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 […]
Our local community theater put up Peter Pan and I took the kids. I’ve seen some things at Valley Players in the past that were outstanding (Outside Mullingar is a favorite). A few kids my kids knew were in the show as well. I should preface this by saying that I cannot even begin to […]
Get in. We’re going back to Egypt! Performance at the Rose, Blue Lake, Michigan, August 24.
Recently, I was talking with an actor about another play entirely, and he happened to mention rather out of nowhere that there existed a sort of performance diary book about the Peter Hall production of Antony and Cleopatra. The one with Dame Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins. I hadn’t ever heard of this book–although the […]
I’ve been reading a lot of books and articles about Antony and Cleopatra lately, getting ready for the remount. One thing that comes up over and over is people saying that the title characters are older, they’re jaded, their love is real, but tempered with a certain utilitarianism. They need each other, politically. Their love […]
As I’m getting ready to remount (August 24! at the Rose!) my 2018 production of Antony and Cleopatra at Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, I have been thinking about my first time directing it, back in 2003. The whole thing sounds crazy to me, when I think about it. My undergrad theater department, which I had […]
In a recent alumni survey, my grad school asked, “What’s your favorite line from Shakespeare?” I was stumped. I don’t think I have one. Everyone else does, I’m sure, and I even know what many of my friends’ favs are. But I am completely at a loss. I do have a favorite line in each […]
Shenandoah University, just up the way in Winchester, has a summer musical series. They bring in professional actors for most of the principal roles and their students make up the ensemble. I knew the general outline of Ragtime, but hadn’t ever seen it performed, so I wanted to see it. The production was outstanding, musically, […]