July 2010
2 posts
“When I emerge from directing Shakespeare, I feel [I’m] a richer human...”
– The (Adrian) Noble Approach to Shakespeare — Now in California - Playbill.com
“don’t have it figured out. The album is like most of the things I’ve done in my...”
– iamdonald
June 2010
8 posts
“Then Pacino recalls one of his favorite moments of his acting career. “I was in...”
– 49 Minutes With Al Pacino — New York Magazine
The Act of Listening/Active Listening
When I first found out I’d be looking at Celia for the workshop, I was quite pleased. I felt like I got the whole “girl-whose-best-friend-is-going-through-a-MAJOR-crisis-and-she’s-really-really-trying-to-be-there-for-her-but-MY-GOD-is-it-hard” thing. I was ready to jump into a lot of love, frustration, joy, and jealousy.
And then I started re-reading the play. I had a...
“When I played Hamlet,” he remembers, “I added the word...”
– Mark Rylance: ‘It’s all about the attitude’ | Stage | The Guardian
As we do more and more of the plays, we’re finding a greater freedom in using the text as a fluid piece of dramaturgy; capable of being adapted to what we find useful in this particular staging/exploration...
“My aim now is to be a leader from the floor, as an acting member of a company. I...”
– Mark Rylance: ‘It’s all about the attitude’ | Stage | The Guardian
AYLI - From Zach Webber (Oliver) in AYLI May '10...
Leaving the Classical Studio at Tisch and going straight to a Big Kids Classical Workshop was threatening even as an idea, at least previous to my starting rehearsal (and even throughout the whole workshop perhaps). It was a little like going into Junior High, because everyone else isn’t THAT much older than you, but they’re just old enough to have clearly leapt certain walls that you...
“One of the things that the ten members of the Collective could agree on...”
– Mischa Twitchin on the history of SHUNT and their new show Money | London Theatre Blog
“The Mountaintop was, if you like, a beautiful fluke, made possible thanks to the...”
– The Stage / Features / Theatre funding is a mountain to climb
Interesting article on private sector funding vs. public funding.
May 2010
5 posts
Caught in the act: Juveniles sentenced to... →
I love this.
AYLI - We Start On Friday
Eeeeeeeeee.
April 2010
4 posts
“Don’t be creative, be specific”
– Ari Fliakos, in this morning’s Old Vic US/UK Exchange workshop
AYLI
Putting together the workshop cast. Looking to be mostly vets with some potential additions from new peoples (waiting on some initial acceptances and still waiting to cast about a third of the parts that i’m auditioning for the final time on thurs).
Stressed, but excited.
—steve
“When I get back home, I send Simon my question again: Why create drama, not...”
– ‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon on His New HBO Series, ‘Treme’ — New York Magazine
“I never set some ideal version of this play that I hoped they would achieve....”
– http://justshowstogoyou.com/blog/2010/04/02/gregory-mosher-by-laura-hedli/
March 2010
23 posts
“—- ——- is annoyed by actors whose characters cry, yet they...”
– from a friend’s status on Facebook. Thought it made a decent point about real doing vs. showing. I was re-reading The Actor and The Target when I was having difficulty with a section of La Boheme (Spoken), which I recently did at The Flea in TriBeCa. Declan Donnellan makes a simple point...
“The reality of Forest Fringe and many other artist-led initiatives such as Stoke...”
– Artists are doing it for themselves | Lyn Gardner | Stage | guardian.co.uk
“It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no...”
– Philip Pullman on censorship and free speech — pithy and wonderful - Boing Boing
Start Some Shit - Returning to Classical
I spent the last week helping out with the repertory shows of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labors Lost at NYU’s The Classical Studio. I had run into Louis at the opening of Book of Grace at The Public, and since I had some free time during the next twoish weeks (and I’m incapable of doing nothing), I volunteered my ADing services while Daniel Spector enjoyed a...
“I’ve been reading Thom Gunn, and I came across this definition of what we...”
– Thought for the day - The Factory
“This past Tuesday was the first rehearsal for The Rep’s production of David...”
– Seattle Rep Blog » Blog Archive » On Replacing an Actor at First Rehearsal
“I also think that this points out the limited power of non-Artistic and Managing...”
– Parabasis
“why not subsidize artists directly with endowments — as the DMA did? (Once...”
– How We Failed Theater – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas
“Staying small and poor and nimble and under-the-radar has its very real...”
– How We Failed Theater – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas
“Great theater doesn’t need cultural palaces; the buildings are black holes...”
– How We Failed Theater – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas
“What I assume Shinn means is they treat playwrights like lead actors; they...”
– The Playgoer: Letting Playwrights Earn
““We’d be irresponsible if we didn’t think about trying to cast a star for...”
– ‘Next Fall’ Tries to Do Broadway on a Budget - NYTimes.com
“The whole exercise was a backlash against the usual practices: polite lying and...”
– Slings and Arrows - Theater - The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper
'kül: metaDRAMA: Style over Substance →
So I've Been Thinking...
Reading Outrageous Fortune, prepping for my new gig at the Old Vic, and thinking long and hard about the nature of companies, what makes good work happen, and the realities of facilitating good work and good relationships.
I meet so many frustrated low-level mid-twenties people working for institutions we would’ve killed to work at when we were 18 and reading about the birth of...
“In 1966, the playwright won an Obie Award for “Assaulting Established...”
– H.M. Koutoukas, Flamboyant Figure of Early Off-Off-Broadway, Dies at 72 - Playbill.com
“I could write a play with the time and energy it takes to fill out an...”
– H.M. Koutoukas, Flamboyant Figure of Early Off-Off-Broadway, Dies at 72 - Playbill.com
“When I was 25, the Seattle Rep started offering cheap tickets to everyone under...”
– Mike Daisey - The Empty Spaces - Theater - The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper
Also, I’m ADing Louis next week on Midsummer and Love’s Labors at The Classical Studio. Both as a means to reconnect with working on the basics, and to see what I feel about where it all started and...
“Corporations make shitty theater. This is because theater, the ineffable part of...”
– Mike Daisey - The Empty Spaces - Theater - The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper
The Guardian →
The Guardian →
February 2010
14 posts
As You Like It Reading #3
We have our third reading for As You Like It this Saturday the 20th at 12pm at The Public (finally was able to wrangle that one).
And in a change of pace, the actors are mostly drawn from The Bat Theater Company at The Flea. I did this for 2 reasons. 1) To hear the newer script with new voices. 2) To hear what I have with actors who don’t have the same exact approach to the text. I know...
Dr. Gary Trosclair: Archetypal Patterns In Love... →
Rant - Redundancy Edition - Shakespeare's "Dark"...
A few years ago, James Urbaniak wrote on his blog about how he was sick of reading how Cymbeline was “rarely produced” in every review of every Cymbeline production. That at one point the play wasn’t performed regularly, but now it has entered into the common repertory. (Off the top of my head I figure Henry VIII, Merry Wives, Troilus and Cressida, and Timon of Athens would...
“Shakespeare is as vibrant today as he was 400 years ago. Exposure to him is not...”
– The Shakespeare fightback | Anthony Seldon | Comment is free | The Guardian
“In a world that can often seem to be lose-draw or draw-draw, there is a win-win...”
– Relix - Features - Pavement: Return of the Heavily-Favored Underdogs
“We weren’t really a band, in the classic sense of a band,” says Kannberg. And...”
– Relix - Features - Pavement: Return of the Heavily-Favored Underdogs
I’ve been thinking a lot about what we think theater companies must be vs. what theater companies can be (as the John Collins/ERS related material below can attest…as well as firmly indicating what I search for on the...
“The idea of a company or an ensemble is a lot more complicated than saying,...”
– Talking to John Collins of Elevator Repair Service « Culturebot
“My hope is that the company’s success navigating these several worlds can...”
– thinaar’s blog