As I write this blog post, I have a play in rehearsal that features a few eminently spoil-able plot points. It’s hard to explain without, you know, spoiling anything for people, but we can’t even use certain characters’ names in program or in publicizing the show. It’s been a fun...
I’ve been thinking lately about why, how, and by whom new plays are commissioned. I’ve been fortunate enough to have earned a few commissions myself, and it won’t surprise anyone to learn that in all of those instances, the commissions have come from theater companies. The companies in question needed...
I’m live-blogging the first-ever Dramatists Guild conference. Please feel free to log on and either lurk or join the conversation. If there are opportunities for questions, and you submit any, I’ll try to sneak them in. I may also be tweeting from time to time if you’d rather follow along...
Tomorrow night, two different things are going to be done to one of my plays that have never been done before, and I’m really excited about both of them. Thing one is this: my play is going to be bootlegged. No, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be secretly recorded...
Toward the end of last year, I began to get a series of emails from theater companies and arts organizations I’ve worked with in the past asking me to consider making donations in support of their efforts. This has become a late-December custom for me; I’m sure you experience the...
There are times I wish I was a social scientist. Nothing answers a question as definitely, for me, as evidence-based reasoning. Unfortunately, when it comes to curtain speeches and their ability to actually convince audience members to silence their cell phones, we largely seem to be working from received wisdom...
My last 2AMT post – on civil discourse around the subject of pricing – generated a great deal of lively commentary. While some of what was said flirted with the gray area between “passionate” and “heated” – the former I consider intense and devoted, the latter inflammatory and aggressive –...
