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Review: “Edward” by Ed Schmidt
When I teach playwriting, I talk a lot about objects. (There’s a chapter on it in my book, The Dramatist’s Toolkit.) One of the things I discuss is how, for example, two people negotiating over an object in a scene may reveal an enormous amount of what is going on between them under the surface.… Continue reading
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ULYSSES by the Elevator Repair Service
I tried to read James Joyce’s Ulysses three times without success. Then I switched to the Audible recording of the book, read by Jim Norton, with Marcelle Riordan as Molly. Before plunging into each chapter, I listened to a lecture on what was to come to help me focus on what I should be following.… Continue reading
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Review: “Data”
I once went to Atlanta to research a play. The story was about the relationship between a young gay Atlanta businessman and the parents he is alienated from who live in a small Southern town. When his parents are hit by an emergency, their son makes an offer that is the basis of the play.… Continue reading
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Revivals – Anna Christie, Richard II, Tartuffe
Thomas Kail’s revival of Anna Christie is staged a stone’s throw from where some of the action of the play takes place – a waterfront dive where sailors and prostitutes keep company. Or where they kept company in 1910, when the play is set. The East River flows a handful of yards west of St.… Continue reading
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“The Seat of Our Pants”
Stephen Sondheim famously quipped that he had spent much of his career trying to fix the second act of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Allegro. Allegro didn’t work when it premiered in 1947 and it still didn’t quite work when CSC presented a 90-minute revisal in 2014 directed by John Doyle. But something in Allegro’s conception intrigued… Continue reading
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“Crooked Cross” and “And Then We Were No More”
I was raised in a suburb of Chicago, and, though I’ve lived in New York since 1967, when the word “home” is mentioned, it is that place that comes to mind. I spent the summer of 1968 in that suburb (Evanston). I did not go downtown when the cops of Chicago went nuts and beat… Continue reading
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“Punch” and “Caroline”
I’ve gotten tired of thuds. They are particularly obnoxious in the coming attractions for films in which every other cut is accompanied by a huge WHOMP! In combination with the images of explosions and fireballs, the effect can be numbing. The relentless noise suggests that the filmmakers don’t believe the subject matter might be sufficient… Continue reading
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“Saturday Church” and “Mexodus”
You go into the usual jukebox musical probably somewhat familiar with the song catalogue that will be the source of the score. I was never an ABBA fan, but I could appreciate how Mamma Mia re-purposed their songs to serve its unpersuasive plot. Not being familiar with the catalogue of songwriter Sia, I didn’t experience… Continue reading
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George White and Finding the Way at the O’Neill
Lucy Rosenthal’s playwriting professor at Yale was critic and anthologist John Gassner. Her memories of him are not warm. “He advised me to transfer to the education school so I could be home at three o’clock to give the children milk and cookies. And then he said – if you want to know what the… Continue reading
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Actors Better Than the Plays That Make Them Look Good
Sometimes, at the end of a show, I feel pulled in two directions — admiration and dismay. Four recent shows made me feel this way. As the lights came up I found myself clapping fervently for the performances but feeling that the scripts that made those performances possible fell short as writing. I was particularly… Continue reading
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 