I’m about to start the Rick Moranis #LittleShop movie. My 8yo has never seen it, but she’s gotten interested in musicals. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPad Wife is unwrapping the #LittleShop DVD now. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPad First, put away the #Cats DVD. about 3 hours ago via…
Games tend to evolve enormously over the standard two-year process, with whole missions often culled at a late stage, as playtesting reveals unforeseen fault lines and design issues. Having to recall actors and record chunks of new dialogue to reflect story changes is perceived as an expensive, time-consuming chore – the last thing a hassled…
Interesting examination of role-playing, illusion, identity, and power in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, one small branch of which was the inspiration for the 1976/7 computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was a popular tourist destination for travelers from around the United States and beyond. The cave…
In literature classes, students sometimes privilege author intent to an extent that hampers their ability to interpret literary works. Yes, it is possible to over-analyze anything. And just because there are many possible interpretations of a literary work, that doesn’t mean that every possible interpretation is well-supported by the text. (Occam’s Razor still applies, for…
I managed to find my own refuge in acting. The stage was a far safer place for me than anything I had to live through at home – it offered escape. I could be someone else, in another place, in another time. However, whenever the role called for anger, fury, or the expression of murderous…
This bit of educational theatrical fun sounds awesome! Via. Travelling from past to future through a landscape of machines and ideas Walk the Plank and Thingumajig Theatre have created an interactive journey through the courtyard of Manchester’s Town Hall. The audience will help inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage find the clues to repair his Difference…
There’s no information in the non-subscription IMDB, but there is an entry for a movie based on Rossum’s Universal Robots. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300594/ The original play was a talky social comedy mixed with a melodrama (complete with a “missing papers” plot twist), and the big action sequences happened off-stage (with characters either referring in passing to events…
Clever piece on a games-themed theater performance in Brooklyn next month. One of the more unusual plays in this year’s Antidepressant Festival is Adventure Quest, which mimics old-school computer adventure games, combining live action with vintage graphics and 8-bit music. For those too young to remember these strange, puzzle-intensive artifacts of the Reagan era, the…
Okay, I’m officially lame. I teared up a few days ago during Star Trek, and tonight I teared up during this song from The Magic Treehouse: The Musical, based on a series of easy-reader books by Mary Pope Osbourne. The touring show was in my town tonight; we had front-row seats. The song is a…
If you have a Facebook account, you’re probably familiar with the “25 Things About Me” meme. Mike McPhaden unearthed “Wm. Shakespeare’s Five and Twenty Random Things Abovt Me,” of which the best (IMHO) is the following: 14 On the topic of dating, my daughter Susanna loues to remind me: ~Jvliet was only thirteen! And I…
In my Literary Criticism class, next week we’ll be looking at The Yellow Wallpaper — most of us probably for the umpteenth time. Here’s a comment that just appeared on the course website, that reminds me why I spend six hours straight re-configuring a server from scratch because it got infected with a virus 12…
The McCarthy purges were a disgraceful blot on the national record of any nation aspiring to free speech, and are still, evidently, a matter of passionate concern. When Elia Kazan, who sang like a bird, was awarded a lifetime Oscar 40 years later, many in Hollywood made it plain that his betrayal was a matter…
My family saw the American Family Theater‘s production of Babes in Toyland this morning. Barnaby the Bumbling Villain, sneering from under a painted-on handlebar mustache as he gloats over his possession of the widow’s mortgage, pursues the heroes to Toyland. There, after much stock-character humor (cunning disguises, stunning surprises… lovers divided get coincided) the climax…
Great use of 3D technology to enable the study of an historic art form. Virtual Vaudeville: Watch legendary comedian Frank Bush in a vaudeville performance from a variety of perspectives in the theater, from the most expensive boxes to the cheapest balcony seats. Compare the reactions of different spectators and even experience the act through…
A short comedy sketch that emphasizes the importance of finding the right editor. Similar:How children lost the right to roam in four generations –How children lost the right to roa…CultureA Conversation with Dennis Jerz, Actor — WAOB Audio Theatrehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6vs0ZB…DramaMy Cow Game Extracted Your Facebook DataThe Cambridge Analytica scandal is drawi…AmusingThe Best Way to Start…
McSweeney’s: Horatio thinks he saw a ghost. Hamlet thinks it’s annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies. The king thinks Hamlet’s annoying. Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better. Hamlet’s father is now a zombie. Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. (Twitter would probably catch the back-and-forth spirit of a drama a…
From an article I published in 1997, back when I thought I was pretty hot stuff to include postage-stamp-sized video clips on a website. The website also featured a Java simulation of the outdoor pageant that celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi (which is today). The outdoor theatrical event in the medieval city of York,…
Just watch it. You’ll get it. Similar:Rhinoceros in Love (World Drama — China, 1999)The blurb for a 2011 English version of …AcademiaFirstborn (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 21) Worf prepares his reluctant son f… Rewatching ST:TNG Worf awkwardly rehe…CulturePlaywright #AugustWilson Takes Center Stage on U.S. Postal Service Commemorative Forever …https://twitter.com/USPS/status/13548292…CultureA day after using an…
NPR’s In Character treatment of Willy Loman (from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman). “I can tell you anecdote after anecdote after anecdote of men — men, 50-year-old pinstripe-suited men dissolved in tears and shaking,” Dennehy says. “And telling me story after story about themselves, about their relationship with their sons, and so forth.” I…
Filed away to read on a rainy day (after I’ve cleared some big projects from my to do list): Jonathan Bate The original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s works do not survive: the sole extant composition in his hand is a single scene from Sir Thomas More, a multi-authored play that cannot really be described as ‘his’.…