.org | C.M. Crockford

Snake Loreby Jane MortonBlack Lawrence Press, 33 pp, $9.95 (print)The famed courtliness of the American South, so venerated in movies like Gone With The Wind and used to great effect in the TV crime drama Justified, can serve as a mask, hiding disdain or bigotry behind fine manners and an eloquent tongue.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle Is Still the Right Mix of Smart and Dumb

Jul 30, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | C.M. Crockford

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is the sort of fun, low budget stoner comedy that two decades ago got a chance to become a sleeper hit, instead of only playing theaters for 30 days before going straight to streaming.
Theater review: Shakespeare in Clark Park Presents As You Like It:

Jul 25, 2024 | broadstreetreview.com | C.M. Crockford

Ontaria Kim Wilson’s adaptation is meant to resonate with modern themes: exile from home, injustice, and gender bending. But while the text doesn’t always offer support, Wilson’s approach still works for a bawdy, touching romance with several love triangles and a gleeful subversion of social norms. Consider, for instance, how Rosalind in the early 17th century would have been played by a man, playing a woman, disguised as a man for much of the text.
20 Years Later, Dodgeball (Sort of) Embraces Loserdom

Jun 18, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | C.M. Crockford

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is the purest 2004 comedy, and by that I mean it embodies the cringey, deeply confused values of the 2000s. There’s the trifecta of problematic, badly aged celebrity cameos, including William Shatner, Chuck Norris, and Lance Armstrong – though the latter bit is so well-written that it gets big laughs.