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“The Trial of the Catonsville Nine”
If you check ibdb.com for the listing of the cast of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, which opened on Broadway in 1971, you’ll find it numbered sixteen (including such notables as Mason Adams, Michael Moriarty, Josef Sommer, Helen Stenborg, Sam Waterston, and James Woods). The new off-Broadway production from the Transport Group features a… Continue reading
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“Behind the Sheet” and a Recurring Dramatic Problem
For a while, J. Marion Sims merited a statue in Central Park for his ground-breaking gynecological operations. What was largely unknown for years was that he was also a plantation owner and he used the female slaves he owned as guinea pigs for his experiments, trying out different techniques in a trial-and-error manner on these… Continue reading
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Ramblings about “The Sea Gull” (or “The Seagull”)
I finally got around to seeing Michael Mayer’s film adaptation of The Seagull. The best reason to catch it is for Annette Bening’s performance as Arkadina. Arkadina is an actress who can’t stop performing when she’s offstage, and Bening nails this aspect with a wit I’ve rarely seen in a performance of this part. (“What… Continue reading
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“Everyman” and After
Thinking about the National Theatre’s 2015 production of Everyman, a modern-language adaptation of the medieval morality play by Carol Ann Duffy, directed by Rufus Norris and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. It is indeed a modern spin. The original doesn’t open with Everyman snorting long lines of cocaine with partying friends and accidentally falling off the top… Continue reading
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Top 100 Theater Books–A Reply
I am very pleased that Ken Davenport has named one of my books–What Playwrights Talk About When They Talk About Writing–one of the “Top 100 Theater Books Every Theater Maker Should Read.” I modestly suggest that he has short-changed theater history though. I think he should have also included two of mine–Something Wonderful Right Away… Continue reading
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Epstein and Asner
First, I want to refer you to a piece Michael Feingold has written in memory of Alvin Epstein: Explaining Alvin Epstein. I first had the pleasure of meeting Alvin when Emily Mann cast him in a production of The Value of Names at Hartford Stage. I can’t claim that I initially understood what an honor it… Continue reading
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Celebrity Impersonation
I used to have a prejudice against plays and movies that were anchored in celebrity impersonation. No, actually, I still have a prejudice against them. Except when they are done so well that I have to give way. Which happens rarely. When volume three of Simon Callow’s multi-volume biography came out, he appeared at the… Continue reading
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Supporting the Girls
The New York Film Critics Circle recently gave their award for best actress to Regina Hall for her performance in a film called Supporting the Girls, and the response among many was “hunh”? Like many indie films, it opened, received a smattering of reviews and disappeared before most were aware it existed. One of the benefits of… Continue reading
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Launch
For the past few decades, I’ve been writing a column for Dramatics, a magazine published by the Educational Theatre Association for thousands of theater-mad high school kids around the country. Mostly I’ve covered topics related to the theater scene in New York, though occasionally I’ve posted from Chicago and Stratford, ONT. It’s been a happy… Continue reading
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Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 