DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre » lmr25

Exciting News for the Huntington!

lmr25 — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:26:58 +0000

This morning, the Huntington Theatre Company announced that it has been given a $10 million gift from the Calderwood Charitable Foundation!

More war theatre–”Black Watch”

lmr25 — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:21:23 +0000

“Black Watch” first premiered in 2007 and has toured, but I managed avoid hearing about the play–about a group of Scottish soldiers in Iraq–until today. The play, which was originally performed at the National Theatre of Scotland runs at St. Anne’s Warehouse in Brooklyn until May 8th.

Here is the New York Times article about the show. But what I really enjoyed was the video (Click on the small box on the left and it will expand across the screen.) It is a brief interview with one of the actors in the piece who discusses portraying soldiers–a particularly interesting bit for me, coming off of Fallujah, where we had many similar discussions.

Here is the official website for St. Anne’s Warehouse and has lots more info about the show, including music clips from the show and a video about training to be actor-soldiers.

“Being Harold Pinter” by Belarus Free Theatre

lmr25 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:31:44 +0000

Belarus Free Theatre premieres a new piece at La MaMa in New York City. The title of the article says it all: “Political Theatre, Brought to you by the Politically Powerless.” The piece focuses on “tracing the relationship between power and violence” in the works of Harold Pinter.

Image for Family Stories: Belgrade

lmr25 — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:17:41 +0000

Check out this interactive image of the gradual dissolution of Yugoslavia.

Huntington’s “Sons of the Prophet” Opens Tonight!

lmr25 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:29:42 +0000

Tonight, the Huntington Theatre Company will have a World Premiere of a new play at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston’s South End. The play is “Sons of the Prophet” by Stephen Karam, writer of “Speech & Debate,” recently produced by Lyric Stage, and also co-writer of “columbinus” a controversial play that was banned at Lexington High School but the Huntington is helping mount the student production in the Calderwood’s blackbox space and the play will be performed this coming weekend.

Read more about the Huntington’s production of “Sons of the Prophet” here: http://berkshireonstage.com/2011/03/13/huntington-roundabout-plan-co-world-premiere-of-son-of-the-prophet/

and here is an article that is more personal to Stephen Karam, a very interesting look at some of the play’s inner workings and his inspirations for writing: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2011/04/01/prophet_playwright_returns_home_for_inspiration/

“Tricky Dick” the Musical

lmr25 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:03:10 +0000

Here is a fun, ironic little article about a group of law (of all things) students at Duke University who wrote a musical about former president Richard Nixon, an alum of Duke’s Law School, who apparently was disowned after the Watergate Scandal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/us/04nixon.html?_r=2&ref=theater

Robin Williams in Iraq War play

lmr25 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:28:37 +0000

Here is a review of “Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo” on Broadway starring Robin Williams. This article drew me in for several reasons, the first being working on Fallujah by Evan Sanderson has increased my awareness of and understanding of the need for plays about war. Also, the article compares this new play to the work of David Rabe during the Vietnam War era (which our Scene Design 1 class is currently studying) and discusses how this play is different from usual Broadway fare and why producing such alternative fare is (as you might guess) difficult.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/theater/robin-williams-in-bengal-tiger-at-the-baghdad-zoo.html?ref=theater

LA Times Review of “The Weir”

lmr25 — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:41:19 +0000

A new production of Conor McPherson’s “The Weir” is happening at South Coast Repertory! I found it very interesting to read about how this show lives on its feet versus on the page (and the images are great, too). Thought this was a good preemptive post for our class discussion on Friday!

Read the review here.

“Spiderman Smackdown” coming to Broadway

lmr25 — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:21:06 +0000

The Spidey Project, from the Peoples Improv Theatre, challenges whether putting $65 million into a Broadway musical is the best course of action to make it good. Their goal: write, compose, cast and stage a musical about Spiderman with $0 and mount it March 14–the day before Turn Off the Dark is scheduled to (finally) open.

Official blog site: http://thespideyproject.blogspot.com/

“Body Against Body” Dance Theatre Piece to Premiere at Boston ICA this weekend.

lmr25 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:08:18 +0000

A piece by the prolific choreographer of Spring Awakening and Fela and recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor, Bill T. Jones, which starts performances this weekend at the ICA in Boston. This production is a revitalization of a collection of duets choreographed by Jones and his partner, before his partner’s death from AIDS in 1988.

for more information, visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kris-wilton/bill-t-jones-goes-back-to_b_817769.html