Philip Pullman’s 'His Dark Materials'
by Kirk Woodward[Frequent ROT contributor Kirk Woodward returns now with a slightly different piece of writing. In “Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials,” he gives us a critical analysis of the fantasy...
View Article"Decorum in the Digital Age"
by Philip Kennicott[On 11 February 2014, I posted an article by ROT contributor Kirk Woodward called “Reflections On Theater Etiquette” in which my friend discussed some of the ways that performers...
View ArticleJumpers for Goalposts
The final play in my series at Washington, D.C.’s Studio Theatre was Tom Wells’s Jumpers for Goalposts, a U.S. première. I caught the official opening performance in Studio’s Metheny Theatre, the...
View Article"What Were They Thinking?"
by John Kelley[I’ve been visiting the Washington, D.C., area for a while lately. As many ROTters know, I’m a native Washingtonian and my mother lives here. It’s hard to avoid the many monuments and...
View ArticleDispatches from Israel 4
by Helen Kaye[My friend Helen, who writes for the Jerusalem Post, has sent me three short reviews on recent productions in Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva. Helen’s reviews, though the paper only gives her a...
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Some Of That Jazz
by Kirk Woodward[Once again Kirk Woodward, my friend and a frequent contributor to ROT, comes back to the blog with a new piece of writing. Returning to one of his strongest interests, music, Kirk...
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Home Alone 1
[As I reported in “An American Teen in Germany, Part 1,” posted on 9 March 2013, my dad became a Foreign Service Officer in June 1962 and was assigned to the directorship of the Amerika Haus in...
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Home Alone 2
[This is the second installment of three in the collection of correspondence from my father to my mother in the month he was alone in Germany while waiting for my mom to join him. You’ll read about...
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Home Alone 3
[This is the final section of the series of letters my dad wrote home to Mom before she came to Germany to share their new life there with him. Dad makes some observations about the Germans that might...
View ArticleSimon Callow
by Kirk WoodwardBy now, ROTters should be very familiar with who Kirk Woodward is and why his writing appears so often on this blog. (His last piece, “Some Of That Jazz,” was posted on 7 June.) This...
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'What I Did Last Summer'
For A. R. Gurney’s second Residency One production, the Signature Theatre Company is presenting a revival of his 1983 play, What I Did Last Summer. (Gurney’s first Signature production was The Wayside...
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'The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek'
Because of personal scheduling problems, I had to postpone the final two productions of the 2014-15 season at the Signature Theatre Company, originally booked for late May. When I got back to New York...
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Contemporary American Theatre Festival (2004)
[This year’s Contemporary American Theatre Festival, CATF’s 25th season, will run from 10 July to 2 August in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. I went to the festival 11 years ago with my mother and wrote...
View ArticleWilliam Zinsser on Writing: Harnessing the World We Live In
William Zinsser, the esteemed writing teacher, died in Manhattan on 12 May. I never met Zinsser, but he nevertheless had a profound influence on me and my life. I knew him only through his book On...
View ArticleThe Beatles’ Influence
by Kirk Woodward[My friend Kirk Woodward is back again with another contribution to ROT—his latest installment of his ad hoc series on the Beatles and their hold on him over the years. Those of you...
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Some Of That Jazz
by Kirk Woodward[Once again Kirk Woodward, my friend and a frequent contributor to ROT, comes back to the blog with a new piece of writing. Returning to one of his strongest interests, music, Kirk...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Home Alone 1
[As I reported in “An American Teen in Germany, Part 1,” posted on 9 March 2013, my dad became a Foreign Service Officer in June 1962 and was assigned to the directorship of the Amerika Haus in...
View Article'On the Town'
Wanna see a T. rex fossil dance? How ’bout a clan of cavemen? Then head down to the Museum of Natural History. No, not the one in Central Park at 79th Street—the one at the Lyric Theatre on 42nd...
View ArticleDispatches from Spain 9
by Rich Gilbert[My friend Rich Gilbert has sent an e-mail from Pamplona, where he and Sallie went after leaving Madrid. (Yes, he ran with the bulls.) They’ll be traveling, first in Spain and then...
View ArticleWilliam Zinsser on Writing: Harnessing the World We Live In
William Zinsser, the esteemed writing teacher, died in Manhattan on 12 May. I never met Zinsser, but he nevertheless had a profound influence on me and my life. I knew him only through his book On...
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