AmericanTheaterWeb NewsClips

About Last Night

TT: And...they're off!
I'm in downtown Los Angeles, where I'll be seeing Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles in David Mamet's Oleanna tonight. Meanwhile, the cast of The Letter has assembled in Santa Fe, where rehearsals began yesterday morning with a ...

TT: Almanac
"Critics, as they are birds of prey, have ever a natural inclination to carrion." Alexander Pope, letter to William Wycherley, Dec. 26, 1704

ARTSBLOG

Saving Arts Programs? There’s an .App for That.
Just like in many communities around the country, a school in Wisconsin was facing budget cuts for its art department. So what did students do? They made their art work for them by creating an iPhone application that allowed them to sell their art as wallpaper on iTunes for the popular Apple device.

Createquity.

Around the horn: Thriller edition

Culturebot

Five Questions for Sarah Cameron Sunde
Title/Occupation:Organization: Freelance Director / Associate Director, New Georges / Co-Artistic Director, Oslo Elsewhere

Is the Curtain Closing on Live Theater in America?
The more I think about it, the more cheesed off I get that the 2009 Aspen Ideas festival is going to host a roundtable called “Is the Curtain Closing on Live Theater in America?”

Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

Avenue Q to Close September 13th
I was in New York City over the weekend, seeing some shows. (The Norman Conquests: Table Manners, The Wiz, and Knickerbocker Holiday. See my review of NC:TM below. Look for my reviews of the remaining two later in the week. In short: yay, feh, and meh, in that order.)

The Hub Review

Misreading Emily
A friend has pointed me to yet another misreading of Emily Glassberg Sands's paper, here in the Guardian. Again - as in the New York magazine article and the "Economix" blog at the New York Times - the writer repeats the inaccuracy that Ms. Sands measured the profitability of female-written shows on Broadway. And again, she did not measure this. More to follow.
The Hub Review, the guide to everything that matters in Boston and elsewhere.

Live Design Online

Catch Me If You Can in Tech… The Live Blog… Chapter 1
I’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to collaborate with David Rockwell in the creation of the scenic video for Catch Me If You Can. The show is a musical version of the excellent Steven Spielberg film, documenting the unbelievable life and adventures of Frank Abegnale Jr. The creative staff includes Jack O’Brian in the Director’s chair; Jerry Mitchell Choreographing; Ken Posner Lighting; and Mark Shaiman and Terence...

The Mirror up to Nature

Joseph Epstein on Celebrity Culture
A 2005 essay in which Epstein talks about celebrity culture reaching academia and how the role of intellectual has changed:

the nytheatre i

Yoga in the Park with Rabbit Hole Ensemble
Our friends from Rabbit Hole Ensemble have come up with one of the most innovative--not to mention healthy!--ways to raise some money. On Saturday, July 18, from 4:00 - 5:30pm in Central Park, they are hosting a Yoga Class as a benefit for their upcoming FringeNYC production of Candide Americana. Here are the details:

On Chicago Theatre

New Review Posted: 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal
Centerstage just posted my review of 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal here. It's a very impressive show--these people do absolutely amazing stuff with circus arts, improvisation, music, and so much more. I'm not sure what, if anything, it all meant, but I was, as the Brits might say, gobsmacked by the whole experience. Not to mention this is one of the only ...

The Producer's Perspective

Broadway Grosses w/e 6/28/09

The Rob Kozlowski Chicago Theater and Vintage Film Medicine Show

Up
Looking at the bios in the program for the play Up at Steppenwolf Theatre, I discovered that playwright Bridget Carpenter has an MFA from Brown University. Since that is also the alma mater of Sarah Ruhl, warning signals went off in my brain, which only intensified after a lackluster first scene that introduced the audience to eternal dreamer and inventor Walter Griffin, his suffering postal-carrier wife Helen and their teenage son Mikey.

Steve On Broadway

August: Osage County - And Then They're Gone
Call it a day of theatrical symmetry.

Travalanche

Those Whistling Lads: The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
Maureen Van Trease is — if you’ll pardon the expression — a dead ringer for Dorothy Parker, that legendary quipster and writer of thanatoptic light verse, short stories and criticism. The picture above is of Parker but it might as well be Van Trease. (Although ...

Travalanche

Those Whistling Lads: The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
Maureen Van Trease is — if you’ll pardon the expression — a dead ringer for Dorothy Parker, that legendary quipster and writer of thanatoptic light verse, short stories and criticism. The picture above is of Parker but it might as well be Van Trease. (Although ...

The Wicked Stage

Play of the Year
I saw Lynn Nottage's Ruined several months ago, but apart from this piece for TDF, I hadn't had the chance to write about it. That is, until my friend at the Jesuit weekly America asked me to reflect on it here.

Group of Rivals
One of the first controversies I covered at Back Stage West was the fraternal squabble among L.A.-based acolytes of Sanford Meisner for his coveted mantle. Everyone who ever trained with him at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, it seemed, was in L.A. claiming to teach the ...