In a music-theatre context, there are a number of questions that must be answered before any song can be completed. Often when lyricists and composers collaborate on songs for a new show, th…
I was reminded recently of a director I once had the displeasure of working with who saw his job more or less as moving actors around like set pieces on his set. As one of those...
In the weeks since I first wrote this 3-page manifesto in response to a question from one member of my online scriptwriters workshop, I've continued to have requests for copies. So I figured…
On Tuesday afternoon, my plan was to take my Mom to see Claude Berri's THE TWO OF US at the Quad Cinema. About an hour before we headed out I learned that -- oops! -- in...
Something strange happened yesterday at the Quad Cinema on 13th Street. I'd taken Mom to an early-evening screening of the filmed version of Edward Albee's A DELICATE BALANCE. If you haven't…
When I was eight or nine I'd been taking piano lessons for a couple of years. One day I arrived at my weekly lesson unprepared and my teacher noted the fact that it seemed as though...
Alvin Epstein, actor and director, has been one of my mentors. Over the 40+ years I've known him he's taught me many lessons. I'd like to briefly describe three of them here. 1. The Sign of.…
My first summer there Charles Ludlum (of Ridiculous Theatre fame) was there as a guest director; he was directing Die Fledermaus, a lighthearted operetta by Johann Strauss... I remember so v…
At the multiplex in Roanoke. Waiting for the feature presentation to begin, an action-packed trailer pops up for a movie called KIDNAP. We see Halle Berry as a mother-warrior fighting what l…
At Citarella, where the staff has been carefully schooled to call us to their registers with "May I help the following guest?" I recently heard this shouted at me: "Following!" I love it! At…
For the past couple days, as I seem more than usually to have awakened to accepting I actually have one, I've been musing on the power and marvelous mix of comfort and strangeness of the act…
So a cool pal of mine who will not want to be named here (because she is genetically predisposed to modesty and discretion) managed to snag me a "plus one" invite to today's memorial for the…
And just like that I was grateful to him again. I find it difficult to think of another human being so fundamentally unwilling to sugar coat the truth. By his actions and through his presenc…
In the past week I happened to see two musicals built in similar ways -- HADESTOWN at NYTW and THE TOTAL BENT at The Public. One really grabbed me, whipped me around, shook me up and...
My pal John Yearley has a show up. You should go see it. You only have three more days to do so. The Unrepeatable Moment is the latest offering from The Barrow Group, known for their...
There's a certain kind of emotion that washes over me when I encounter works of monumental genius. It's like my whole being is flooded with awe and wonder and gratitude so much so that I sta…
Don't get me wrong. I love a good storytelling. And I love the Moth, whose Artistic Director Catherine Burns, is an old pal of mine. But as much as I may love good story, I love great writin…
I'm in Denver for The Dramatists Guild. Yesterday I offered a Self-Production Primer, a 4-hour starter kit workshop on some fundamentals for playwrights interested in producing their own wor…
This item recently caught my eye. Heineken, Stella Artois, and Sony are among those to have commissioned one-off immersive live theatrical experiences in recent months. Now, however, London …
Is the diversity movement in the theater focused on having more characters depicted on stage from underrepresented demographic groups (race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.), and…
What is your definition of great theatre? Well, I sort of thought I had a handle on mine until I saw Caryl Churchill's latest play, which the gentleman sitting beside me would argue is not. …
Scanning this Whitehouse press release on Obama's nomination of a new Chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Jane Chu has an impressive resume. And she's a pianist. Love the i…
Lydia Stryk has a fascinating piece up on HowlRound about a movement to guarantee artists a living wage. And Stryk's wonderful piece (not all of which I agree with) is just the tip of the ic…
It seems to me that in LONDON ROAD, Cork and Blythe have stumbled onto a new way for opera to recapture the immediacy it had several centuries ago when it was the venality and cruelty of the…
I had an absolute blast moderating this panel for the Dramatists Guild on Tuesday. Really smart and generous panelists include: August Schulenburg (Flux Theatre Ensemble), James Comtois (Nos…