Alumni of the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program at the American Shakespeare Center have founded or taken on the leadership of, a number of classical theater companies, drawing on the ASC’s scholarship and aesthetic, but with their own unique twist. Just off the top of my head: Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival (Arizona), Pigeon Creek Shakespeare (Michigan), […]
Time for a story about how I became the director I am. In 2002, I was interning at the American Shakespeare Center. This was before they had any kind of formal internship program, so the deal basically was that I worked with their summer camp during the day, and in the evening, I could go […]
I went to see an actual play, in person, with humans. The last play-ish thing I saw was Bread and Puppets on March 10. I don’t know if I have gone five months without seeing or doing a play since I was in middle school. Probably not. I went mostly because I was curious about […]
The first time a friend invited me to see a show at Synetic, I rolled my eyes, but went along. I’ve seen some of my favorite shows by saying yes to invitations I didn’t think I was interested in. This was no exception. The show was Romeo and Juliet, which I had just finished directing […]
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 […]
Antony and Cleopatra is a play I think I will direct every 15 years (Why this play? I have several reasons). I can’t help but be fascinated by a story of a woman who burns too bright. I directed it for the first time as a 20-year-old at Hiram College Theater. My mentor told me […]
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 […]