There have been multiple occasions when I’ve been in attendance at theatrical events in foreign languages and still managed to understand what was transpiring onstage. The first of these was Aristophanes’ The Frogs, presented in Greek by British students studying—yes, you guessed it—Greek. (I wrote about this in a recent blog post.) Fortunately for me,Continue reading “It’s All Greek, German, and Japanese To Me”
Tag Archives: grad school
A Spontaneous Moment to Remember
There’s a moment in grad school at Berkeley I often remember with great fondness. It was the first of many such recollections, and they do say we always remember our first. The moment happened after a performance of Aristophanes’ The Frogs. The performers were British university students who presented the work in Greek, sans subtitlesContinue reading “A Spontaneous Moment to Remember”
Notes About Dreams
In a recent blog post I mentioned finding old notes about various things that might become future blog posts. Well, the future is now! Four of the notes begin: “Dream:” and have some mention of what happened in some dream I had years ago. Often when I take notes, such brief phrases are enough toContinue reading “Notes About Dreams”
“She Tipped Me A Crystal”
At Berkeley, we had a summer lunchtime theatre series. Each show rehearsed for two weeks (one week in the morning, one week in the afternoon) and then a week of performances. I directed two shows in two summers: Noel Coward’s We Were Dancing (in the Durham Studio Theatre) and Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost—which I cutContinue reading ““She Tipped Me A Crystal””
Questions Only
What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain. Over the years, the questions that made me uncomfortable have changed. I guess that corresponds to my level of maturity and leads me to where we are now. First, speaking generally of questions, I always like to come back to the Bernard Pivot questions usedContinue reading “Questions Only”
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? One of the quickest ways to encourage me to do something is to tell me I can’t do it, or to speak the more passive phrase, “it can’t be done.” That’s precisely the motivation I’ve often needed to accomplish a goal. ItContinue reading “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t”
A Plethora of Miscellaneous
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be? I wrote that title a few weeks ago and saved it in Notes, because I knew it would come in handy eventually. When seeing today’s prompt I thought it was strictly apropos (which would be a bad title for my biography). Looking backContinue reading “A Plethora of Miscellaneous”
Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About it!
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do? In the old days of kids hawking newspapers on street corners, they’d yell, “Extra, extra, read all about it!” to announce that special edition of the paper containing what CNN labels every story, “Breaking News.” (I maintain it’s not really breaking newsContinue reading “Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About it!”
Hard Choices
What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why? Sometimes, you’re asked a question, and you have to replay your entire life in your mind—rewind, fast-forward, stop, play, then more rewinding… Did you miss any details, and did you see enough of the highlights? Rewind again…. Or maybe it’s more like checking your analytics.Continue reading “Hard Choices”
Pounding That Same Insistent Piano Note
This is the final paragraph from a paper I wrote, “Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty” A Definition,” submitted for my graduate criticism seminar on 6 December 1985. “In this way, theater should always have a mystical power to evoke emotion in the audience. As a director, I feel that if time and care is taken inContinue reading “Pounding That Same Insistent Piano Note”
MUSOFYR 