Christopher
Prentice
AEA
About
Christopher Prentice is a classically trained actor based in Chicago, with work ranging from Shakespearean tragedies to contemporary comedies. He most recently played Richard III for The Shakespeare Project of Chicago.
Signal Ensemble earns praise for clean direction and strong acting, especially from Christopher Prentice, impressive as the troubled Jerry … Prentice (who turned in a chilling performance earlier this summer as the ruthless Sebastian in First Folio Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”) effortlessly delivers Albee’s dense, vivid dialogue. He conveys Jerry’s alienation and loneliness with detached sadness and tired resolve. A long, well-paced monologue about Jerry’s love-hate relationship with his landlady’s dog defines his engrossing, cliché-free performance nicely underscored by paranoia and longing.
a must-see production if you crave conversation material for erudite social circles.
The ease with which Prentice, Snook, Schoenherr, Stearns and Benton Reynolds (“Boy”) display their craft and present such unconventional material is both magnetic and admirable. It is far from what one would think a troupe of young men could undertake, but they attack it rather well and the performances, from voice to costume to characterization, are fleshy and substantial.
Critics’ Picks Christopher Prentice, in the title role, has a face and a deft command of classical rhetoric destined for recognition beyond the storefront circuit. Why not see him now instead?
Christopher Prentice really pulls it off as Beatrice. At first, one is distracted by the fact that Beatrice has such a strong chin line, but that’s soon forgotten because of Prentice’s skill as an actor.
He doesn’t play at being a woman. He plays the woman, exploring her emotions and intelligence brilliantly.
The charismatic Christopher Prentice has no such problem in presenting a Ned who can be brilliant and seemingly fearless in reading and exposing others — including Elizabeth herself — while also proving vulnerable, angry and scared, as Ned avoids what he’s lost in the past and what awaits him in the near future.
Christopher Prentice is wonderfully understated as that most modern of Shakespeare’s characters, the melancholy Jaques.
Christopher Prentice as Beatrice gives the best performance of the production. Obviously a man in a wig and a dress, Prentice plays Beatrice with a dignified maturity, almost a hard-jawed steely acceptance of her spinster fate. Powdery-faced and vampire pale, ghastly and physically unappealing as a woman, Prentice’s Beatrice is nonetheless a quick-witted free spirit – “she wakes herself with laughing” – capable of tenderness in her rejection of Don Pedro’s advance as well as overkill later in her anger: “kill Claudio.” Her 4.1 frustration – “o, that I were a man!” – is deliciously ironic, and her sharing of bedroom-eyed glances with Benedick before the wedding is cute, but Prentice’s best moments come with the 3.1 eavesdropping deception. When she hears of Benedick’s love for her, Prentice’s Beatrice nearly knocks over a planter then bursts into delighted laughter, and in her urgency to move past the potted trees to get closer to the gossiping Hero and Margaret, she snaps a tree in half – “what fire is in mine ears!” – then in a panic tries to screw it back together. She pats her heart in acceptance of both the man – “Benedick, love on!” – and her own feelings.
an antic production that is droll, full of heart, and wonderfully accessible. … As Estragon, Christopher Prentice captures the madness and the desperate hope of the wait for Godot in each, cleanly articulated movement and line. Forever tormented by shoes that don’t fit and a best friend who alternately enrages and invigorates him, Prentice’s Gogo is everyman banished to a nightmare twilight zone. … Both are excellent physical comedians, but they never let the slapstick overbalance the universal emotions at the core of their characters. … Godot remains a maddening mystery. But there’s no mystery to Signal’s mastery of Beckett’s seminal drama.
and she is well matched by the dashing Christopher Prentice, as bright and hilarious a couple of foolish young lovers as you could want
As the show’s primary devil, Christopher Prentice makes a charming John Wilkes Booth.
The two actors who play the queen and Lowenscraft, Milwaukee’s Deborah Staples and Christopher Prentice, who made his professional debut in 1998 at Illinois Shakes, create characters who are both memorable and enticing.
Prentice dives deeply into the internal conflict of Lowenscraft, giving all of us a clear understanding of the war he is fighting with himself. His passionate recounting of his affair with Jack, the Irish soldier, makes you grit your teeth at the explicit and dirty yet beautiful description of the brief fling. He is an actor of immense versatility and presence.
Christopher Prentice is brilliantly funny playing it straight as Anne’s barely willing suitor Slender; he has great command of the text and mastery of every malapropism … Malpropism-prone Slender gains most of our sympathy here thanks to a fantastically funny performance by Prentice, who has apparently been at the festival for three seasons but was hitherto unnoticed by me. He mangles the English language masterfully; his anxious ambivalence about marriage – and everything else – is a treat.
…a bright spot, along with Christopher Prentice’s wily Mercutio
Credit rests with Christopher Prentice whose agile, uncontrived performance as the gallant outlaw reflects a striking command of Shakespeare’s language
Christopher Prentice’s Marlow, a Jekyll-and-Hyde vacillation between arrogant foppery and sputtering, stammering nitwit, is worth the price of admission.
Christopher Prentice and Shannon E. Farmer bring strong presence to Booth and Guiteau.
Prentice and his talented cast make magic … So convincing is this well-acted, well-paced production, you might find yourself tempted to order a pint and join in the conversation
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journey beyond the map