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Unless you work in the theatre, you might be wondering what the heck is a dramaturg? This article and this one explain in detail. Basically it’s someone who provides valuable research and context to theatre (and opera-makers). They also help playwrights shape material similarly to how an editor helps writers. The best dramaturgs, editors, coaches,Continue reading “The Best Dramaturgs”

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” -Joseph Campbell There are lots of reasons people love scary movies. As this article points out, some include wanting novel experiences, sensory stimulation, and curiosity about our darker or shadow sides. I think another reason is presence. Feeling alive. Being focused on one thingContinue reading “Scary Stories”

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” -Epicurus I can’t get no satisfactionI can’t get no satisfaction‘Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I tryI can’t get no, I can’t get noContinue reading “Satisfaction”

“Gratitude is the closest thing to beauty manifested in an emotion” -Mindy Kaling “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations If you are your own power plant, then you need a source of fuel toContinue reading “Gratitude As Fuel”

My friend and go-to director/collaborator Ron once gave me this fantastic advice after a rehearsal in which I was pushing, “acting”, trying to do too much… “You don’t have to land a 747 on every line. Sometimes a line is just a line.” He’s right. If it’s good writing, we in the audience will feelContinue reading “Landing 747’s”

“Hamlet likely marks the first time that Stanislavski put together several key concepts of the “system.” Having already realized that a script could be divided into bits and that characters had a supertask, a sverkhzadacha, he next realized that each character’s bit had its own zadacha: a little step taken, often unsuccessfully, toward the character’sContinue reading “Decide, Do, Feel”

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.” -Archilochus 99 percent is training. (Or process.) 1 percent is performing. Find a way to love the training. Otherwise, plan for it not to go as well as you hoped. P.S. – The best training montage of allContinue reading “Training”

“There is one river of truth, which receives tributaries from every side.“ -Clement Of Alexandria “There’s no disappointment in memory, and one’s exaggerations are always on the good side.“ -George Eliot, novel Daniel Deronda I know the truth lies in betweenThe first and the fortieth drink -Tori Amos, song “Concertina” “Be tolerant with others andContinue reading “Somewhere In The Middle”

“Our job is to make manifest the story, to be it. In a sense, the theatre is such a big star itself, bigger than any Shakespearean actor I could hire, that we should take the opportunity to fill it with voice and verse and movement, not interpretation.” -Mark Rylance Great parts make great actors. NotContinue reading “Great Parts”

Spec script: An original screenplay written without prior attachment or deal with an executive or studio. As this article attests, it took producer Allan Scott over thirty years to bring Walter Tevis’ novel to life. A producer should be judged by two things: their taste and their tenacity. You say this is your passion project?Continue reading “On Spec”