If you’ve been reading over here for any length of time, you know that, although I live in Virginia, I have a creative home in Grand Haven, MI, home of The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company. I’ve done three plays with them in the past several years, and have made short trips for other occasions, like […]
I’ve written before (and at length) about how bothered I am by the fact that most church drama is terrible. The reasons are many—there is a dearth of quality scripts, plays take more time and more people and more logistics than most other artforms that we see in church, and the people who are in the […]
Remember that time I said I was done with Duchess-obsessed posts? Lies, lies, all lies! I meant it at the time, but then Scott Lange sent me the production photos and they are SO GOOD and I love them. Sarah Stark took them during a performance at the Dogstory Theater in Grand Rapids. I’ve added text to […]
I haven’t written as much as I would have expected about my theater work on this blog. In part, this is because it’s hard to find the right time to write about it. During the process, I have so much to say, and no one I can say it too–so many things, I fear, would […]
It’s pancake day, my friends. And that always makes me remember one of the best nights of my life. When I was in grad school, for complicated reasons, I moved my thesis project up by a semester. As a result, I was one of the first (maybe the first?) from my cohort to present my […]
Since I returned from Michigan, I’ve been thinking a lot about what my role is as a director. This is a sign of a good production—it’s making me grow as an artist and reconsider what I value. I’m also reminded, by some of the things that happened there, of the ways that my work is appreciably […]
Duchess of Malfi intrigues and delights Review published in Encore Michigan, by Marin Heinritz, 1/26/2016 Playwright John Webster, Shakespeare’s contemporary, is known for his twisted, macabre sensibility as well as his gorgeous use of language. T.S. Eliot described him as a poet “much possessed by death, and saw the skull beneath the skin.” Webster’s masterpiece, The […]
This spring, the Valley Mennonite Brethren CrossRoads Heritage Center (yes, that’s a mouthful) invited me to direct a production of Jordan’s Stormy Banks. I’d seen the play when my friend Heidi directed it three years ago, and it’s super interesting. It tells the story of Mennonite and Brethren (then called “Dunker”) pacifists during the Civil War. […]
Last winter, I started taking a ballet class. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time—since I’m a theater director, expanding my movement vocabulary is an important way to keep developing in my art. Also, many of my favorite actors have a classical dance background, and I wanted to learn more about how […]
Several years ago, I read an article about Weeki Wachee Springs, which is part 1940s roadside attraction, part state park. And I knew I had to go. The attraction? Mermaids. Yes, mermaids. In 1947, this guy bought a natural spring and built an underwater theater with a massive glass wall–like a huge aquarium. He hired […]