As the opening phrase of the following essay indicates, it was written on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; this explains why the title may seem out of sync appearing here now. Because this piece first appeared elsewhere, before I...
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...
A couple of weeks back I stumbled upon Beloit College’s annual “Mindset List.” Every year since 1998, a faculty member and a (now former) administrator at Beloit have collaborated to assemble a list of cultural and historical touchstones that the incoming freshman class would take for granted, having never known...
Every March, tens of thousands of people obsessed with technology, music, and film gather in Austin, Texas for 10 days of learning, hand-shaking, business-making, art-creating, and of course, debauchery. Some call it Nerd Spring Break. Others, South-by. But one thing is clear: The Interactive Conference at South by Southwest (SXSWi)...
Here’s the first of several spotlights on British stage directors. Have a great remainder of the week! Meet Darren A. Furniss Current Town: East Midlands, UK Theatre Affiliation: Artistic Director of 4FRONT Performance Company 1. What does a director eat for breakfast? I usually don’t eat breakfast so I...
Here in Vancouver, as a theatre producer, one of your greatest challenges is simply finding space. We have two major theatre companies, The Vancouver Playhouse and the Arts Club, that own their own theatres, but other than that, the 100-or-so independent theatre companies in the city all are fighting for...
I promise, this is not another premature eulogy for Steve Jobs. I saw this on Google+ this morning. This is an old video of Steve Jobs responding to a critic at the World Wide Developers Conference in 1997, shortly after Jobs returned to Apple. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE[/youtube] One thing immediately jumped out...
All of meme. Meme, myself and I. Auntie Meme. Do, re, meme, fa, so, la, ti do. I meme of Jeannie. I could go on. And on. For hours. I won’t. One of the more interesting entertainments to arise from the spread of social media is the propagation of memes,...
The non-profit model is living on borrowed time. The current model is dying. Even still, I think we spend more time trying to figure out how to fund a show than actually making the show. Read: The way we make money to make art is not sustainable. Insanity: Doing the...
I’ve been trying to fully digest the recent HowlRound post On Theatricality by Lydia Stryk. With a slew of comments (15 at my last count), it’s generated quite a bit of conversation. From the get go this blog post got stuck in my craw. I’m not the only one. Playwright...