16
Sep

Closing Time

Antony and Cleopatra had its last performance at Pigeon Creek this afternoon. I haven’t seen the show in over a month, so I guess it shouldn’t matter to me that it’s over, but it has been on my mind today. People often are surprised that when I direct a touring show, I go home after […]

3
Sep

Juliet in a box

One of my favorite things that happened on my recent Shakespeare Roadtrip ™ was that I stayed with Bridget, an actor who was in Duchess (2016), as well as this summer’s Much Ado remount. Bridget has done well for herself, working consistently at ever more prominent theaters and in better and better roles. She’s been auditioning and touring regularly. […]

1
Sep

Shakespeare Roadtrip!

I’ve been following Eric Minton’s Shakespeareances blog, and in particular, his Canon Project. He’s seeing 38 plays in 38 theaters in North America in 2018. One of the productions he saw was our (Pigeon Creek Shakespeare’s) remount of Much Ado (he blogged about it here and here), so I got to meet him and learn […]

Sounds in Shakespeare

Little-known fact: I’m something of an expert in auditory signalling in early modern plays. That is rarely particularly useful, so I don’t trot it out much, but my friends and Pigeon Creek Shakespeare let me nerd about it with music director Scott Lange on a promo video for Antony and Cleopatra!

3
Aug

Hold Each Other With Care

One thing I’ve noticed in my work on Antony and Cleopatra is how careful the youngest actors are about getting consent from each other before they touch each other. This is new; I don’t know if it’s because of movements like #metoo or #notinourhouse, but it’s definitely different. I’ve always been careful about ensuring that actors get […]

30
Jul

Ancient History

This weekend, our family went to Chicago and visited the Field Museum. We were mostly there for the dinosaurs, but were pleased to discover that they have a great collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Of particular note for my current project were the following discoveries: First, most of the jewelry and statuary was blue. Blue […]

27
Jul

Second Chances

Kaeleb asked me an interesting question as I was giving him a ride home from rehearsal last night: “Are there any shows that you have done before, that you wish you could go back and do again, knowing what you know now?” I surprised myself–and I think also him–by realizing that no, there aren’t. I […]

21
Jul

Triumph

One major turning point in Antony and Cleopatra is when Antony explains to Cleopatra exactly what will happen if she ends up trying to make a deal with Caesar. Prior to this point, Cleopatra seems to think that either Antony will win, or she’ll be able to talk her way out of whatever situation she finds […]

21
Jul

So You Want to Take Your Kid to See A Play…

Why Theater? I have this theory that if your kids get into theater, they’ll be too busy to cause much trouble. One of the best ways to get them into theater is to take them to see it. People ask me sometimes how I managed to train my kids to be such good theater-goers. To […]

18
Jul

Artwork!

I just got my first look at our show poster for Antony and Cleopatra. I can’t remember the last time I loved the show art quite this much. It was shot and edited by Sarah Stark. One of the things I am loving about this show process is that we all are on the same page, […]