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. […]
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 […]
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’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 […]
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 […]
I read the following poem to Silas. It’s a Mother Goose rhyme that was reprinted in a magazine: Cross patch, / Draw the latch, / Sit by the fire and spin. / Take a cup, / And drink it up, / and ask your neighbor in. Silas claps his hands in excitement and says, “It’s […]
I usually try to avoid posting things that are basically political, but well, when certain politicians slam public broadcasting, I get cranky (before you say it: Juan Williams. Yes, he was fired for saying some political things. His First Amendment rights were not being jeopardized. He signed a binding contract to uphold NPR’s ethics code, which […]
So, this is what I wrote on Facebook this morning: “[An EMU student] reminded me why today is important–it’s class registration day at EMU (apparently. By “reminded” I mean “informed”). I’m teaching theater history and also vocations. So register! It’s going to be the best theater history class ever. Recent grads should audit it just for […]