Category Archives: Theatre

“Boredom is very important in life. It helps you feel when something is wrong.” — John Strasberg

It’s John Strasberg’s birthday today. I told this story before on here years ago, when I used to write like this on here, on occasion. Figured I’d re-post it. He is very very important to me. Back in the late … Continue reading

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Natasha Richardson Born Today: May 11, 1963

I have seen a couple of live performances I will never forget. Live performances that took me by the throat, so intense I almost felt trapped by the performance. It’s rare. It’s a different thing than watching someone really skilled … Continue reading

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“I started at the top and worked my way down.” — Orson Welles

It’s his birthday today. When Orson Welles was just a teenager, he traveled to Ireland. And although it seems improbable (perhaps not, because this is Orson Welles we’re talking about), he decided to audition for the newly-formed Gate Theatre, and … Continue reading

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When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, / Hath put a spirit of youth in everything …

Today is (supposedly, roughly) the birthday of William Shakespeare. April 23, 1564. (Title of the post from Sonnet 98.) One of the things I think about when I think about Shakespeare, is my late great teacher Doug Moston, who died … Continue reading

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“I don’t think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away.” — Tom Noonan

Most well-known for playing supernatural-style “heavies” in movies such as Manhunter and Robocop 2, he got his start in the 1960s experimental theatre scene in New York City, and in many ways he’s never really left that scene. He established … Continue reading

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“That’s the Irish People all over – they treat a serious thing as a joke and a joke as a serious thing.” — Seán O’Casey, Shadow of a Gunman

“You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea; you cannot put an idea up against the barrack-square wall and riddle it with bullets; you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell your slaves could ever build.” … Continue reading

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Substack: Interview with actor/director/teacher Ryan Czerwonko

I’ve written about Adult Film before here, and had been wanting for a while to sit down and interview one of the founders, Ryan Czerwonko, about what he and his group are up to. Finally, we carved out some space … Continue reading

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“Make voyages! — Attempt them! — there’s nothing else …” Happy Birthday, Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) was born on this day in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911. I love this early note from Tennessee Williams because it already incorporates his most famous line, from Streetcar Named Desire. Will you do a total … Continue reading

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the Berkshires

Re-posting my lengthy piece on the production I saw of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2016, in honor of the anniversary of the play premiering on Broadway. On the evening of July 4th, I took the Mass Pike … Continue reading

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On This Day: March 24, 1955: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened on Broadway.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened on Broadway on this day, in 1955. Critic Brooks Atkinson, one of Williams’s staunchest supporters, wrote: “[The play seemed] not to have been written. It is the quintessence of life.” Ben Gazzara became … Continue reading

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