Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Blog”
The Original Theatre Company and The Anthology Group in association with Peter Stickney and York Theatre Royal have made available two plays through June 2, 2020, online. In THE HABIT OF ART, Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined …
has left me feeling vaguely sick and I think a walk is probably the answer, is often said to be the answer, though I now understand physical intervention must not be undertaken lightly and the appropriate training must be given because the policy is designed to prevent the impairment of health or development even though it has had the opposite …
I remember reading an interview with Sarah Ruhl a few years ago where she confided that she never uses subtext. Her characters are flatly honest. My characters, on the other hand, are devious manipulators who are never, ever honest until forced into a corner. As a result, they use subtext all the time. That is how they speak: in subtext. …
Tom Wells offers a simple model for planning one’s play. A character wants something, and sets out to get it; Things go well – the character manages to get a bit nearer to the thing they want; Things start to go badly – the character comes up against obstacles, but keeps going; Things go very wrong for the character – …
I was fascinated to read a Medium post by Alisa Wolf on the topic of group freewriting. She notes that freewriting in a group is “like going to a yoga class versus doing poses on your own at home.” It creates a structure that limits distractions and pushes you to do more than you might do on your own. I …
“Misslineness” is a Scots dialect word which means “the feeling of solitariness that comes from missing something or someone you love.” It feels appropriate and even omnipresent in this time of pandemic, when we are missing, and mourning, our previous way of life. The poet May Sarton wrote that “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.” …
I came across this list of characteristics of a mythic hero, which is what each of the Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective’s members are. Judge for yourself: Has courage: must act in the face of mortal threat. Cowardice repels readers. Is good at what they do for a living: Or else readers won’t respect them. Has a special talent: Could be …
I think I have noted before that I enjoy working with genres. Trying to understand how they work, first, and then subverting them for fun. I’ve done this with screwball comedy, and the thriller. Now, in Escape from the Asylum, I’m trying it with a mystery that doesn’t involve murder. First, a look at the mystery as art form. Some …
I love this interview on The Interval with dramaturg Sarah Lunnie. Dramaturgy is such a mystery to so many, and I think her explanation is helpful. The interview was by Sarah Rebell, photo by Tess Mayer. “I think of myself as an early audience and as a collaborative editor. The first definition is more spiritual. It speaks to the idea …
Playwright John Logan, author of the Tony Award-winning RED, wrote: Allow me share the single best piece of advice I ever got about being a writer, courtesy of my friend Scott Berg, the great biographer: “Keep your head down and do your work.” Meaning, do not be distracted by anything but your writing. Don’t worry about reviews, press, your career …