1,641 stories by "Robert Shuman"
Let someone teach us to speak simply, musically, nobly, beautifully, but without vocal acrobatics, actors' pathos and all the odds and ends of scenic diction. We want the same thing in m…
(Damian Thompson's article appeared in the Spectator, 9/7.) She was one of only four women to record the complete Beethoven piano sonatas but the state kept her in obscurity Only four women …
In the repertoire of an actor, among the large number of parts played by him, there are some that seem to have been creating themselves in his inner consciousness for a long time. One on…
(Masha Gessen's article appeared in the New Yorker, 9/10.) Russia released its most famous prisoner on Saturday. Oleg Sentsov, a forty-three-year-old Crimean journalist and film direct…
How many actors' sins are covered by the artist, his line and color. How easily he gives an artistic shading to the whole performance. It is not in vain that so many talentless actor…
(Chris Wiegand's article appeared in the Guardian, 9/9.) The British writer, whose plays include Privates on Parade and The National Health, died on Saturday The playwright Peter Nichols,…
The stage director can do a great deal, but he cannot do everything. The most important thing is in the hands of the actor, whom one must help, who must be guided in the proper direction…
Author Phyllis Wheeler talks to Bob Shuman, at Marit Literary Agency and Stage Voices, about her YA novel The Long Shadow, a Huckleberry Finn story for the 21st century. A white suburban, co…
Mechanical outward play is a long way ahead of true inner experiences. In order to stop this meaningless movement along the surface of the role, it is necessary to give the initiative of…
(Peter Crawley's article appeared in the Irish Times, 9/7.) As the world that made Samuel Beckett who he was becomes magically apparent, the point of Dead Centre's unusual approach begins to…
(Ben Brantley's article appeared in The New York Times, 9/5.) How can a naked space seem so full? Feelings furnish the stage in the resplendently spare new production of Harold Pinter's "Bet…
The more times emotion is forced to attack problems too difficult for it, the more timid it becomes and the more used to its buffers. And the more the buffers are developed, the harder i…
(This article appeared in the Irish Times, 9/2.) With 10 world premieres and 14 international productions, there's something for everyone at this year's Dublin Theatre Festival Dublin Theatr…
The actor becomes a prostitute who appears so many hours each evening for the purpose of exhibiting his beauty, his legs, his breast, his muscles, his animal temperament and passion, his lou…
(Michael Billington's article appeared in the Guardian, 9/4.) As Hansard opens at the National Theatre and drama heats up in Westminster, our critic picks his favourite political theatre Cor…
All actors must be character actors, of course not in the sense of outer, but of inner characteristics. But even outwardly it is best for the actor to leave himself at times. This do…
When my opinion was asked, I made my remarks. Good and true words come not when you want to say them, but only when you do not think of them, when they become necessary themselves. (MLIA)
(Michael Paulson's article appeared in The New York Times, 8/30; via Pam Green.) The revival, starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, will open next spring on Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthda…
When you play a good man look for the places where he is evil, and in an evil man look for the places where he is good. (MLIA)
(Steven McElroy's article appeared in The New York Times, 8/23; via Pam Green.) "Mouthpiece" by Kieran Hurley won $25,000 to fund a transfer from the Edinburgh Fringe to New York. "Mouthpiec…
What is done on the stage is seen better from the auditorium than from the stage itself. Looking from the auditorium I comprehended the mistakes on the stage at once. . . . (MLIA)
(Alexandra Guzeva's article appeared in Russia Beyond the HEadlings, 6/3.) Nowadays, most theaters have stopped using prompters, but the Maly Theater cherishes this tradition and regards pro…
(Mia Galuppo's article appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, 8/29; via the Drudge Report.) Blake Jenner, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt will star in an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim music…
The feeling of truth is the best awakener of emotion and the sense of living. . . . At first I did not have to imitate any one, and I felt well on the stage. There was only one unple…
Listen Timberlake Wertenbaker's adaptation from the French of Marcel Proust's allegorical reflection on time, memory, art and love. It begins with the vivid memory of a young boy's child…
