This fall, counting my Labor Day Shakespeare road trip, I had the privilege of seeing thirteen plays (and I’m going to fit in at least two more before it’s officially winter). I saw plays from nationally renowned companies. I saw college plays. I saw plays by small professional troupes that are doing some truly amazing work. […]
This summer, everyone was posting their headshots from 10 years ago, as a funny. Haha, I thought. I’ll find mine and post it, too! Here it is: It’s a good picture! But…I was still using it. I just didn’t realize how old it was. This is pre-kids. It’s pre-gray-hairs, pre-eye-crinkles. This is definitely still how […]
Last night, Pigeon Creek announced its 2019 season, so I can finally say, officially, I’m going to direct Richard III! Check out the video for the rest of their season. Real talk: I actually considered taking the audio of the response after Katherine said my name (around 1:50) and making it into a ringtone. A girl […]
After Heidi saw Antony and Cleopatra (can I just pause for a moment and say how completely honored I am that Heidi, David, and Pam all made the drive to Grand Rapids to see it?), she said, “Shakespeare wasn’t kind to Cleopatra, was he?” I immediately responded, “History wasn’t kind to her. Shakespeare worked with what he […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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!
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 […]
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 […]