"Bigger Than Broadway!"
by Richard Zoglin A Supplement to the Regional Theater Series[Richard Zoglin’s report on the regional theater in the United States was published in Time magazine on 27 May 2003. (The text below is...
View ArticleBarbra Streisand, 2024 Life Achievement Honoree of the Screen Actors Guild
[I saw the Barbra Streisand première of Broadway’s Funny Girl (26 March 1964-1 July 1967). I don’t remember when in Streisand’s run I saw that show—she left the production in December 1965 and I saw...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 1
[When CNN announced in the early evening of Monday, 9 September 2024 that esteemed actor James Earl Jones had died that morning at 93, I immediately e-mailed my friend Kirk Woodward, a theater...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 2
[This is the second installment in my short series in tribute to James Earl Jones, the renowned actor who died at 93 on Monday, 9 September. As I explained in my introduction to the first part,...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 3
[When I received the regular e-mail from American Theatre, it included a link to an article by Phylicia Rashad. It was a memoir about her work with James Earl Jones on the Broadway revival of...
View ArticleTheater Education & Training, Part 1
[Even casual readers of Rick On Theater will probably know that theater and arts education—that is, teaching about theater and the arts, not necessarily training in the arts themselves—is of...
View ArticleTheater Education & Training, Part 2
[This is the second installment of my series of articles on theater education and training. Part 1 was posted on 3 October 2024. I recommend giving it a read before or after reading Part 2 below as...
View ArticleTheater Education & Training, Part 3
[In the third installment of my series on “Theater Education & Training,” comprised of two more articles from the “Theatre Training” issue of TCG’s American Theatre magazine, I’ll be addressing...
View ArticleTheater Education & Training, Part 4
[This is Part 4 of the “Theater Education & Training” series, and the last of the six articles I’m reposting from American Theatre. I recommend going back and reading the earlier installments of...
View ArticleZelda Fichandler (1924-2016), Part 1
[Zelda Fichandler was one of the principal pioneers of the American regional theater movement of the mid-20th-century post-World War II era. Following in the footsteps of Margo Jones (1911-55), who...
View ArticleZelda Fichandler (1924-2016), Part 2
[I say in the introduction to “Zelda Fichandler (1924-2016), Part 1” (17 October 2024) that Arena Stage was an important factor in my growing up in D.C.—it was the only professional alternative to the...
View ArticleAmerica's Culture War—Now at Your Local Theater
“WHEN THE ARTS BECOME A PARTISAN ISSUE,WE ALL LOSE”by Cristina Pla-Guzman[Cristina Pla-Guzman’s “When the Arts Become a Partisan Issue, We All Lose” was posted on American Theatre’s website on20...
View ArticleThe Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939)
[Though short-lived, the Federal Theatre Project was the largest effort by the United States Government to produce theatrical events. It was an effort of the administration of President Franklin...
View ArticleTwo Restorations
“CONSERVATORS SHINE NEW LIGHT ON IRREPLACEABLE ART”by Jared Bowen[This segment was broadcast on PBS NewsHour [now PBS News Hour] on 26 December 2014. A series of paintings created by Mark Rothko for...
View ArticleThe 24 Hour Plays
[On 6 February 2000, Kerry Eielson, a freelance writer who wrote about the Off-Off-Broadway theater for the New York Times, published the following description:By 10 o’clock on the night of Jan. 22,...
View Article"How to Survive an Election: Laugh With 'POTUS'"
by Gabriela Furtado Coutinho[Avid theatergoers are quite familiar with political plays, like Gore Vidal’s 1960 The Best Man (revived on Broadway as Gore Vidal’s The Best Man in 2012; see “Best Man” by...
View Article"A surprising number of Hollywood stars are Australian: how the country pumps...
by Jon Wertheim [When I watched this segment of 60 Minutes, the venerable CBS News magazine show, last Sunday, 17 November, I realized something. I’ve seen acting troupes from all over the world,...
View ArticlePhysical Theater
[Almost three months ago, I published a four-part series on theater education and training on Rick On Theater. One article, “It’s A Clown’s Life: Lessons From Clown School” by Lara Bevan-Shiraz, was...
View ArticleRick's Guide to New York, Part 1
A Special Installment of “A Helluva Town” [Many years ago, I compiled a visitors’ guide to New York City. I was going out of town for a short time, and the widow of one of my professors in...
View ArticleRick's Guide to New York, Part 2
A Special Installment of “A Helluva Town” [In Part 2 of “Rick’s Guide to New York,” I touch on some of Manhattan’s neighborhoods, mostly downtown near the Flatiron, and some of the “points of...
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