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dramaturgy
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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 [...]
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conversation starter, directors, dramaturgy, playwrights, the process
Shakespeare’s Text: The Unkindest Cut…
02.08.11 | Permalink | 5 Comments“We cut and carve the body of a play to its peril.” – Harley Granville Barker In my philosophical approach to staging (and cutting) Shakespeare, I am very much a child of Harley Granville Barker. HGB, if you haven’t yet met him, was a director, an actor, a scholar and a redhead; he was a [...]
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conversation starter, directors, dramaturgy, the process
Shakespeare’s Text: to cut or not to cut …
Prepping a Shakespeare text for performance requires careful negotiation from the outset. As a director and voice and text consultant on productions, I work wearing a couple of dramaturgical hats. I’m mindful, firstly, of the practical aspects surrounding the task: proposed running time, budgetary constraints, cast size and casting choices – as well as performance [...]
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advocacy, audiences, development, devised work, dramaturgy, marketing, social media, the process
Your Real Theater Job
01.10.11 | Permalink | 5 CommentsYour real job is relationships. No new surprise there. You build relationships through shared meaning and narrative. Still, no great revelation. Meaning is through shared language. What are you creating to bring new language to the collective discussion? Dr. Seuss (a master in the use of language) put it best when he wrote the book [...]
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conversation starter, development, dramaturgy, funding and support, new plays, non-profit theatre, playwrights, presenting, producers
Play Development: Necessary evil? Necessary? Evil?
11.30.10 | Permalink | 34 CommentsI attended an inspiring and provoking event last night, the New York Theatre Experiment’s second “Generations” event, where Michael Mayer, Denis O’Hare, and Annie Baker talked about the future of theater. A lot of juicy topics came up, many of which I think would be fodder for their own panel – one of which was [...]
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actors, dramaturgy, education, ideas, Uncategorized
Like an old tale still
10.11.10 | Permalink | 3 CommentsLast week, I coached an actor who had a big audition this past weekend. It was of the ‘bring two contrasting pieces’ variety. She came to me a little later in her process than I would have liked: I didn’t get a chance to consult with her about what pieces would show her off to [...]
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actors, audiences, directors, dramaturgy, education, ideas, the process
The Strip of (Textual) Terror
08.24.10 | Permalink | 2 CommentsCollation line. Apparatus. Strip of terror. Whatever you call it, it’s that somewhat inscrutable line or two of apparently Enigma code between the text and the annotations, particularly in a modern edition of, say, Shakespeare. It might seem irrelevant or irretrievably geeky, but there are all kinds of important, dramatically compelling questions lurking amid the [...]
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conversation starter, dramaturgy, playwrights, pull quotes, the process
Pull Quotes: Long Distance Relationship
Some more pull quotes, this time a quick conversation from Twitter between playwright Kristoffer Diaz and Tony Adams, artistic director of Halcyon Theatre in Chicago, maybe spinning off a little from comments on yesterday’s post about scripts and AD’s…
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actors, directors, dramaturgy, the process
Theatre behind the walls
06.27.10 | Permalink | 9 Comments“Theatre inspires me.” “Theatre teaches me about myself, and helps me to understand why other people do what they do.” “Theatre relaxes me.” “Theatre teaches me empathy.” “Everyone in my life was a backstabber or a deceiver. I never knew what trust was until I started making theatre.” I didn’t say any of these things; [...]
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audiences, conversation starter, directors, dramaturgy, ideas, playwrights, producers, rabble rousing, the process, theatrical ecosystem
Sellars Notes, January 2008
So many live, perishable experiences hang on the decision to leave the house, the decision to take the trouble to go to the venue before the event no longer exists. I remember weighing the $20 cab fare it would cost me to make it to Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago in time to [...]
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