Clever little Easter eggs in this article about the history of My Fair Lady refer to lyrics from the show. I played Col. Pickering in high school 30 years ago. One night during “The Rain in Spain,” when Higgins threw the xylophone mallet in the air, it got stuck in the drapes above the stage.…
I’d like to say a few words in defense of community theatre: why are we so hard on it? I’ve done it. You’ve done it. Sure, sometime it can be rough around the edges, but more often than not, like this production, it produces something genuine and authentic and beautiful. A quick glance at…
I’ve had the privilege of being this amazing person’s father for 13 years.
This is nice, but what I really want to see is an Elizabethan-style revenge play featuring Clippy. December 9, 1968… in an underground convention center in the heart of San Francisco, Doug Engelbart gave The Mother Of All Demos, introducing the world to an astonishing slew of technologies including word processing, video conferencing, windows, links,…
This is the concept of Inside Hamlet, an interactive performance that takes place this weekend and next in the real Elsinore, at Denmark’s Kronborg Castle. Over the course of three five-hour acts, 100 actors will assume the roles of royals and servants of the House of Hamlet—and other related houses who have taken refuge at…
E. A. Sothern as the foppish and silly Lord Dundreary stole the show. His part was originally small, but his ad libs were received so well by the audience that his part was expanded. Our American Cousin wasn’t just the last play President Lincoln saw. It was one of the great commercial successes of its…
If the pre-1978 laws were still in effect, we could have seen 85% of the works published in 1986 enter the public domain on January 1, 2015. Imagine what that would mean to our archives, our libraries, our schools and our culture. Such works could be digitized, preserved, and made available for education, for research,…
My daughter, who plays Young Estella in Pict Classic Theatre’s “Great Expectations,” was interviewed on Tony Marino’s WCNS “Steppin’ Out” local arts radio talk show. I’ve embedded the 10-minute segment below. During the segment, she told a ghost story about the Charity Randall theatre, she said her favorite scene is the manners lesson Pip receives from…
I didn’t watch the show (our cable-less TV doesn’t get that channel), but I found his to be a fascinating take on what was wrong with both the concept and the execution of this show. All this forces the question of who the intended audience was for NBC’s production of Peter Pan Live, a three-hour…
My daughter Carolyn appears as Young Estella in PICT Classic Theatre’s Great Expectations, the first of NEXT Pittsburgh’s “Top 8 events not to miss in December” 1. PICT Classic Theatre’s Great Expectations: December 3 – 20, Stephen Foster Memorial Kick off the holidays with a timeless moral tale that begins on Christmas morning. Follow along with…
I wonder what additional measurable benefits come from *performing* in live theater? Field trips to live theater enhance literary knowledge, tolerance and empathy among students, according to a study published this week by researchers in the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform…. “What we determined from this research is that seeing live theater produced…
I am thrilled to be part of this great cast. “The thing that makes ‘Fiddler’ so special is the story of family, the story of tradition,” says Tony Marino, artistic director at Stage Right Theatre Company, which brings a production of “Fiddler” to The Palace Theatre in Greensburg from Nov. 21 to 23. Marino says…
This weekend, I will be playing the rabbi in Stage Right Theatre Company’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. Here is a video I made last year, during the dress rehearsal of Children of Eden, using a handheld iPod Touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHnGyB8dYfs Here is a picture of a rabbi. On his forehead, he’s wearing a phylactery —…
I’m really enjoying the experience. I’ve made a playlist of all the numbers I’m in, and as I drive or do laundry I’m mentally practicing the choreography. What do we do again after the sunburst? Am I supposed to cut in front of or behind Travis when we zip our two separate lines into a…
After last night’s first rehearsal for “Fiddler on the Roof,” things that have made me start singing “Tradition!” in my head so far today: 1) Reading the name “Alyssa.” (Alyssa!) 2) Thinking about textbooks for next semester. (Edition!) 3) Thinking about hell. (Perdition!) 4) Turning on my car engine. (Ignition!) 5) Thinking about my upcoming…
Sources tell Seton Hill University’s Dennis Jerz that online write-ups of TV news stories seldom miss the chance to self-promote. Sources tell Jerz that two of the first three paragraphs in the text version of this Miami CBS TV news story put the name of the TV reporter before any actual news allegedly spoken by some nameless source.…
He’s not holding back here; he is telling these people, now that he’s poked their fear of booze, elites, outsiders, slippery slopes, and those who would interfere with authentic and worthy pursuits they perhaps love like harness racing, that the difference between pool and billards, those six pockets, mark a person as decent or not.…
A thoughtful overview of robots in culture, addressing the fear and hope that go hand-in-hand when humans reflect upon, fictionalize, and create our relationships with with mechanical workers of all stripes. Aaron Dubrow, National Science Foundation media officer, includes his perceptions of a panel on robots in theater, where I brought up the legacy of…
Mary Rodgers, composer of Once Upon a Mattress, also wrote the book Freaky Friday (later made into a movie starring Jodie Foster and remade with Lindsay Lohan). Mary Rodgers, who, as the daughter of a famous musical theatre composer (Richard Rodgers), a musical theatre successful composer herself (Once Upon a Mattress) and the mother of…
“In which the origin of the word “robot” is traced, precursors and context are briefly examined, and the Human soul is displayed for your consideration.” Karel Chapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) coined the word ‘robot,” which in the play was applied to an artificial worker, a living being manufactured with a chemical substitute…