'Blue Heaven' (or 'Going to Iraq') – Part 2
[Below is the second part of my account of the production of Karen Malpede’s Blue Heaven in September and October 1992. In this section, I’ll recount the rehearsal process, the departure of director...
View ArticleTheater Online – A Preliminary Report
by Kirk Woodward and Rick[“Is the theater really dead?” The folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel asked that musical question in “The Dangling Conversation” as far back as 1966. Of course, it wasn’t...
View Article"Can You Say 'Sempre Molto Rubato'?"
by Peter Filichia[This is a post from Masterworks Broadway, a website of Sony Music Entertainment, from 7 April 2020. I’ve amended Filichia’s discussion about tempo markings (that’s what the rhythm...
View Article'The Diary of Anne Frank' Online
[On 19 May, I published “Theater Online – A Preliminary Report” on Rick On Theater. That was my collaboration with Kirk Woodward, a frequent contributor to ROT,reporting our impressions of putting on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Bond Car Is Back!
[In my sentient lifetime, James Coburn’s knife-throwing cowboy in 1960’s The Magnificent Seven may have been the first enduring symbol of Cool, but before Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” in A...
View Article"Let America Be America Again"
by Langston Hughes[I watched the CBS Evening News last Wednesday, 3 June, and at the end of the broadcast, anchorwoman Norah O’Donnell introduced a video of 17-year-old Chicago poet and minority-youth...
View ArticleThe Anarchist Prince, Part 1
History is replete with contradictions, often in the person of one individual. Probably one of the starkest is the case of Pyotr Alekseyevich Kropotkin.The name may sound like a character from Nikolai...
View ArticleThe Anarchist Prince, Part 2
[Below is Part 2 of my profile of Pyotr Kropotkin, one of the most famous anarchist thinkers and writers of the movement. Since this installment starts where Part 1 left off, I strongly recommend that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Black Wedding
From the New York Evening World of Monday, 4 November 1918, page 4 (no byline):WEDDING IN CEMETERY.Brave Couple Carry Out AncientTradition to Beat InfluenzaNow watch the “flu” follow Austria into the...
View Article"Connecting through art when a pandemic keeps us apart"
by Jeffrey Brown[American artists of all kinds are responding to the coronavirus pandemic with new creations. As PBS NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown reports, the art can serve as both a call to...
View ArticleFranglais
Readers of Rick On Theater will know that when I was a teen and a twenty-something, I lived in Europe two times. The second time, on which I’ve blogged often, was when I was in the army in West...
View ArticleReviewers
“WHY WE DON’T REVIEW PREVIEWS, AND THE RARE JOYS OF SEEING A SHOW TWICE”by Lily Janiak[Some readers of Rick On Theaterwill know that I try to avoid seeing plays during previews. The reasons Lily...
View Article'Woyzeck' (The Shaliko Company, 1976) – Part 1
[I’ve written before about many of Leonardo Shapiro’s productions, most recently his staging of Blue Heaven/Going to Iraq by Karen Malpede from 1992. The coronavirus pandemic has shut down the...
View Article'Woyzeck' (The Shaliko Company, 1976) – Part 2
[Welcome back to my reconstruction of Leonardo Shapiro’s staging of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, his 1836 unfinished play. In Part 2, below, I discuss the physical production at New York City’s Public...
View ArticlePlaywriting Bake-Off
by Kirk Woodward[As many ROTters know, my friend Kirk Woodward wears many hats when it comes to theater. (If you flash on an image of Bartholomew Cubbins, you will be forgiven.) One of his talents is...
View Article'Dance Break'
by Kirk Woodward[Well, this is something different for Rick On Theater. If you read “Playwriting Bake-Off,” which I posted on 19 July, you know that my friend Kirk Woodward entered a playwriting...
View Article'ZOOMotional Support'
by Heather Day and Martha Day[ZOOMotional Support is the entry of Martha and Heather Day, a mother-and-daughter playwriting team, in the Summit, New Jersey, playwriting “bake-off,” Martha is a close...
View Article"Portrait of a Mentor"
by Alan Geller[Theater is ephemeral, and many theater workers leave little behind, except perhaps in the memories of those who associated with them. On the web it’s sometimes easier to find...
View ArticleActing Class (On-Line Edition)
by Kirk Woodward[The coronavirus and COVID-19have changed almost everything about our lives. In addition to their effect on our health and livelihoods, it has invaded the arts as well. Just about...
View ArticleGoiânia, Brazil, 1987
Most of us have heard the names Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. If you’re old enough, you probably even remember the incidents that made those names famous—or infamous.Both names are locations of...
View Article