Category
dramaturgy
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#2amt, actors, audiences, directors, dramaturgy
Stoopid Shakespeare
01.20.12 | Permalink | 4 CommentsAn exuberant conversation, hosted by Peter Marks and Howard Sherman, broke out on Twitter yesterday about Shakespeare; many good ideas were debated and discussed. I am writing this post to delve more deeply into one of the fundamental questions about Shakespeare in performance, which is, after all, his native habitat. Shakespeare in performance should be, [...]
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advocacy, conversation starter, dramaturgy, ideas, mission, new play development, playwrights, social profit, talk about what's good
Beyond the Bechdel Test
01.18.12 | Permalink | 3 CommentsSoon after I wrote this Forum Theatre post on the Bechdel Test, the question arose: what might be a similar test for LGBT characters? Being both gay and up for the challenge, I gave it a try. Here it is: The Test – Does the movie have? 1. An identifiable LGBT character 2. Who has [...]
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directors, dramaturgy, history, new play development, playwrights, the process
Divining “The Diviners”
When Jim Leonard was an English major at Hanover College in the late seventies, where I was running a one man theatre department, he responded to a request I issued for “extras” to swell a scene in a play I was staging. He had one line and seemed to be well prepared to say that [...]
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audiences, collaboration, corporate sponsors, designers, development, devised work, directors, dramaturgy, funding and support, ideas, new plays, non-profit theatre, playwrights, presenting, producers, the process
Devised Theatre: Transitioning to Production
Previously in this column: The members of Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young devised theatre company based in Washington, DC, have spent the last nine months working on its new project which began with the question: Why do we as a species feel the need to tell stories about our own destruction? This weekend, for [...]
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development, devised work, directors, dramaturgy, marketing, p.r., presenting, producers, Uncategorized
Play on the beach…
Here in Vancouver, as a theatre producer, one of your greatest challenges is simply finding space. We have two major theatre companies, The Vancouver Playhouse and the Arts Club, that own their own theatres, but other than that, the 100-or-so independent theatre companies in the city all are fighting for a piece of the half-dozen [...]
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audiences, community, dramaturgy, new plays, non-profit theatre, playwrights, rabble rousing, the future, the process, theatrical ecosystem
The Intersection of Culture and Narrative
07.12.11 | Permalink | 5 CommentsIt’s been a month since the first Dramatists Guild National Conference. In that month, three things have stayed with me: Mame Hunt’s declaration to playwrights to stop writing realism, Julia Jordan’s keynote speech on gender parity, and Marsha Norman’s comment that we need to hear everyone’s stories at the gender parity panel discussion. All three [...]
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advocacy, arts service organizations, community, conferences, conversation starter, dramaturgy, ideas, livestreams, playwrights, rabble rousing, social media, the process, theatrical ecosystem
Dramatists Guild Conference Live
I’m live-blogging the first-ever Dramatists Guild conference. Please feel free to log on and either lurk or join the conversation. If there are opportunities for questions, and you submit any, I’ll try to sneak them in. I may also be tweeting from time to time if you’d rather follow along that way, too. You can [...]
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actors, arts service organizations, collaboration, community, corporate sponsors, designers, development, devised work, dramaturgy, ideas, new plays, non-profit theatre, partnerships, playwrights, producers, the process, Uncategorized
Devised Theatre: Terrible Practicalities
Previously in this column: Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young company devoted to the creation of devised work, decides to begin work on a narrative and thematic sequel to A Cre@tion Story for Naomi, which explored the world’s creation myths. We began this new process with a question: Why do we feel the need to [...]
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directors, dramaturgy, profile, q & a, spotlight, theatrical ecosystem
Spotlight: Rebecca Zellar, Director
It’s time for this week’s installment of the director-to-director interview series. If you haven’t already done so, you can join our Twitter conversation on directing by following the hashtag #2amdir. Also, The Director’s Library I’ve been compiling from these interviews will be getting its own page, which I will update and link to in future [...]
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actors, collaboration, community, conversation starter, development, devised work, dramaturgy, ideas, new plays, partnerships, playwrights, producers, social media, the process
Devised Theatre: Apocalypse as sequel
03.14.11 | Permalink | 2 CommentsSo, here we are. Week two and hip-deep in the initial group dramaturgy of Bright Alchemy’s devising process, which started with the question “Why do we as a species feel compelled to tell stories of our own destruction?” It’s very early, but I’m already beginning to get that familiar feeling of drowning in images and [...]
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actors, conversation starter, development, devised work, dramaturgy, education, ideas, new plays, playwrights, producers, the process
Devised Theatre: There’s a 10:30 in the morning?
Wherein I blog Bright Alchemy’s devising process for its newest project. My living room is full of artists eating baked goods and mainlining coffee. The latter is not surprising, since it’s 10:30 A.M. on a Sunday. What is surprising is that a dozen theatre-makers chose to subject themselves to this sun-drenched world while there was [...]
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conversation starter, dramaturgy, ideas, producers, theatre festivals, theatrical ecosystem, Uncategorized
OSF: To Kill a Mockingbird & the Iconic White Hero
02.26.11 | Permalink | 3 CommentsTom Robinson (Peter Macon), Atticus Finch (Mark Murphey) and Heck Tate (Peter Frechette) in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Photo: David Cooper. Ashland’s a snowy, somewhat icy town this weekend for the opening weekend of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. First up last night was the Bill Rauch-directed Measure for Measure, which I [...]
