Spotted while on vacation!

From Jessica Webb...

New year, new you

The divine Adrianne Krstansky in Dan Hunter's Legally Dead

If you haven't seen our brand-spankin' new Web site, check it out. (This blog will be located there soon as well. Stay tuned.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Try this at home: DIY Tony Awards

So just a few days before we opened it occurred to me (duh) that with the repeated references to the "two Tonys" won by the main character, Charlie Sussman, he would definitely have those awards prominently on display. So where do you get a Tony? A quick Google search reveals that replicas do not exist for purchase -- copyright/trademark issues. A few of us happen to know one or two fortunate ones who have won them, but would they be likely to loan the precious objects? Not likely. The images online suggested they wouldn't be hard to build but the set/props teams were already maxed out. So I decided to take a stab myself. In a former life I actually did this sort of thing...

We start with a scrap of 1/4" plywood scavenged from the BPT shop. The first step is to cut out the crescents that hold the medallion.

McKayla is not impressed...

...by Elliot Norton Awards for Sustained Excellence, either. In case you were wondering. More...

Follow up: MM does seem to have a sense of humor about it all.

All in a day's work

Melinda Lopez and Stephen Soucy at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where Melinda taught a class last week.  (Photo: Navdeep Singh Dhillon, who says: This was the immediate reaction after I told Melinda and Stephen the punch line to my hysterical knock-knock joke.)

Knock-knock.

Who’s there?

Adolf.

Adolf who? Whom?

Adolfball hit me in the mouth, now open the bleedin’ door!

A different kind of Olympic feat

Waterfall from Surprises: Streb. (Photo: Julian Andrews)

Do you have a case of Olympic fever? I confess it: I do! Dramatic displays of strength, speed, and artistry. The thrill of victory, the agony of…okay, I’ll stop it, but I do always look forward to the Games.

Here’s a different kind of Olympic feat: Dancer/choreographer Elizabeth Streb’s Surprises: Streb, a day-long event held a few weeks ago which found dancers and acrobats interacting with London landmarks in truly unexpected ways. Take a look at the slideshow on The Daily Telegraph. One caption refers to them as “extreme dancers.” Indeed!

And as long as we’re talking about where arts meet sport: Maria Popova of Brain Pickings last week pointed the way to this Wikipedia list of Olympic medals in arts competitions (including a “Dramatic Works” category). Whoa!

The Dark Knight says...

Uh, thanks Batman.

Alexis really misses Jake

It's a good thing he's back next week! (In case you missed the previous installment...)

Ah, summer!

Our intern Alexis, with the first draft...

I am a Pirate King!

This week, The Public Theater marked the 50th anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park’s permanent home at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. IMHO, that’s as good a reason as any to join the celebration by watching Kevin Kline as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance – which bowed in the Park in 1980 before transferring to Broadway for a successful (and Tony-winning) run – right?

Try this at home

 

April is National Poetry Month, and the amazing folks at Brain Pickings (which I love -- check it out!) have been celebrating by posting book spine poems like this and this. So of course I had to see what some of my theatre books could do:

                                   Words at play
                                   Everything was possible:
                                   Crimes of the Heart, The Pillowman, Arcadia
                                   Inherit the Wind, U.S. Drag, Our Town
                                   Henry IV, Waiting for Godot, Jitney

                                   Divine fire, burning vision in their own words...wings!

By the way, today is Poem in Your Pocket Day! Fun!

Happy 448th birthday, William Shakespeare!

Here's the naked truth: It kind of sets my teeth on edge to post this here without crediting someone.   But sometimes, in our brave new [online] world, finding the creators of these things that get shared around all over the place is like a wild goose chase. Truth is, deciding whether to run this uncredited truly had me in a pickle.  If this piece is yours, and your name isn't on it, for goodness sake, let me know. Please don't say, "Off with her head!" Know that it's here because I think it's the be all/end all; this is not foul play. I have a heart of gold, and love, after all, is blind.

And what's done is done.  ;)


Alumni news tomorrow [and tomorrow and...].

The Tolo de Abril Theatre Company announces an open call for submissions

Please read the submission requirements carefully:

1) Plays must be submitted on April 31, 2012. No plays will be accepted before or after that date.

2) Plays must be unproduced, unpublished, unperformed, and actually unwritten. Any play that has even been thought about is ineligible for this festival.

3) Plays must be exactly 121.237 minutes long in performance. For the purposes of this festival, one page is equal to 1.7143 minutes.

4) No email submissions will be accepted. No regular mail submissions will be accepted. Please print 27 copies of your play on vellum and deliver by horseback to the theater. 

"Downton Arby's"

"Bess, you is my guest now!"

And then, this happened:

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