"The Playwright in the Age of AI"
by Jeffrey Goldberg [Back in late January, I was putting together the first of the “Odds & Ends” posts I published on Rick On Theater. I had come across “The Playwright in the Age of AI” in The...
View ArticlePeter Elbow and Freewriting
[This is a post about writing. Because it’s an homage to Pater Elbow (1935-2025), it’s also a post about teaching writing, which I did for several years at several schools in the 1980s and ’90s. I...
View ArticleTwo Passings: Peter Elbow and Athol Fugard
[Two men who had profound effects on me passed away during the past 30 days: Peter Elbow (1935-2025) was a teacher of English teachers and a professor of English composition, and Athol Fugard...
View Article"Fonda Doing Good"
[The article paying tribute to actress Jane Fonda (b. 1937), the 2024 recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award, appeared in SAG-AFTRA, the membership magazine of SAG-AFTRA, in the Digital Special...
View ArticleFilm Stars Twinkle on the Great White Way, Part 1
[Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, written around 1603-04,opened in its latest Broadway revival with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 23 March. It started previews...
View ArticleFilm Stars Twinkle on the Great White Way, Part 2
[Good Night, and Good Luck, written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov adapted from their screenplay for the 2005 film distributed by Warner Bros. and based on the career of renowned newsman Edward R....
View ArticleWhat Are “Jupiter 8,” “6000 SUX,” and “The Freeze,” and What Do They Have in...
[They are all vehicles in movies and television created by Gene Winfield (1927-2025), legendary customizer of cars for film and TV as well as private clients. He also built cars for himself for fun...
View ArticleA Theatrical Showdown
by Kirk Woodward [Kirk Woodward’s “A Theatrical Showdown” is fundamentally a report on a production in his New Jersey area of Theresa Rebeck’s 2018 play Bernhardt/Hamlet,a depiction of Sarah...
View ArticleClowning
[I confess that I’m not a huge fan of clowning (though I’ve actually performed as a clown in at least one children’s show), but I’ve covered clown performances on Rick On Theater, such as Old Hats (22...
View Article"A Pointy Reckoning": Arthur Miller's Women
by Alisa Solomon[John Proctor is the Villain opened on Broadway last Monday, the 14th, one of several new plays that provide a woman’s perspectives to the works of Arthur Miller like The Crucible,...
View ArticleMerle Oberon
“NEW BOOK ‘LOVE, QUEENIE’ CHRONICLES LIFEOF TRAILBLAZING SOUTH ASIAN ACTRESS MERLE OBERON”by Amna Nawaz and Shrai Popat [Merle Oberon (1911-79), star leading lady of filmdom in the 1930s. ’40s, and...
View ArticleDhat al-Himma – Woman of Noble Purpose
[On a June afternoon in 2019, I paid a visit to MoMA PS1 across the East River in Long Island City, Queens, to which I’d never been. Established in 2000 as the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition space...
View Article"The Arts and the Battle for the Soul of Civilization"
by Dr. Indira Etwaroo [The arts are at a crossroads. I’ve blogged about the theater in crisis, especially the regional repertory companies, but this post is about all the arts, which Dr. Indira...
View ArticleA Treasure Waiting to be Found
[On the CBS News New York (WCBS; Channel 2 in New York City) evening broadcast on 7 May, I watched a story that piqued my curiosity. It was slugged “Hidden Treasures found during reconstruction of...
View ArticleDegrading the Arts (Redux)
[On 13 August 2009, I posted “Degrading the Arts” on Rick On Theater, the first of several articles I would post on the Culture War on the arts and creative expression in the United States. At that...
View Article