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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
I spent the past few days dying long silks for my upcoming production of Antony and Cleopatra at Pigeon Creek Shakespeare. I haven’t done any dye work in a long time; I had forgotten how fun it is. Unwrapping the dyed cloth is always a surprise; I know the general shape of the dye pattern, but […]
Some of these photos are mine (mostly from rehearsal) and some are from various audience members who posted them on Pigeon Creek’s Facebook page or tagged cast members. I’ve kind of lost track of which was which at this point. I finally got to see one of my shows in the Rose, and it was […]
In the 2016/2017 season, I somehow ended up directing two productions of Much Ado About Nothing. The first was with high school students at the American Shakespeare Center’s high school theater camp. The second was with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, a touring professional company in Michigan. As I’m preparing to go back to Michigan to remount it at […]
I’ve said before that my college theater was wonderful because they gave me a lot of “yes.” Recently, I was digging through my old files and I found the speech I gave at honors convocation in my senior year at Hiram College. I read it expecting it to be vaguely embarrassing, and was surprised to […]
Silas is taking an *awesome* theater class at JMU. It’s taught by theater ed majors, for homeschool kids, ages 7-13 or so. Nearly all of the kids are at least 2 years older than he is, and he is so impressed with them. They are playing some theater games and also devising a play based […]