Ghosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions – Part 1
SUPERSTITIONSWhen my friend Kirk Woodward sent me his copy for the Rick On Theater post that became “Playwriting Bake-Off” (posted on 19 July), he included the wording of the Summit Playhouse’s rules...
View ArticleGhosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions – Part 2
MORE SUPERSTITIONS[Welcome to the second part of “Ghosts, Curses, & Charms,” the continuation of my account of the supernatural beliefs held by many theater people. (In Part 3, I shift over to...
View ArticleGhosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions – Part 3
GHOSTS[Thank you for reading “Ghosts, Curses, & Charms,” my survey of the paranormal beliefs and traditions of theater folk. I’m up to Part 3 now, the start of my accounts of some of the stories...
View ArticleGhosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions – Part 4
MORE GHOSTS[You have reached the final installment of “Ghosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions,” my series on the paranormal beliefs of theater people. The last two parts have been the...
View ArticleYo-Yo Ma on the Artist’s Role in the Time of Covid-19
[After much of the country closed down, esteemed cellist Yo-Yo Ma put out a call for artists, especially musicians, to take up a role in the struggle against the pandemic and its consequences. He...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: Eric Bentley (1916-2020)
[Readers of Rick On Theater have seen numerous references to the drama critic Eric Bentley, who died on 5 August 2020 at the age of 103. These include two full articles (“Eric Bentley – An...
View ArticleThe Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program
[On Rick On Theater, I’ve written about movicals (20 September 2013, with a supplemental post, “More on Movicals,” on 21 February 2014), the adaptations of films to stage musicals such as Carnival!...
View ArticleSome Prominent Playwrights from the Archives
BUFFALO GALby A. R. GurneyPrimary Stages, 59E59 Theaters2 September 2008Well, the 2008-09 season has opened! Seemed early to me—Labor Day hadn’t even come and gone yet—but Primary Stages, one of our...
View Article'Help!'
by Kirk Woodward[The article below, Kirk Woodward’s examination of the Beatles’ 1965 movie Help!, will be my friend’s 100th solo contribution to Rick On Theater (plus one collaboration with me). Of...
View Article"Medical professionals turn to music making as a tonic"
by Jeffrey Brown and Anne Azzi Davenport [I seem to have launched a sort of ad hoc series about the performing arts and performing artists in the time of COVID-19. I started in March and April with a...
View Article"The Theatrical Conscience of his Nation": Yuri Lyubimov (1917-2014), Part 1
[When I was researching Leonardo Shapiro, the avant-garde director on whom I’ve published a number of pieces on this blog, one of the documents I collected was an interview he did of then-Soviet...
View Article"The Theatrical Conscience of his Nation": Yuri Lyubimov (1917-2014), Part 2
[Welcome to Part 2 of my profile of Soviet-Russian director Yuri Lyubimov. As you know, if you’ve read Part 1, this segment contains an interview of Lyubimov conducted in 1990 by American...
View ArticleMark Rozovsky & The Theater at the Nikitsky Gate
[On 27 and 30 September, I published a two-part post on Yuri Lyubimov, a world-renowned Soviet and Russian stage director, that included a 1990 interview conducted by Leonardo Shapiro. That interview...
View ArticleTwo Productions by Eminent 'Auteur' Directors from the Archive
(Part 1: Play Reports)[I had intended to represent these archival play reports from my pre-Rick On Theater archive along with some inserted commentary on the two directors and their illustrious...
View ArticleTwo Productions by Eminent 'Auteur' Directors from the Archive
(Part 2: Artist Profiles)[For an explanation of the origins of this post, I refer readers to Part 1 of “Two Productions by Eminent Auteur Directors from the Archive,” published on Saturday, 10...
View Article"At this Virginia theater, the show – and the masks – must go on"
by John Yang, Alison Thoet, and Maea Lenei Buhre[On 9 October, the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, announced that ticket sales for all Broadway productions...
View ArticleSome Plays at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from the Archive
THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONYby Robert Wilson(based on Gustave Flaubert)2004 Next Wave Festival (BAM)21 October 2004 My first show in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave season this year was...
View Article"Aging & Achieving: Staying Active in the Industry for Decades"
[As long as I’ve been sentient, theater people have been protesting the treatment older people in the profession have received as they age. This has been especially, though not exclusively, true of...
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Max Beerbohm’s Theater Reviews
by Kirk Woodward [I should no longer need to explain why I post articles by my friend Kirk Woodward on Rick On Theater. First, I’ve known him for over 55 years; second, starting ROT in 2009 was...
View ArticleBackground Actors
[Background actors, often known popularly (but not professionally) as “extras,” are essential in creating the tone, mood, and atmosphere of feature films and television scenes. There are background...
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