by Robin Galen Kilrain~
Playwrights at Work: The Paris Review Interviews George Plimpton, editor
You’re familiar with their names: Beckett, Wasserstein, Shepard, Hellman, Albee and Pinter among them. And probably with the disparate styles of their plays, as well. The hows and whys leading to those end products, however, may have eluded you. Until now. It’s just [...]
Caspar Neher: Brecht’s Designer
John Willett
By Robin Galen Kilrain~
Design. Something that is often the most noticeable element in a production, crucial to the tone, look and feel of a performance, can many times receive little or no mention by critics and audience members. Set designers can feel overlooked, their major contributions to shows seemingly disappearing into [...]
by Robin Galen Kilrain
A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre
and
And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World
by Anne Bogart
Ye Bare and Ye Cubb presented in a Virginia pub in 1665, and Hair performed in Sarajevo by a Bosnian company during the height of conflict there in the early 1990s. Christo’s [...]
by Robin Galen Kilrain
An Acrobat of the Heart:
A Physical Approach to Acting Inspired by the Work of Jerzy Grotowski
Stephen Wangh
While some theatre practitioners swear by the idea of melding physical practices with the craft of acting, others don’t see the point much past blocking notes. Polish director Jerzy Grotowski was definitely in the former group, [...]
By Robin Galen Kilrain
Most people don’t immediately think of theatre books for their summer reading. Then again, if not taking classes in the art/craft of theatre, most people don’t think about them at all. If you’d like to be one of the exceptions, however, you’re in luck. It’s not too late to spend a lazy [...]
by Robin Galen Kilrain
A History of Hispanic Theatre in the
United States: Origins to 1940
Nicolás Kanellos
Zarzuela. Cuadro. Revista. If you already know what these words mean, you will doubtlessly find this book intriguing. If you don’t yet know, you’ll probably enjoy finding out. For though Nicolás Kanellos’ seminal title A History of Hispanic Theatre in the [...]
by Robin Galen Kilrain
Julie Taymor—Playing with Fire: Theater, Opera, Film
Julie Taymor, Eileen Blumenthal, and Antonio Monda
What do Bunraku and Spider-Man have in common? Julie Taymor. Yep, the director known for her use of traditional—and not-so-traditional—puppetry will be spinning the web as both director and cowriter when Spidey hits Broadway next spring. But what does she [...]
by Robin Kilrain
Editor’s Note: Robin Kilrain will be contributing a monthly column about theatre books. We welcome her to our site and look forward to reading her columns.
Before launching into my first book review for this site, let me address the elephant on the stage: why books here? Believe me, if anyone knows how much—or, [...]
