More and more, I remind myself to look out the window of the theater and see if the people on the sidewalk have any relationship to the people or the story on the stage. I moved away from Chicago in June. Saying goodbye to the rough winters was easy. Bidding...
Roll On, Strange Little Plays. Roll On. I will start off saying this: rolling world premieres should be the ONLY way plays premiere. With consecutive and distinct productions a new play gets the essential time and community to mature rapidly, thoroughly, and cradled by friendly forces. Awww. A play becomes...
The theatre niche of the social media stream operates much like any other Animal Farm and in this particular backwater Animal Farm I am a donkey who has lived a long time. Hang around long enough and one sees the patterns of people entering and leaving or the ebbs and flows of the...
Rachel Chavkin, founding artistic director of the TEAM, a devising ensemble, wrote an article on TCG’s blog that asks the question, “What if devised theatre moved from the margins to the mainstream of theatre making?” She makes the case that the slower, cooperative methods involved in a lot of devised...
“In the universe – just like in music, or architecture, or relationships – the absence, the space between, is just as important as the observable, tangible things.” — Dear Galileo by Claire Willett One of the questions I continually run up against when I’m writing a play is this: “Who...
John Lahr, New Yorker theater critic, wrote a piece on Julie Taymor’s frustration with the process of creating a new theatrical work in the era of instant feedback, Twitter, and focus groups. It’s a great piece, full of historical perspective on the role of audience (that is to say, amateur)...
Here’s the latest installment of the director-to-director interview series… Meet Tlaloc Rivas Hometown: Tijuana, Baja California Raised in: Escondido, CA and then Watsonville, CA Current city: St. Louis, MO Occupation: Assistant Professor of Directing & Performance, University of Missouri-St. Louis Profession: Stage Director (www.tlalocrivas.com) 1) What attracted you to directing? In...
This Saturday, we’re hosting a convening on artistic excellence at FoolsFURY. This convening arises from a belief that, as a field, we have serious difficulty having useful (and sometimes hard) conversations about the quality/excellence of each other’s work. We do this fine, at the bar, without the artists present. But...