It seems like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody is the play of the year. Theater people will know what I’m talking about–if you are in that world, every year, there’s some play that everyone you know is doing. Last year, it was The Wolves, Men in Boats, and, oddly enough, The Seagull. Nobody seems to know why […]
Ms. Directing Shakespeare, by Elizabeth Schafer was an interesting read, a scholarly project of interviews with British women who were directing in professional theaters. Because time keeps moving and the world is changing, I’d like to start by noting that this book was published over 20 years ago, in 1998. That said, while a good […]
In August, we went back to Michigan for ten days to remount Antony and Cleopatra. People often ask me what this means, so here’s the general idea: A remount is when you get the band back together to do a production again. Often, some cast members aren’t available to return, so you sub in other […]
I’m working on On the Verge (a play, ironically, about time) at York College, and the first thing I told my student stage manager was, “Give me a warning five minutes before we’re due for a break, and no matter what I am doing, call the break.” He glanced pointedly at my watch, but he […]
After I took my kids to see a local community theater production of Peter Pan, I decided that I wanted them to see the version that was canonical in my mind. When I was a kid, my brother and I had a couple dozen videos and minimal access to actual television. We solidly memorized every […]
I literally don’t know how many times someone has said, “Well, you’ve read Tina Packer’s book, of course”…and I hadn’t. Women of Will has been on my TBR list since it was published, and I’ve only just now gotten to it. It was worth the wait. The book details Packer’s own experiences directing and performing […]
You know sometimes when some virtual stranger is wrong on the internet and you just can’t help yourself? Well, I got in a Twitter argument last winter over whether or not Antony and Cleopatra is a work of staggering genius. I kept writing, “AND ANOTHER THING.” As we’re getting Pigeon Creek Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra […]
When I heard that Quill was doing an all-female Taming, I felt like this was the rare production of this text that I could handle seeing. I’m not a fan of the script. It’s not just the abuse that I don’t like (although there’s that). I also don’t think that the Bianca suitor plot is […]
My friend Jacob spotted Brutus and Other Heroines: Playing Shakespeare’s Roles for Women, by Harriet Walter, at a bookstore and snagged it for me. I hadn’t heard of it, although I have been following Walter’s recent work with much interest, particularly her trilogy of all-female productions of Shakespeare. This book is less a retrospective memoir […]
It’s been two years since the time when my pastor asked me to create a drama Sunday. “Do I have to do a Bible story?” I asked. “Church drama scripts are nearly all terrible, and I’m no playwright.” “Do whatever you want,” she said. “Whatever I want” is almost always Shakespeare. I’m not sure if […]