American Theatre back issues from October 2008:
Editor's note.(Editorial)
Oct 01, 2008; ... One of our favorite tasks on American Theatre's publishing calendar falls in the waning weeks of summer--surveying colleagues across the country to find out what plays, what projects, what artists' work people in the field are most excited about in the upcoming season. Once a theme for the ...
Losing Lune.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2008; ... Re: Your report that Theatre de la Jeune Lune has closed its doors, sold its magnificent theatre space and disbanded its company due to financial troubles ("Good Night, Lune," Sept. '08). This 30-year-old company was one of the most unique, innovative, passionate companies in the country ....
Innocent abroad?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2008; ... Even were it intended (as I hope it was) as a parody of the innocent abroad, Toby Zinman's "Meet Me in Hong Kong" (July/Aug. '08) requires some correction and challenge. It is simply wrong to say that "the written characters [of the various Chinese dialects] are different." The ...
The boycott problem.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 01, 2008; ... I am disappointed that anyone who calls him or herself a creative artist would actually support a boycott against artists or academics of Israel or any other country ("4 Positions on Cultural Sanctions," May/June'08). It should be obvious that the realm of arts and ideas is one in which ...
How theatre saved America, Part 2.
Oct 01, 2008; ... AT TCG'S NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN JUNE, the British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah gave a roof-raising talk about the potential role for theatre in realizing a better image and international understanding of the U.S. He received thunderous applause when he stated, "Whoever is looking after your ...
Theatre facts 2007.(TCG ON THE WEB)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... By September '07, the U.S. economy was threatened by escalating war expenses; it was anticipated that oil prices might reach $3 per gallon; immigration issues ignited from coast to coast; and the housing market bubble began to burst in the Heartland. Theatre Facts 2007 nonetheless reports ...
Free Night of Theater.(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Coming to a city near you: Free Night of Theater, TCG's audience-development program, expands on Thursday, Oct. 16, to include more than 100 cities from coast to coast, including, for the first time, metropolises such as New York City and Chicago. First-time theatregoers (or those visiting ...
A ha! Program: Think It. Do It.(GRANT RECIPIENTS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... The first-round grants for an innovative new program, a partnership of MetLife Foundation and TCG, have been announced. The A-ha! Program supports creative thinking and action in two ways: Think It grants of up to $25,000 offer time and space for research and development, and Do It grants ...
Only for Pittsburgh.(NEWS IN)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... PITTSBURGH: The City of Bridges turns 250 this year. But is the Pennsylvania metropolis ready to join the major leagues of international arts festivals? The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust thinks so. The nonprofit arts agency, a catalyst for economic development in the downtown cultural ...
Beijing in L.A. (way of the U.K.).(NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... SANTA MONICA, CALIF.: Can't shake Olympics fever? Not to worry: Starting Oct. 24, a company of 20 young actors from Warwickshire, England, kick up acrobatics, physical storytelling, dance and movement in Monkey--Journey to the West, billed as a fast and furious "live-action anime" take on ...
Wendy's last Musical.(Wendy Wasserstein's Pamela's First Musical)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... NEW YORK CITY: The last work by Wendy Wasserstein and Cy Coleman--Pamela's First Musical, a Broadway-style musical based on her same-titled illustrated children's book, which she wrote for her only daughter--is ready to bust out. The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, an industry-only ...
Andrew Hamingson.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Andrew Hamingson called his recent appointment as executive director of New York City's Public Theater "the fulfillment of a lifelong dream." Hamingson, who replaces Mara Manus, has ...
Brian Colburn.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Brian Colburn is the new managing director of Intiman Theatre in Seattle, following a long tenure at California's Pasadena Playhouse culminating in his appointment as ...
Marcelle McVay.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... After 34 years at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, Marcelle McVay steps down as managing director this fall. McVay has been with VGT since its founding in 1974, as business manager and development ...
Mary Ann Ehlshlager.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Delaware Theatre Company has a new managing director: Mary Ann Ehlshlager. This marks a return to a dual leadership structure for the theatre, which created the position of producing director for Anne Marie Cammarato in 2004; Cammarato will now be artistic ...
Michael Thomas New-berry.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Michael Thomas New-berry has joined Chicago's American Theater Company as executive director. He comes from Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where he served as deputy ...
Bonnie Brittain Hall.(ENTRANCES & EXITS)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Rick Stein, formerly executive director of Laguna Playhouse in California, has been appointed executive director of Arts Orange County, the local nonprofit arts agency. He replaces Bonnie Brittain ...
Ilana Brownstein.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas gave Ilana Brownstein, a dramaturg at Huntington Theatre Company ...
Lars Jan.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Lars Jan, who founded Early Morning Opera as a technology and physical performance lab, has won Center Theatre Group's Richard E. Sherwood ...
Alec Hammond.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... The Princess Grace Foundation--USA awarded a Princess Grace statue--a sort of stage two for previous honorees by the foundation--and $25,000 to scenic designer Alec Hammond. In its theatre and playwriting category the foundation gave residency fellowships, scholarships and honoraria to ...
Philadelphia Young Playwrights.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Philadelphia Young Playwrights has been named a "Champion in Action" for its arts education program and will ...
Children's Theatre of Charlotte.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... The Children's Theatre Foundation of America honored Children's Theatre of Charlotte with ...
New Victory Theater.(AWARDS & PRIZES)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Americans for the Arts's Arts Education Network has chosen New York's ...
Newberry Opera House.(Outstanding Historic Theatre Award )(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... The Baltimore-based League of Historic American Theatres presented the 2008 Outstanding Historic Theatre Award to the Newberry Opera House, which hosts some 200 events annually in its 1881 ...
Ricardo Barber, Mario Bosquez, John Leguizamo, Eduardo Machado, John Ortiz.(Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * In September HOLA (Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors) bestowed awards for overall excellence to Ricardo Barber, Mario Bosquez, John Leguizamo, Eduardo Machado, John Ortiz and Thalia. HOLA also gave kudos for the past season, ...
BoarsHead Theater.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Sponsored by weekly LGBT-focused Michigan newspaper Between the Lines, 22 Wilde Awards were passed out in Detroit in August, including to local professional productions Moonlight and Magnolias at BoarsHead Theater, Doubt and Dirty Blonde at Performance Network Theatre (which also scored ...
Georgia Arts & Entertainment Legacy Award.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * In Atlanta, the Georgia Arts & Entertainment Legacy Award welcomed three new winners to its ranks: Sarah duBignon, outreach/education coordinator for ...
John Kolvenbach.(AWARDS & PRIZES)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Cape Cod's Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater made playwright John Kolvenbach the ...
Estelle Getty: 1923-2008.(IN MEMORIAM)(Obituary)
Oct 01, 2008; ... AT THE HEIGHT OF popularity of "The Golden Girls," there was no more beloved character on television than Sophia Petrillo. Estelle Getty, who brought Sophia indelibly to life, was awestruck: "What the hell is going on? I have the highest TVQ of any woman on television?" It was ...
Barbara Ann Teer: 1937-2008.(IN MEMORIAM)(Obituary)
Oct 01, 2008; ... There is an ancient Vedic saying: "If you want to create a new body, then you must step out of the never of your own memory and see the world as if for the first time." And this woman, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, this East St. Louis, Ill.-born woman, used new memory to help us to see ...
Tony Church.(NEWS IN BRIEF)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Tony Church, a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, died this past spring in London at age 77. He was dean of ...
Brooks Jones.(NEWS IN BRIEF)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Brooks Jones, who helped to establish McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, N.J., in 1959, died in July at age 73. Jones devoted himself to the regional theatre. He started a resident company at Cincinnati ...
Christopher Markle.(NEWS IN BRIEF)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Director and Northern Illinois University theatre professor Christopher Markle died in July at the age of 53. Early in his career Markle worked with John ...
Victor Hugo Rascon Banda.(NEWS IN BRIEF)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008 ... * Celebrated statesman of Mexican drama Victor Hugo Rascon Banda died in August at age 60. Rascon Banda was an important international figure who penned the 2006 World Theatre ...
Oh, what a glorious war.(Black Watch)
Oct 01, 2008; ... PLAYWRIGHT GREGORY BURKE refers to Black Watch as "the unauthorized biography" of the three-century-old Scottish regiment that, in November 2004, was deployed to Iraq, relieving American forces at Camp Dogwood in Babil and freeing them up for their assault on Fallujah. Such a description ...
For your consideration: 2 Romanias.
Oct 01, 2008; ... THIS MONTH, TWO WRITERS--a Romanian and an American--grasp at new ways to tell a pair of Romanian stories on stage. One is the tale of the spectacular 1989 revolution that was in some ways a coup; the other, closer to home, is about an immigrant posing as a circus clown who, to avoid ...
Speak up.(NEW YORK CITY)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008; ... FEW THEATRE ARTISTS DREAM of visiting the spot where the atomic bomb was tested in 1945--and probably even fewer make the trek to the Trinity test site and its more famous neighbor, Los Alamos. Monologist Mike Daisey, however, spins such a journey into If You See Something Say Something ....
7 days in Iraq.(CLEVELAND, OHIO)(Brief article)
Oct 01, 2008; ... GRIEF LIES AT THE HEART OF Goldstar, Ohio, Michael Tisdale's docudrama following four families connected to the 22 Marines from a battalion headquartered in Brook Park, Ohio, killed in Iraq over seven days in August '05. Tisdale, a Buckeye himself, personally interviewed each ...
Almanac.(OCTOBER)(Chronology)
Oct 01, 2008 ... 350 YEARS AGO (1658) Moliere and his troupe perform before King Louis XIV for the first time. Though their planned presentation of Nicomede proves unsuccessful, an impromptu performance of the comedic Le Docteur amoureux so delights the court audience that Louis insists the ...
Surfing Sara Kraft's reality.
Oct 01, 2008; ... SARA KRAFT has earned a place as a doyenne of San Francisco's avant-garde theatre scene. Her past works, such as the wildly popular Woods for the Trees and Remote (performed with former partner Ed Purver), were skillful multimedia melanges staged in intimate environments, drawing from pop ...
Who's afraid of modern marriage?(NEW YORK CITY)
Oct 01, 2008; ... Newlyweds: Brace yourselves Michael Weller calls Fifty Words, running at MCC Theater through Oct. 25, a "realistic" look at married life. But in this night-long journey through matrimony's lower depths the dramatist explores the challenges of family life in a society where women and men ...
Sheila Callaghan writes plays with one finger on the fast-forward button.(BLOW ME UP, LAY ME DOWN)
Oct 01, 2008; ... SHEILA CALLAGHAN doesn't finish sentences. She tumbles forward through a flood of images and ideas, sometimes pausing to recall how she arrived at this particular spot in the conversation. There's a giddy energy about her, and she's a magnet for people and discussion. ...
Quiara Alegria Hudes tells a Philadelphia story all her own.
Oct 01, 2008; ... PLAYWRIGHTS often have landscapes that feed their art--physical places that are also places of the heart, to which these dramatists frequently turn for stories, characters and ambience. For Beth Henley, that place has been a sliver of a Mississippi town that goes by the ...
Let the games begin: Itamar Moses's textual acrobatics take aim at the unsayable.
Oct 01, 2008; ... THEY'VE BEEN FLIRTY for ages, but this year, Itamar Moses and the American theatre are finally going steady. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Moses's star began rising in earnest in the 2002-03 season, when Florida Stage of Manalapan and Ithaca, N.Y.'s Hangar Theatre both ...
Flight plan for success: business-management guru JIM COLLINS has some eye-opening ideas about how to take a theatre organization from good to great.(Interview)
Oct 01, 2008; ... I FIRST BECAME AWARE OF JIM COLLINS at the 1996 Theatre Communications Group National Conference in Princeton, N.J. It was my first conference, and I was in the process of having my mind blown on many fronts. Among the sessions was August Wilson's groundbreaking call to arms, which led to ...
"What gets your vote?" Dozens of theatre professionals pick their most-anticipated works of the new season.and: the top 10 plays of '08-09, page 86.(PLUS:)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Contact information for all 487 TCG member theatres is included, whether or not their seasons have been announced. Schedule changes and additions are common in the course of a season, so readers are encouraged to contact theatres directly for updated information. All ...
In the Heart of America.(PRODUCTION NOTEBOOK)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Kasi Campbell, DIRECTOR: In the Heart of America shifts from realism to disorientating dreamscape, from a Kentucky motel room to the sands of the Iraqi conflict, and deep into the jungles of the Vietnam War. The characters include two young men fighting the Gulf War who fall in love; a ...
What does it take to keep 'Streetcar' on track? Sheila Daniels faces down the play's challenges in a volatile debut at Intiman.(Streetcar Named Desire)
Oct 01, 2008; ... At the corner of Big Easy and Our Lady of Method Acting, a hunky young man in a sweat-stained T-shirt drops to his knees and wails for the wife he has just wronged. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sound of "Stellllaaaaa!" from the quintessential Tennessee Williams drama, ...
Staying power: In Indianapolis, James Still is not just a playwright--he's a brand.(CURRENTS)
Oct 01, 2008; ... Playwrights tend to be perpetual freelancers--long-term relationships, at least with theatres, aren't typically part of the deal. Instead, relationships can last anywhere from a torrid afternoon (a reading) to a giddy month (a production) to a year or two of ups and downs (a commission) ....
The paradox of plenty: can there be too many theatre festivals blooming?(CURRENTS)
Oct 01, 2008; ... In the theatre nothing is certain, except for death and festivals. Wherever theatre people with brains, talent, resources and chutzpah feel the driving need to be seen and heard, the spur to "festing" cannot be held back or denied. This impulse--as bone-deep a habit as the drama festivals ...
Gertrude Hadley Jeannette keeping on: her legacy is alive in the theatre community of Harlem.
Oct 01, 2008; ... Gertrude Hadley Jeannette, the founder of the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players (Harlem Artists Development League Especially for You), celebrated her 93rd birthday last November with friends and admirers at Harlem's Alhambra Ballroom. Still erect of stature and dignified, dressed in a tan dress with ...
What's Happening to Musicals? Four histories view that most American of theatrical genres through the looking-glass of craft.
Oct 01, 2008 ... You'd think that American-style commercial musical theatre would have died out years ago, but here it is, deep into the iPod era, doing something that approaches booming. Not only are audiences willing to pay $100-plus to see musicals on Broadway (and nearly as much Off Broadway and for ...
Audition odyssey: how two actors took control of their budding careers by sending letters making phone calls and hitting the road.
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE CHALLENGE: So you wanna be an actor. Or maybe you already are an actor but you've yet to really jump-start your career. Or perhaps you're in a bit of a lull. Whatever the case, acting is a difficult vocation. Even obtaining an audition can prove elusive--if your theatre community is a ...
Global spotlight.(arts festivals around the globe)
Oct 01, 2008; ... Melbourne, Australia MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL: Back to Back Theatre drew admiration on the international circuit for small metal objects. Now Melbourne is the first to see the troupe's newest work, Food Court, a tale of humiliation at the mall, featuring an ...
20 Questions.(Interview)
Oct 01, 2008 ... Writer and actor Carrie Fisher has been touring her solo show Wishful Drinking, directed by Tony Taccone, around the country, most recently setting down at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage. The autobiographical tale--eyeing a Broadway run--takes on Fisher's iconic Star Wars image, her ...