The musical Man of La Mancha serves as another example of a production that I consider very successful. With its prison set conjuring images of both Western and Eastern theatre, my flexible staging, and the imaginative creation of scenes by adding a few props or costumes, the show served as an excellent example of collaborationContinue reading “Strange (?) Inspiration Part 2”
Tag Archives: theatre
Strange (?) Inspiration Part 1
A few years back, the music director where I was working and I decided to present the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, Some Enchanted Evening. For the first part of the process we held vocal auditions and cast the singers with the songs. I then turned to the task of how to stage the piece. NoteContinue reading “Strange (?) Inspiration Part 1”
Sniffing Name Tags
The title comes from my description of a certain behavior I often witnessed at conferences. Two conference attendees are approaching each other in a hotel hallway or on the exhibit floor. One of the attendees (the distance determined by their eyesight) looks at the other’s face. If they do not immediately recognize the person, theyContinue reading “Sniffing Name Tags”
“You Are The Killer!”
This past weekend we had the premiere presentation of our interactive murder mystery, Whispers in a Dark Manor. I’d venture to say that it was overall a success. When talking with a local hotel to use their conference room for a performance, they expressed interested in doing a murder mystery dinner. We agreed, and IContinue reading ““You Are The Killer!””
The Premiere Premiere
When getting a new theatre group started, the first thing you really have to worry about is, well, I guess, money. The second is having people audition for your performances. I decided to hedge my bets by starting with a one-person show, and casting a former student of mine in the role. Luckily he’s youngContinue reading “The Premiere Premiere”
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””
An Assassin for What??
Years ago in Northeast PA (which does seem like a galaxy far, far away at this point), I had to walk to the end of the street to get my mail. As I exited my house and entered the road, two dogs across the way would bark at me from a badly-built enclosure. When IContinue reading “An Assassin for What??”
Gimme a Murder Mystery
In discussing possible performance events with a local organization, we were asked if we could do a murder mystery dinner. Why, sure! But… I began researching them. They tend to fall into two categories: expensive (no, thanks!) and lame. The latter seem to have been created by some amateur theatre groups who thought they wereContinue reading “Gimme a Murder Mystery”
Hand Me the Whiteboard…
Every time someone starts an in-depth explanation of something, or I need to explain something that requires a variety of steps, I ask for “the whiteboard.” I assume at that point that only a detailed diagram will be able to provide any sensical explanation. I always needed a whiteboard when I covered one of theContinue reading “Hand Me the Whiteboard…”
