Ira Glass is the creator and host of a weekly show on National Public Radio called This American Life. I think it is the hardest show in public radio to listen to. It’s not flashy or polished and it takes effort to get it. But it is a weekly slice of life, radio theater for a modern age that is worth checking out. Glass has a way of pointing out the irony of life in America through real stories and his often pedantic but somehow insightful look at where we seem to be going, set apart from the more pressing news stories of the moment. His road show sounds like a live “best-of” presentation.
Glass is very concerned about the state of affairs for public radio with a Republican majority in the House. These battles flare up time and time again (1995, Newt Gingrich, et. al.), and although funding has never been seriously cut for public radio, I believe it is a bellwether of our national attitude toward discourse and free thought. Please read the linked article, I think you’ll find some similarities to John Patrick Shanley’s thoughts on our culture and our insistence on yes-no arguments for questions that deserve much greater consideration.
I contacted the folks at the Sleep No More NYC pdxn this last week, and heard back. There aren't any single ticket or student discounts at present, but you might consider geting a group together to attend during InCite. Here's their twitter message to me: "No discounts on individual student tix at this time but we are offering student group discounts. jweinbloom@sleepnomorenyc.com"
I leave it to you to follow up.
You may also want to follow their twitter feed, in case deals get offered there:
Opening this Thursday. Friend the theater on Facebook, and use the code "Alliance" at the online box office for the opening this Thursday (2.10).
Okay, full disclosure: Whistler gave one of my full-length plays a staged reading last year, but I'm not promoting them because I feel I "owe" them. I was honored, even flabbergasted that they accepted one of my plays. I have seen some of the most memorable theater from this company at the friendly, funky Factory Theater in the South End. A production I saw of One Flea Spare was riveting, as was Family Stories and the beautifully conceived Tales of Ovid.
I strongly urge you to check them out and get acquainted with one of the hottest theater companies in Boston.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Boston native David Lindsay-Abaire has a new play going to Broadway: Good People starring Frances McDormand, Tate Donovan and Estelle Parsons. Not only is it a "much anticipated Broadway follow-up" to Rabbit Hole, his Pulitzer-winner, it's also set in Southie - the first of his plays to explore his South Boston roots. This article gives a really great introduction to who David Lindsay-Abaire is and his connection to Boston:
This is the best play that I saw while abroad in London, and it's coming to New York. When I told my best friend Austin, who lives in New York, that he HAD to go see this play, he said, "What's it about?" I responded, "everything." Read this, and go see it if you can!
LaMaMa is one of my favorite theater companies in New York to follow; they have works with high production quality and amazing artists, as well as really avant-garde theater and artists who are just starting out ... I thought it would be interesting to post about this performance; first, Lizzie Stranton was just done at BU, and it made me reflect upon why this story might be one of the more popular ones to adapt today. Also, Marion had just been thinking about using puppets for "Agammemnon 2.X", which is exactly in line with this production. I wish I could see it!
I don't know if any of you remember because it was a blip on the radar, but I mentioned our first day of class I think that BAM is putting on a slew of great plays this season.
Here's Diary of A Madman with Geoffrey Rush:
http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2650
It's in NYC through March 12th, so if anybody on any given weekend is going, this might be awesome to see.
This is the rest of the performance art that BAM is making happen:
There will be a staged reading of the play, Rosalie's Youth, next Friday (February 11th) at 8pm in the Boston University Student Theater at Agganis Arena. Rosalie's Youth (known primarily by its Hebrew Title) by Hanoch Levin (a prominent Israeli dramatist) is an Israeli satire on love, wealth, and social hierarchies. The play is incredibly honest and funny. This staged reading will be the first time that the play will be presented in the English language. The reading is open to everyone for FREE. Following the reading, there will be a talk-back with the director, translator, and actors.
The translation of Levin's play was completed by Daneil Roden. The reading will be directed by BU's own Maddie DeBiasi. For information on the staged reading or the process behind it, please email Maddie at mdibiasi@bu.edu.
How timely is this? Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, featuring Billy Crudup (who I loved as Stillwater's lead guitarist in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous), coming to the Ethel Barrymore Theater in late Feb. Sounds like a good reason to go down to NYC for spring break.
Follow this link ladies and gents. Tickets are pricey but if you're like me and missed it when it was in Boston, it might be worth spending the cash money. It'll be going on during Spring break, every day of the week.
I was reading this review in the New York Times last week and I thought the opening paragraph was the most interesting sentence I've read in a long time.
I feel that over the past month, between seeing Neighbors and Ruined, reading our two plays from last week, and working on Ti-Jean and His Brothers (WHICH SHAMELESSPLUGSHAMELESSPLUG OPENS FEB 10 AT CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER) I've been able to gain a new . . . I don't know what you would call it, sensitivity? awareness? understanding? . . . of blacks in this country and around the world. It has, however, left me confused as an American Jew where I fit into this relationship; how our peoples are related. This article popped up and made me think twice about where I fit in to the world picture.
This is very local, but in the last year the small fringe theaters in Boston formed an alliance to share resources and...well, it's hard to describe. It seems so much of STAB is still being sorted out. But it has a Web presence, and if anything it exists to promote the small, fringe theaters that are popping up all over Boston, founded mainly by the graduates of the local theater programs.
The organization is primarily for the benefit of theater companies, but individual artists are welcome. I'm a member in order to stay more closely in touch with the local scene.
You can see on the site the member organizations with links to their site. It's a good source for local theater. To be honest, production quality can be sketchy (but they are almost always risk-taking productions) or you can find the best-kept secret in Boston as I did with Tales of Ovid.
OK, this article is a bit of a downer and very business-heavy in content, but unfortunately it's a realistic look at the business world we'll be (re)entering once we're no longer at BU. I particularly dislike the part about turning part of this historic theatre into an Applebee's. It does give a brief but interesting history of the NBT, though, and sparks all kinds of renewed enthusiasm in me for finding better ways to fund the arts!!!
If you're dealing with pasting a particularly long and unwieldy weblink, you can shorten it by going to:
http://bit.ly/
Paste the long url into the "shorten links here" box, click "shorten" - and then click "copy" next the new short links. All you have to do then is paste the copied shortened link into your blog post.
This is the extended trailer for a new play written by Jonathon Young of the Electric Company Theatre. I have to start by saying that I'm in love with this guy and his plays are actually what inspired me to get interested in theatre and writing plays, so that's why I chose this as my first "article". But enough about Jonathon...
'Tear the Curtain' is an intriguing blend of film and theatre. It's about a playwright trying to come up with his next big play all the while searching for exactly who he is and how writing affects him. The play includes both live acting on stage as well as recorded scenes that are projected onto the stage itself. It appears that at times the live action and recorded action actually interact with each other as well, which is espcially cool! Though not perfect for every play, obviously, the use of film seems to give a play about the decline of theatre in the wake of film an interesting new depth. It shows how the two seemingly very different mediums can be blended into a brand new type of drama. It allows this play to expand its settings to wider and more elaborate settings.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I find the idea of a writer losing himself in his work so completely that he doesn't know what's real and what's imagined a really fascinating and terrifying idea. As a writer myself, I can actually relate to this experience a little bit and it's what first drew me into this story.
Anyway, you should check it out and see what you think about it. Unfortunately, considering the fact that this play was designed around a specific theatre, it's only been performed for one run last fall in Vancouver so you might never get to actually see it, but you never know! It's still cool.
