Unify the Stage

So recently, a new play I worked on was selected by the Humana Festival. I just did one workshop of the play, and it had been developed long before that. But, the writer and I had a sort of kinship and I love the play in a way that doesn't happen all of the time. But, the Humana folks don't know me, and I'm certainly not a known quantity in the larger theatrical world (outside of Chicago), and they picked someone far more known and prestigious than I to direct. It was a tough blow. I thought I had a chance for five minutes and really just wanted to do the play. But I had a feeling that they would need someone else, and at least I lost to a shiny, quasi-famous director and not to a peer. So it wasn't anything I could take personally. And I had only done a week on it. I wondered how I would feel if I had been there from it's conception, and really helped midwife it to this level. I know this happens sometimes. And then I was at dinner with a good playwright friend w

P. Carl, an amazingly smart person and the founder of HowlRound recently posted this article on deciding whether or not to get your MFA. Carl makes a lot of really interesting points in this, and I agree with most of what they say. Although I continue to believe that our lives are all very different and our "careers" in this field (yes, quotes are necessary for that) are all over the map. I read this article on the heels of a couple of things going on in my mind... The first is that I, as a teacher of undergraduates, think a lot about the value of education. We had a faculty meeting yesterday, our college now costs students 22,000 a year. Without room and board. I went to the same school, it was half that much when I went there. Even less my first year. And lots of students are dropping out because of cost. And lots of students are taking out exorbitant amount of financial aid without even realizing what they are getting themselves in to. And then they blow off classe

As found on Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/artinfo/twelve-female-directors-t_b_2200474.html?utm_hp_ref=arts