-
Time Out for "Salesman"
Please, for God’s sake, no more productions of Death of a Salesman for a decade or so. Continue reading →
-
Unboxing! 3rd Edition of my textbook "Introduction to Play Analysis"
When I left to take the dog for a walk this morning, I discovered a small, heavy box on the front porch. I hadn’t remembered ordering anything scheduled to arrive yet, but when I opened the box I found ten copies of the 3rd edition of my textbook, Introduction to Play Analysis! I’m delighted with this new edition, which really is a complete revisioning of the original. None of the analysis process is changed, but I’ve always felt as if the book would benefit from a demo of the analysis process “in action. Continue reading →
-
Last Night's Entertaining Dream
-
Freakonomics on the Economics of Theatre
Michael Rushton informs us that “Freakonomics Radio has a new three part series on the economic landscape facing live theatre. Part One is here, and Part Two is here, which, as a supporting act in an episode with Lin-Manuel Miranda, has me trying to coherently explain cost disease in the theatre, where it comes from and its implications. Part three will come next week, but if I say so myself it is a really informative series so far. Continue reading →
-
The Death of PAJ: Performing Arts Journal
When I went off to the CUNY Graduate Center to get my doctorate in theater history/criticism/literature, I wrote to Bonnie Marranca, the co-founder and editor of Performing Arts Journal offering to volunteer to help out in any way was needed. I had been reading back issues in the library at Illinois State University, where I was working on my masters degree, and I was inspired by the vision for the theater that Marranca and her husband, Gautam Dasgupta, put forward issue after issue. Continue reading →
-
The Barter Theater and the Importance of Alternative Stories
“Recently, I read this essay by Robert Porterfield, an aspiring actor who founded a theatre company in Abingdon, Virginia. The company called Barter Theatre is apparently the nation’s longest-running professional theater, except I’ve never heard about this theater until now.” This was written by a 20-something theater person. It’s not their fault that they haven’t heard of it–nobody mentioned the Barter Theatre to me, either, when I was their age. Continue reading →
-
Ivan Illich, John McKnight, and Asset-Based Communities
(This post is the result of writing I’ve been doing on my personal project.] I’ve been reading Ivan Illich’s 1970 classic Deschooling Society and John McKnight’s The Careless Society. I’ve admired the ideas of these two people over the years, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered that they actually knew each other and that McKnight was greatly influenced by the time he spent with Illich. Reading the two books side by side (not literally! Continue reading →
-
Thoughts on Style While Feeling Crummy (Embracing My Inner Paglia)
I wrote this in 2009. I still basically feel the same way.]I am at home with a cold. Forced by my body to stop the quotidian forward motion from prep to class to prep to class and then to grading, I find myself propelled instead toward reflection, bleary and slightly feverish though I am. The catalyst for this introspection, which will likely take an outward turn, is Camille Paglia. On Saturday, in an almost accidental way, I picked up her 1992 book Sex, Art, and American Culture at the local branch library. Continue reading →
-
Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Birth of Show BUSINESS (Part 1)
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he responds. “Gradually, and then suddenly.” He could have been talking about the changes to the American theater in the last quarter of the 19th century. In my February 23 post I described “The Rise of the Combination Company and the Death of the Resident Stock Company.” Today, I want to describe the capture of the American theater by businessmen. Continue reading →
-
Trains, Canals, and Uncle Tom's Cabin (The Rooted Stage, Part 4)
Recap During the first 75 years of theater in America: Companies were independent, semi-permanent, self-contained units; They were managed by the leading actor, who chose the plays that were done, when and how long they would be done, and who in the company would play the roles; Company members were paid a share of the profits; They played standard English fare, especially Shakespeare, in rotating repertoire; The theater building was either owned by the company, or were leased long-term; The company played in a particular community, but would go on short tours each year; actors in stock companies normally led stable, settled lives and enjoyed working conditions comparable to workers in other fields; By the 1820s, a star actor from Europe or, eventually, America would come to town and perform plays with the resident company members before moving on to another town. Continue reading →
-
The River of Vision
I wrote this in 2008, and it still is true today: From Daniel Quinn’s deceptively simple and inspiring Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure: The river I mentioned earlier is the river of vision. Our culture’s river of vision is carrying us toward catastrophe. Sticks planted in the mud may impede the flow of the river, but we don’t need to impede its flow, we need to divert it into an entirely new channel. Continue reading →
-
Theater Ideas Weekly Newsletter
My latest weekly newsletter in which I talk about Brown’s elimination of the MFAs in Acting and Directing (apparently, the highly-regarded playwriting program emerged unscathed), Trump’s turning the NEA into a military marching band, and a dream about the 5 types of stories in the world (I only remember 2). Continue reading →
