off-Broadway
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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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“Kyoto”
One of the things I value about Lincoln Center Theater is it has a history of putting up large-scale plays that no other management in town would attempt. Now, sometimes they’re from the UK. But then American writers have been discouraged by our managements from writing large-scale non-musical plays. (Among my least-produced plays is American… Continue reading
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“The Honey Trap”
I first saw English, The Buena Vista Social Club, Eureka Day, Prayer for the French Republic, Dead Outlaw and Liberation at small non-profit venues before they were picked up for critically-praised productions on Broadway. If I were going to place a bet on current off-Broadway offerings that might make the move, I would put my… 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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AVA and Elizabeth McGovern
A couple of months back, Jodie Markell played actor-director Leni Riefenstahl in a piece called Leni’s Last Lament. I enjoyed Markell even as I had reservations about Gil Koffman’s script. Now we have Elizabeth McGovern playing actor Ava Gardner in Ava. Again, I enjoyed the performer while I had reservations about the script. The script… Continue reading
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Completing the Inge Cycle: Bus Stop
The core of William Inge’s reputation rests on four plays he wrote in the 1950s – Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Bus Stop. (Add to this the Oscar-winning screenplay he wrote for Elia Kazan’s 1961 film, Splendor in the Grass, and you have a pretty significant body… Continue reading
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Talking to the Dead
One of my favorite sketches from the San Francisco improv-satire troupe, The Committee, is a scene between a man and a woman that is made up not of dialogue but of brief summaries of what the characters say. So, instead of saying something like, “You fill out that sweater well,” the guy says, “Suggestive remark.”… Continue reading
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“The Merchant of Venice”
The production of The Merchant of Venice that opened recently at CSC was among the most dismaying evenings I’ve had in the theater in recent memory. It’s particularly dismaying because the director, Igor Golyak, recently staged in the same space a play called Our Class from a script by Tadeusz Słobodzianek that I thought, though… Continue reading
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 