”The Complete World of Sports (abridged) had its official RSC premiere this weekend at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, MA, so we kept the microphone on backstage, during our walk home, and at the cast party. Featuring tongue fumbles, theatrical tricks, mild nausea, and expert testimony as to how stage managing the RSC differs from stage managing real actors. (MP3. Length 18:22)
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Braden Abraham, the new artistic director of Chicago’s Writers Theatre, just announced the theater's 31st season, the first one he's programmed since joining the company. Braden talks about what goes into planning a season (and how that thinking never really ends); how a theatre season is like a great album; the importance of being in a learning and discovery phase; remaining in conversation with various overlapping communities; how programming a show in one city leads to a different show in another; the challenge of making each show an event; finding the right balance of scale and intimacy; and the value of bring some west coast energy to the north shore. (Length 19:18)
The About Face Theatre world premiere production of Gender Play, or what you Will is a tour-de-force for its co-creator and star Will Wilhelm, who transforms their own story as a nonbinary actor into a funny and powerful evening that's part seance and part dance party. Will shares their journey of discovery and how this play began as a thrown gauntlet; how Shakespeare’s plays are fundamentally queer, and how Will found themself in them; the difficulty of parsing gender identity, gender performance, and cross-dressing; the importance of creating easy on-ramps to appreciating Shakespeare; and how Gender Play will continue to be a gift to future queer performers who can make it their own. (Length 25:20)
David A. Goodman, the former president of the Writers Guild of America currently leading the negotiations and strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), takes a break from the picket lines to explain why this existential fight is so important. David reveals what's at stake, avoids heroic hyperbole; declines to craft narratives; confides who has the real power in Hollywood; explains the gutting of the American middle-class; possesses an admirable reluctance to participate in childish banter; and expresses gratitude for the extraordinary support the WGA is getting from its sister Hollywood unions. (Length 20:18)
2 Comments
Rippy · September 13, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Thank you, Emmy! And yes, I’m just tone-dumb! Which apparently IS curable… Thanks for listening! Legs a breakin!
Emmy · September 13, 2010 at 7:22 pm
I almost fell over when I heard Rippy say, “I’ve been tone deaf- well, not tone deaf, that’s a terminal illness.”
Great podcast this week and congrats on the opening night! Continue to break legs!