[This is the fifth post in a month-long series on stage decking and platforming. Check out this article in the December issue of Stage Directions, as well as this discussion forum.]

Over the last few weeks I’ve…

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) US President, Lawyer

As I work through my career I find that I expend more of my time educating others and participating in…

This past year I wrote a playwriting work plan for the first time and it is most definitely a practice I intend to continue. And as this year draws to a close I am assessing my work for the past year while simultaneously developing my 2012 playwriting work plan.



What’s a playwriting work plan? Well, it’s a living document (living because I can add to it and amend it throughout the year) that helps me keep track…

It's time for another blog on the production side of theater! Today's topic: time.

In 2009, I got to travel to St. Petersburg, Russia to study and see theater for two weeks. In 2011, a student group from Moscow, Russia came to CalArts and shared a piece they had developed, and a handful of students got to create a workshop piece with the GRITIS students afterwards.

One of the coolest parts of these experiences was getting to see a shared aesthetic sense…

If you are anything like me, you’ve probably given thought to developing New Year’s Resolutions for theater. Looking back, I think we can all agree that 2011 was a tumultuous year. Economically, politically and weather-wise, our world is changing. How we respond to those changes will determine what our experiences will be in 2012.

Creating realistic New Years Resolutions confounds most people. I admit, I’m no expert. I tend to create goals on the fly. It enables me to stay in the…

Happy Holidays!

During my sparse vacation, I've had wireless mics on the brain coming off of a musical, and gearing up for a straight play that will be using at least 2 mics during it's run - in a addition to several hits on my old posts so - for my last post of 2011 I thought I'd share some additional tips and ideas on wireless microphones - some my own brain children as well as those I've run across lately.

Because I've been using wireless mics for years, I…

Our company specialises in collaboration both within and across artform. Although the main cohort of theatremakers are from Scotland, at any given time we've never had less than 4 nationalities in the Poorboy Ensemble and I'm beginning to learn that working with different languages and culture is no great challenge compared to working with different individuals' understanding of the word 'collaboration'.

It's been an education for me to learn that when we run 'Poorboy…

[This is the fourth post in a month-long series on stage decking and platforming. Check out this article in the December issue of Stage Directions, as well as this discussion forum.]

As I discussed last week, a…

They call it Show Business, so why do we treat it like a luxury? If not for the audience, we would not have purpose. If not for the audience’s money, we would not have a portion of our funding. For the hard-liners out there that are trying to eliminate the governments’ contribution to the arts, there is continual plotting and planning about how to make us survive solely upon what we can raise at the box office or…

Not long ago, my wife and I took our son to get his first haircut. When we were trying to figure out where to take him, we sent a note to our neighborhood email list asking for recommendations. A significant number of the respondents suggested a place called Cartoon Cuts that caters to the needs of children. Oddly, though, a great many of those recommendations also indicated that the place was nuts -- screaming, videos, loud noises, bright lights. Despite how horrible it was, they seemed to…

It's Monday Tuesday, as apparently vacation means I forget how to count days. This week we reflect on burgers and the Bard.

One of the last events this semester for the MFA2's at CalArts was a workshop with Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Scott Kaiser on our monologues. The workshop was great and a great way to end the semester, as Scott's method of working…

Dear Husband:

I am a self proclaimed practical sound designer - who likes sound to be realistic as well as accurate as possible. I'm also interested in authenticity - I want shows to be presented in plausible terms. Unless your producing a work of science fiction, complete farce or a piece of absurd theatre, I want the details to add up, for the plot, the characters, the action, setting, etc. to be possible (if not probable.) Historical fiction doesn't necessarily have to be 100% accurate for me, but by…

UPDATE! Congrats, Rick Strader and everyone at Northwest Nazarene University. Their photo (shown at left) was voted as the best Godspell picture. Congrats, Rick, and thanks everyone for nominating photos and voting!

Alright! Here are the nominees for the Godspell photo…

[This is the third post in a month-long series on stage decking and platforming. Check out this article in the December issue of Stage Directions, as well as this discussion forum.]

The typical 2x4…

How long does the Godspell Photo Contest last? As soon as I figure out how to get photos incorporated into our new webpage I will certainly submit the link and enter.

Sometimes, it is hard to imagine running our own theater space as many of you do. It is so easy to just load-in to the venue; load-out and pay the rent. We don't have to worry about paying utilities, stocking toilet paper etc. However, we do have to put up with inferior light and sound capabilities; lack of…

Not exactly sure how to jump in here and become involved, but here goes something -- My theatre company, the Punxsutawney Theatre Arts Guild, just had its Annual Dinner & Show Ceremony where we thanked the cast, staff & crew of the 2011 season and voted on the new 2012 season. Our organization will be starting its 37th season with Election of Officers in January.

Our productions are…

I started blogging in the summer of 2005. This was technically before I transitioned from poetry to the genre of playwriting. Back then I was a poet who had written a play. A play that had been selected for the 2005 Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

I started the blog so I could chronicle my festival experience and since then I’ve continued to journal my writing process (which comes in handy when people ask how a play…

A 19-year-old pickup truck driver involved in a deadly highway pileup in Missouri last year sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before the accident, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The driver sent six texts and received five texts, with the last text just before his pickup traveling at 55…

Prior to this blog confession, I haven't told a soul about my newest guilty pleasure. My husband is horrified. My Netflix account is now giving me recommendations for Funny Girl, Fame and Footloose rather than Hellboy and The Crow. My crew (once they read this come Tuesday) will probably loose most of their respect for me. But it's true. I have given into the odd, magnetic draw of prime time television offerings and in the past week and a half…