Konstantine Stanislavski Love art in yourself and not yourself in art.
Harold Clurman The stage is life, music, beautiful girls, legs, breasts, not talk or intellectualism or dried-up academics.
by Joel Elkins~
“Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
William Blake 1784
It is quite obvious from the outset that something is not quite right at the Morris household. Son Clarence (Damien Burke) sneaks in at all hours of the night. Daughter Cille (DeShawn Barnes) [...]
by Joel Elkins~
Veronika Decides to Die, like its title character, has so much potential yet frustratingly fails to realize it. The play is an original adaptation of the novel by Paulo Coelho by producer/lead actress Beth Ricketson and director Taylor Ashbrook
Ricketson first had the idea of adapting the novel for the stage [...]
by Joel Elkins~
If nothing else, Theatre West knows its audience. And doesn’t mind catering to it. Whether the play determines the audience or, as I suspect, the audience determines the play, the crowd last weekend had a definite Catskills feel, perfect for the world premiere of “Goodby, Louie . . . Hello!” [...]
by Joel Elkins~
John Stuercke claims he wrote The Berlin Dig as a reaction to the recent rise in fundamentalism in the United States and even gives credit to Sarah Palin for inspiring it. We can now add this to the list of things she has inflicted us with.
First of all, the play, [...]
by Joel Elkins
Why is “quaint” almost always used in the past tense? Does history have a tendency to homogenize and trivialize events the farther back they occurred? If so, what would it feel like now to know that in a few generations, our world will be considered “quaint” and all [...]
by Joel Elkins~
Classic period pieces will never die. At least not if the Open Fist Theatre Company has anything to say about it. Its latest attempt to keep old genres alive is Room Service, the slapstick comedy immortalized by the Marx Brothers in the 1938 film by the same name.
The story, for those [...]
by Joel Elkins~
It is said that critics at the time complained that in one of his comedies Shakespeare had stooped to the level of the masses, forsaking the high artistry of his earlier, more cerebral plays. Supposedly, in recognition of this, the bard tried to distance himself from the work by [...]
by Joel Elkins~
I hate getting sick. When I’m sick, much of what I like to do is out of the question and the rest is rendered severely less enjoyable. It was in this mood that I pulled myself out of two-and-a-half days in bed and schlepped myself to opening night of the [...]
by Joel Ellkins~
There’s no doubt Michael Altman has show business pedigree. He is the eldest son of award-winning director Robert Altman, and at the age of 14, already had written the lyrics to a movie song. The song was “Suicide is Painless” and the movie was M*A*S*H, directed by his father. [...]
by Joel Elkins~
On the way into Traveling Carnival Freakshow, now playing at the Eclectic Company Theatre, patrons are offered complimentary glasses of red wine. Given what awaits them, perhaps blotters of acid would be more appropriate.
The play, as can be expected, recreates a traveling carnival freak show. The fortune teller who [...]
