Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Blog”
Theatre publishers Nick Hern Books have launched The NHB Playgroup, a new initiative offering one free play each week to read and discuss, plus a Q&A with the writer. I joined right away! Each Wednesday during the virus shutdown, Nick Hern Books will be making one play available for free, and inviting everyone who reads it to send in a …
“Where do you get your ideas?” Every artist dreads having to answer that most common of all questions. Well, every artist with the exception of David Lynch. The director of such modern cinematic quasi-nightmares as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive will gladly explain exactly where he gets his ideas: from his own consciousness, “the TV in your mind.” He’ll also gladly explain …
In this writing provocation, director and 2017 Bruntwood Prize jury member Lyndsey Turner asks the writer to consider the unconscious. For all the different ways a writer might approach embarking upon a play, and for all the research and planning they might undertake in order to map out their world before they begin, there will always be writers who write …
I am sharing with you these fourteen Episodes of Radio Hour, a theater podcast from Plan B Theater in Utah. With many of us under shelter-in-place orders, audio theater is a helpful distraction and source comfort. Since 2005, RadioWest and Plan-B Theatre Company have partnered to bring the art of radio drama to modern audiences. From adaptations of beloved tales …
The New Conservatory Theater Center in San Francisco has announced its 2020/21 Season, and the world premiere of “The Law of Attraction” is a part of it! We are scheduled to open January 15, 2021. Pandemic permitting. The show is sandwiched in between “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “The Glass Menagerie,” so no pressure, I guess. Here’s the marketing …
American Theatre’s Podcast, The Subtext, put out a call last week for playwrights to call in and leave messages on a voicemail. The idea was to check in, tell others how you’re doing, if and what you’re writing. Since I’m writing something right now (actually two comedies), I called. I talked into the void, wondering if I was being silly, …
In the time of the pandemic When everyone is quarantined We can be grateful For the generosity of theater people! Recording of Zoom Playwriting Workshop with Young Jean Lee from Young Jean Lee on Vimeo.
I love this advice from Goat Island Performance Group, in its “Advice to a Young Practitioner.” I’m far from young, but it resonates. “Make small plans. Temper your big dreams. Dream the smallest thing you can think of and try to perfect that. It’s good to have one tiny perfect thing in your history. This is not a small challenge. …
It took me till Saturday to realize that the last live show I saw was going to be the last live show I will see for a while (a year, maybe?) Ugh. It wasn’t a very good show. Now, live theatre is its own reward, in some ways (see previous post), and there is nothing like it. With apologies to …
Tabitha Mortiboy is a UK playwright whose works include Beacons (nominated for three Off West Ends Awards including Best New Play and Most Promising Playwright), Billy Through the Window (shortlisted for the Brighton Fringe Excellence Award) and The Amber Trap, which played at Theatre503 in London. Tabitha says, “In many ways, the power of theatre is even more potent in …