Unify the Stage

Both of these women are such incredible inspirations. And it's so good to read something just about art, not what sells! https://www.americantheatre.org/2024/06/05/paula-vogel-tina-landau-and-the-room-that-made-mother-play/

 This is a fun watch: https://tedxsydney.com/talk/what-is-theatre-capable-of/

 An incredible director and teacher passed away recently.  Mary Zimmerman remembers him, and some of what we can all learn from him as directors, in this article: https://www.americantheatre.org/2023/01/09/frank-galati-passionate-enthusiast-and-philosopher-king/ Also this article is amazing: https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/in-the-room-with-frank-galati/?fbclid=IwAR2wXAO1YBNUYTFedkkIiGRrOFWzJ2RayNRM6_Y8pnrKqUOsoJXtMcGjyuM

The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier  is my latest favorite directing book. I've been a fan of Ostermeier's work for a while (though I've only seen two productions live), and as an American director who loves this work but is struggling with a lifetime of training based in psychological-realism, it's hard to find my connection to it. The truth is, I like psychology, and want it to be part of the work, I think it's more interesting that way. Our job is to find humanity, right?  But, we live in a society, and the society has issues, we know that. And plays are often in conversation with our larger societal predicaments. And the characters in plays are often in response to those. And their responses may be psychological, and they may effect what they want from the other characters, but they are deeply effected by the truth of their society.  Psychological realism, I believe, runs the risk of living in the myth of individualism. We live amongst each other, and to deny that ...

 The esteemed Margaret Webster, amazing woman theater director ahead of her time, interviewed by Studs Terkel in Chicago in 1961. She is so wise about Shakespeare. A great listen. https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/margaret-webster-talks-studs-terkel

 I mean, not by American standards...but:  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/t-magazine/ivo-van-hove.html

I just read this blog post in the Guardian from this summer about the secret lives of freelance directors having day jobs.  This is a problem in the US as well. If you're not financially backed in some way, it's almost impossible to be a freelance director. Many of us take many more jobs than we should have, instead of focusing on one project at a time, leading to some less-than-artistically-amazing work. I sometimes ponder what a wonder it is that any spectacular work happens in the theatre. I left my last temp job about five years ago. I was teaching Mon-Thurs and answering phones at an accounting firm on Fridays. The small bump in my monthly income was significant to me at the time. Me and most of my friends have day jobs as college teachers, or on artistic staffs. My mentor, Anna D. Shapiro basically told just those were our options, "name me one director who just lives off of their freelance directing." she challenged me and my grad school cohort. Ther...

Leigh Silverman inspires me. She's an incredible director, has a ton of really focused energy, has been wildly successful in her career (directed on Broadway at 31), and she isn't an asshole. In fact, she's been incredibly generous with her time and energy when I've met her or had drinks with her. Her support of other women in the field is an absolute inspiration. So I was thrilled to read this recent interview, which is written beautifully by Victoria Myers  on a website that I'm very glad to have discovered called The Interval: the smart girls' guide to theatricality . Incredible articles, very smart, funny, and about women in the theatre. It's New York focused for the most part, (maybe I should offer to write some Chicago articles?) but it makes me really happy. Other highlights from my reading about directors include: this interview with Lisel Tommy , 7 Women from Theatre History you should know , and 7 more Women from THYSK . This site is going t...

"If Theatre could be half as good as HBO, we'd be hitting gold" Simon Stone in the Guardian. 

I just completed reading Margaret Webster: A Life in the Theater by Milly S. Barranger , I purchased it, along with Webster's own books Shakespeare without Tears  and her autobiography:  Don't Put your Daughter on the Stage after hearing about Webster's influential work as a woman director. I haven't read the other two yet, I thought I'd get a background before delving into Webster's own words, and I wasn't disappointed. The book is compelling, readable, and by the end I felt like I had such a picture of Webster's complex and beautiful life. As Barranger says on the final page, "The director's legacy, like the theater, is often dismissed sa ephemeral--as intangible form. Margaret Webster's legacy is lodged in the accomplishment of a pioneering artist, defying time in the work of those artists, especially women, who follow knowingly or otherwise in her footprints." I discovered in this book a connection which made me feel both an und...

An amazing woman, director, founder of regional theatre, passed away at 91. Here is a bit about her, read and be inspired: New York Times NPR Washington Post

I wrote this blog post for TCG, about leadership in theatre. You can read it here .

Katie Mitchell is a personal hero of mine, a trailblazing auteur director who is also, *gasp!*, a woman. I often wonder why we have such fantastic male auteur directors and so few female auteurs. I have a lot of theories about it, some of them are too personal to go into here on this blog on this day. That's because I have been known to deconstruct a classic in my time, but I haven't done it often, or often professionally. And so when I wonder this about the world, I also wonder this about myself. Lately, a couple of fabulous articles have come out about Katie Mitchell and her work. I must be honest here, I haven't seen her work, and it's certainly controversial. But here's what inspires me about her: first off, if you read her amazing book THE DIRECTOR'S CRAFT, then you know that she isn't just making up ideas and placing them on her productions, she is doing some serious and deep text analysis to get to her conclusions. The attention to detail in every...

Mary really beautifully and simply articulates semiotics in the theater, identifying a definition of theatricality that I found astute as a "visible metaphor that calls attention to itself". It's a great talk.

I wrote this for Howlround about review rating systems. I feel passionately about the topic. You can read it here .

Great article on the visionary director, Ivo van Hove. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/theatre-laid-bare

A new article on an old topic: http://www.dw.de/how-much-creative-liberty-can-a-theater-director-take/a-18233268

DOCS... VANYA ON 42ND STREET-- Amazing actors working on Uncle Vanya in a run down theater in New York. If you haven't seen it, do not pass go...get it now. BROOK BY BROOK-- This documentary is about Peter Brook, created by his son. It comes in a double dvd set with Peter Brook's HAMLET, which is also amazing to watch.  ARIANE MNOUCHKINE - THE LOVE OF THEATRE -- A great documentary about Ariane Mnouchkine and the founding of Theatre du Soliel. You can watch it here , and be sure to turn on the English subtitles. BECOMING TRAVIATA --an amazing documentary focusing on the rehearsal work of stage director Jean-François Sivadier with soprano Natalie Dessay on a beautiful production of La Traviata. Yes, it's opera, and yes, you should watch it. It's a master class in good opera stage direction. WAGNER'S DREAM-- An exciting documentary about Robert Lepage and his recent production of THE RING CYCLE at the Met. Dreaming big. FICTION... ALL ABOUT EVE-- Funny, ...

Directors of the world! Have a road trip coming up? Need some podcasting to listen to while you clean your house? Just want to learn a lot by listening? CHECK OUT THIS PODCAST SERIES It's the Stage director's and Choreographers Foundation's Masters of the Stage podcast, and there is so much to listen to and learn... 131 podcasts to catch up on, so get listening!

 Vanity Fair: 3/11/14 Always choose good collaborators. It seems so obvious, but the best collaborators are the ones who disagree with you. It means they’re passionate, they have opinions, and they’ll only ever say yes if they mean it. Try to learn how to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar. Direct Shakespeare like it’s a new play, and treat every new play as if it’s Shakespeare. If you have the chance, please work with Dame Judi Dench. Learn to say, “I don’t know the answer.” It could be the beginning of a very good day’s rehearsal. Go to the ancient amphitheater at Epidaurus, in Greece. It makes you realize what you are a part of, and it will change the way you look at the world. If you’re an artist, you will feel central, and you will never feel peripheral again. Avoid, please, all metaphors of plays or films as “pinnacles” or “peaks”; treat with absolute scorn the word “definitive”; and if anyone uses the word “masterpiece,” they don’t know what they’re doing. T...