Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Blog”
I recently came across a wonderful Dramatists Guild Fund interview with Paula Vogel on Youtube. Paula’s 15 plays have been produced all over the US and the world. She was the director of the Brown University playwriting program for more than 20 years and also taught at Yale University, concurrent with her stint as the playwright in residence at Yale …
For Debbie Millman, work is not drudgery, or even labor. It’s a privilege. Debbie is an author, host of Design Matters podcast, and editorial director of Print magazine. For 20 years, she was president of the design division at Sterling Brands – and today she feels like she’s just getting started. “I’ve worked for a really long time to get …
“Adopting a cat is a crapshoot,” my friend told me, “especially shelter cats.” This may be true, but over the years I’ve had very good luck with cats. Walter I adopted from the SPCA. He ran away after many happy, healthy years. Ethel was adopted as a kitten from a friend at work. She lived to be eighteen years old, …
In the 21st Century Voices interview of playwright Alyson Mead, I came across this solid nugget of advice: “I’m surprised how many students I meet don’t go to theatre performances, or read plays. Go see a lot of stuff. Read a lot of stuff (get plays from the library if you don’t have a lot of money). And live a …
Back to my favorite topic! Walking helps writers get unstuck. Whether facing writer’s block, or just needing to develop some new ideas, taking a walk can help. “Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas,” said J.K. Rowling. Pyschology Today draws a parallel between the REM dream state and the meditative-like state attained by exercise. Rhythmic exercises like walking …
Coming up this Fall: Just finished up a staged reading of “P/rn Yesterday” for Theatre Rhinoceros, directed by Alan Quismorio. It was so much fun! (Although I do cringe a little at its creakiness.) Update! We got a terrific review in the SF BAY TIMES: I was delighted to witness a stage reading of PORN YESTERDAY—loosely based on the hit 1950 …
Over at LitHub, Rebecca Solnit has a lovely piece on how the model of the individual hero has failed us. This hero concept is where we get the “good guy with a gun” theory of gun violence prevention. Got a problem with guns? The answer is one more guy with a gun! Solnit writes: “Positive social change results mostly from …
Kingsley Amis was a prolific poet, essayist, screenwriter, and novelist who burst onto the literary scene as the original Angry Young Man with his book, “Lucky Jim.” But Amis might be better described as disgruntled or crabby rather than angry. This is largely due to his anarchical humor. In his later career, Amis dabbled in science fiction and is noted …
It’s a fact: 60% of men and 50% of women suffer from at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Yet many might not describe an incident that removed their power and rendered them helpless as “traumatic.” What’s more, scientists and psychologists are beginning to study generational trauma, not personally experienced, but embedded in the body from past harms. In …
A while back in my writing group, a playwright (not a POC) posed this question: “How offensive or acceptable do people find on-stage racist and sexist name-calling?“ Racist and sexist name-calling appear in disparate (and award-winning) plays such as CLYBOURNE PARK (by Bruce Norris, a Pulitzer Prize winner), Caryl Churchill’s SERIOUS MONEY, THE SUBMISSION by Jeff Talbott (Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award), …