Walking from my house to BAM the other night I happened upon this astounding sculpture. I was amazed mostly because the work appeared so official in its construction, so sponsored, yet there was no bronze plaque attached to the base identifying and claiming authorship. It turns out to be what I had hoped it would be. “portraits and monuments celebrating our cities marginalized workforce” A subtle, brilliant piece of culture jamming by Specter, aka Gabriel Reese. Since 1995 I have…

Read More Read More

Recently there was a long thread of conversation on the dramaturg listserv on how literary departments should respond to rejected playwright submissions. I decided to explore Twitter as a new art form within this topic. I use the 140-character restriction after the fashion of restrictions that iambic pentameter or haiku pose. I posted the following Tweets (and revisions) to the list. Daily Twitter Submission (First Draft) Word Count N/A Characters (no spaces) 120 Characters (with spaces) 149 I hate reading…

Read More Read More

I have not posted recently because I have been busy helping artistic directors Gabriele Schafer and Melanie Dreyer prepare our theatre’s new website. Thieves Theatre exists now only as historical archive and as practicing aesthetic under its new identity as International Culture Lab. Nothing sad in the retirement of the name; we had long ago evolved out its confines. Also the cultural and political climate in this country is no longer conducive to our earlier explorations disrupting the status quo….

Read More Read More

The developed actor’s dramaturgy is different in nature from that of the script. Words are meant to be spoke, spat, sung, and danced in theatre, not written and read. Yet the written/read text, the play, has evolved into the author(ity), the alpha and omega, of most theatre produced in this country. Ice Cream for Breakfast Whenever I dwell for any length of time exclusively in the physical study of performance, a strange third eye opens. The body returns to its…

Read More Read More

I’m off to butoh study for the next couple weeks in the boondocks of Germany northeast of Berlin. Gaby will be guest blogging at Rat Sass. Gaby is producer of the New York Butoh Festival. She is also in the process of forming a NYC based international theatre company stemming from her current project with an ensemble of German and American theatre artists. Interesting to note that 36% of the city’s population is foreign-born. Couple this with the city’s other…

Read More Read More

Scott, with assistance from Mac, has successfully beaten the dead horse to death again. Six weeks ago in a post I characterized the meme that animates the hoary horse’s life-like twitching at its ritualistic floggings. “In historical retrospect we know that many of the urban v. rural and North v. South tensions of the American Civil War were still erupting during the Tombstone era in 1880. Interesting how this is only slightly different in species from the New York v….

Read More Read More

A recent post by Mac Rogers started me thinking about the reason and nature of blogging itself. As Isaac would say, read some Hunka, then read some Walters. Both, I fear, showcase two of the leading lights of the theatrosphere with their powers a bit under a cloud, but it’s interesting to think about why. If there is a literary form that certain blog posts in the theatrosphere have come to resemble, it is the epistle. In a similar way…

Read More Read More

Scott Walters opened an interesting discussion awhile back about new tribalism and theatre centering his reading of a section from Daniel Quinn’s book Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure. The discussion became the subject of numerous posts in the theatrosphere. Don Hall picked up on it as did Slay. Isaac asking about the sense of community amongst artists in a particular area is a parallel question. In Scott’s follow-up post he seems to have come to a conclusion on the…

Read More Read More

Nick has been choreographing Gabriele Schafer in her role as artistic director of Thieves Theatre for 26 years. In preparation for the Pretentious Festival, for the past six years he has been traveling and researching the most important physical theatre methods on earth, especially butoh. Through his study with such masters as Atsushi Takenouchi, Yukio Waguri, Akira Kasai, Diego Pinon, SU-EN, and Minako Seki, he has now realized his masterwork. Gabriele Schafer performs Gertred/Ghost in The Ghost of Hamlet’s Flesh….

Read More Read More

Scott has established a new “code of ethics” for posting and commenting within his domain. His call for Law and Order reminds of certain memes traceable back to the Old West that are embedded deep within our American character. Reminiscent of how the infamous Earp brothers once banned all six-guns and other firearms from entering the city limits of Tombstone, Scott stipulates that bloggers check their “virtual fisticuffs” at the door to Theatre Ideas. The townsfolk, especially womenfolk bloggers like…

Read More Read More

First and foremost Scott Walters is a teacher, but in that capacity, he is also a director of student productions at University of North Carolina at Asheville. Last semester he directed and blogged with his students Philadelphia Story. Scott’s blog posts at Theatre Ideas are filled with Advice to the Players concerning the “fixes” necessary to cure our national theatre. These blog entries are always well researched and knowledgeable but also tinged with that patronizing posture of “the teacher.” He…

Read More Read More

Words become their own being. Once they have left the body of their creator, they begin an existence of their own. They exercise their free will. Some will become fighting words. Soldiers in a war that is as old as mankind. Our fate, as well as the fate of others, is often a function of the words we distribute in the world. The butoh masters explore our bodies elementally as flesh in the manner of alchemists, schooling us in the…

Read More Read More

I wish I could pour a bottle of water on the New York Magazine blog that misrepresents my writing about Mike Daisey. “And debate still rages over the Mike Daisey affair! Nick from Rat Sass thinks Mike staged a walkout from his own play for the publicity. “ Actually I wish I could drink a bottle of water, bodily process the liquid, and go piss on the author’s shoes. Of course I could probably be charged with assault, but I…

Read More Read More

Publication is instantaneous. So blogging means that there is no Editor between you and your readers unless you place one there. Boal’s term, Cop-in-the Head. I know I am on to something if I begin to experience that distinct trepidation that occurs when my writing begins leading me, instead of me leading it. The Cop-in-the Head is also known as the Peer Panel. I never really completely recognize the authority I have allowed the Peer Panel to assert over my…

Read More Read More

Matthew and Mac do to some measured analysis of the blog fracas stemming from the Mike Daisey incident. Mike receives a perceptive take on the incident itself from old friend and the discussion at Scott’s blog examines the event in a similar vein. Gut reactions are natural, but this is where the conversation belonged from the beginning. Meanwhile, there’s now also a copycat stalker, Floyd, for Mike Daisey to track down and give a talking to. What Mike Daisey tapped…

Read More Read More

A dramaturg in Nashville informs me that that there are seven strong university theater programs in his city: Belmont, Fisk, Vanderbilt, Trevecca, Tennessee State University, Lipscomb and MTSU. Together these programs are training around 250-300 young actors. He wants to cure Nashvillians of the brainwashing which has resulted from focusing inordinate attention on atheletes at the university level. As theater editor of the Tennessee Style Magazine, he believes that if he can garner public recognition and support for student actors,…

Read More Read More

I have exhausted my exploration and research. I have grown weary of my vagina studies. This is my final chapter on the subject. Like my study, the above Amazon poll on Valentine’s Day has also just ended. Turns out that these poll results were not even as close as the last two Presidental elections. The clear majority has voted Love Stinks. But it’s nice to know that which ever way you voted, there was a shopping link available to you….

Read More Read More

Harry Potter’s pubic goes public and a white guy in Chicago is angry about it, although we are not sure why. But the media frenzy suggests he is not alone. Elsewhere Tboy is asking for the girl’s name for the boy’s name of that which is unnamable on a 17-year-old. Daniel Radcliffe will shed his child actor image with his clothes for his West End stage debut. Sixty people from the audience will actually be seated on stage when the…

Read More Read More