Theatre – Page 4 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Winning Night for The Lehman Trilogy

A winning team takes home awards for The Lehman Trilogy.

It was a big night for Playhouse on the Square and our production of The Lehman Trilogy in Memphis. Nominated for seven Ostrander Awards, an annual award celebrating excellence in theatre, we won four: Set Design, Leading Actor, Overall Production, and I was honored with an award as Director. POTS also took home a number of awards for other productions as well.

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We had a more than one blast getting the gang back together over the weekend before, during and after the awards event. Lots of reminiscing. Lots of fun. Lots of “we have to do this again” conversations. And we do.

On the big night, I can’t beign to describe how much joy I felt watching John Maness, Michael Gravois and Kevar Maffitt win the award for Leading Actor as a trio. These three gentlemen tackled a unique challenge and did indeed blend into one and it would have been impossible to single out one from another. It was a terrific way to acknowledge this unique collaboration.

All in all it was a great night for celebrating that rare achievement when you create an amazing piece of theatre and an amazing bond in one of those rare experiences that don’t come around that often and is more than just another show.

Bravos and Kudos to all!

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

From James Joyce to finger painting, some Apple spoiling, some Peter Falk, some politics and what will the LLMs spit out next?

“Every life is many days, day after day.” But Sundays are for reading. Here’s a mix of politics, tech, and culture into what I hope is a tasty smorgasbord of good writing and good reading. Also some good fun. Enjoy this edition of Sunday Morning Reading.

There aren’t many areas of interest I follow that don’t seem to be fraught with tension and turmoil these days. Apple, its technology and business practices, is certainly one of those. One of the best recent pieces I’ve read on how the tides of popular and populist opinion may be shifting against the folks in Cupertino is one written by Matt Birchler. Check out Is This The Slow Decline of Apple’s “Cult”?

This is a terrific read and a terrific piece of theatre and entertainment history. Wayne Lawson’s When Peter Falk Was My Roommate, and Theater Ruled NYC is a trip down a memory lane most of us probably never were aware of.

Joan Westenberg takes a look look at The Bruised Egos of the Intellectual Narcissists that want to populate our thoughts. Joan also takes a good look at Truth Social, Twitter and the Loneliest Reich.

David Todd McCarty thinks we should rekindle some of what we lost as we pass through the years and recommends borrowing a four-year-old to help us see the world through their eyes in Finger Painting Through Life.

On the politics front, Marc Elias is doing the work for us all in his legal efforts to secure voting rights and the all important counting and certifying of the vote. Best piece of political news I’ve heard this week is that Elias has joined the Harris campaign’s legal team. Check out The Fight To Certify Elections Has Already Begun. We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

Perhaps you remember when the Nord Stream Pipeline exploded earlier in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Bojan Pancevski gives us one helluva story in A Drunken Evening, A Rented Yacht: The Real Story of the Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage.

It’s easy to think this tempest of a political moment we’re in is something that’s suddenly sprung upon us. Aaron Timms reminds us that it’s been brewing for awhile in The Decade That Mangled The American Right.

Artificial Intelligence may be losing some of its luster as its purveyors continue to lust after our data. For those who enjoy seeing this play out, Aaron Drapkin gives us AI Gone Wrong: A List of AI Errors, Mistakes and Failures. I wonder how the LLMs will incorporate Drapkin’s work and spit it back out.

If you don’t recognize the quote that begins this week’s Sunday Morning Reading, perhaps Natasha MH gives us a clue in her piece Reading James Joyce Ulysses Will Be Fun, They Said. Tackling Joyce may or may not be worse than a trip to the dentist, but you can risk being “embalmed in spice of words.”

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Sunday Morning Reading

On the road this weekend, but regardless here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

David Todd McCarty tells us that he felt the Earth move last weekend when Biden stepped away from his candidacy and endorsed Kamala Harris. He’s not the only one who felt the ground shifting under his feet.

Thomas Zimmer says Kamala Harris May Force A Reckoning. Here’s hoping she does and we do.

Joan Westenberg takes on the Macro-Morons with Micro-Vision. She’s talking about the VCs greedily bankrolling Trump. All I can say is at least they are being open about the destruction they hope to cause.

Politics is synonymous with lying. Actually for most living is synonymous with lying. Maria Popova dives into Lying In Politics by talking about Hannah Arendt On Deception, Self-Deception, and The Pyschology of Defactualizataion.

Perhaps you have, perhaps you haven’t heard of the Federal Theatre Project. Regardless you might not have heard of Martin Dies. Check out A Texas Congressman Wrote the Cuiture War Playbook When He Killed a 1930s Theater Program by Courtney Thomas. Yup, there’s nothing new under the sun.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: Showered with Nominations In Awards Season

Great recognition for a wonderful team of theatre artists for a special production.

Well this is exciting news. Our production of The Lehman Trilogy at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis was nominated in seven categories for The Ostrander Awards. As always any recognition is more than appreciated, but when you have a special production with a special team it is even more special.

Nominated from our team include:

Iza Bateman for Props

J. David Galloway for Scenic Design

Rachel Lauren for Lighting Design

Joshua Crawford for Sound Design

Myself for Direction

Myself and our Stage Manager Emma White for Production

And in a terrific nod to the three amazing actors who carried the load, John Maness, Michael Gravois and Kevar Maffitt were nominated not as an ensemble but together as one Leading Actor in a play. That may not make much sense if you don’t know the show, but these three amazing talents literally became inseparable as one in creating the hundreds of characters that fill this challenging piece of theatre. I can’t think of a finer way to honor the incredible performances they gave and the amazing work it took to get there.

Kudos to all involved as well as all of the other nominees. Thanks to the Ostrander folks for the recognition and thanks to the great folks at Playhouse on the Square for the opportunity for us to tell this amazing story. We’ll find out if we won anything on August 26th.

Photo above by Sean Moore.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Ghostlight Is a Must See

One of the best films of the year.

Perhaps it’s because I’m an old theatre hand who knows all the tricks of the trade in what some consider the world’s second oldest profession. Perhaps it’s because I’m just an old guy trying to figure out the ups and downs of life. Either way, the film Ghostlight touched a nerve. It is one terrific story that uses the magic, hilarity, and hubris of making theatre to help tell an unerring tale of humans dealing with a grief so profound it can take your breath away, while breathing abundant life and delivering layers of complexity into a remarkably simple and well told story.

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Ghostlight is a tender and intimate independent film featuring a family dealing with their grief after the suicide of a son and brother. By accident, the struggling blue collar father stumbles into participating in a small town community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. Eventually his family also folds into the production, while he stumbles further into playing Romeo.

It might sound like something out of the Mischief Theatre Company’s misadventures with the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and The Play That Goes Wrong, but this little backstage adventure takes a different tack to find its way into your heart.

The story takes its time unfolding and revealing its mysteries with great care and surprise. And the surprises are many. The cast is superb and the direction is sublime. Ghostlight is in limited distribution in art houses currently but deserves a wider audience, which I hope it finds once it begins to stream.

If you get the chance or can make one, this is one to see. I expect this to end up on many best of the year lists.

A couple of side notes: The three leads playing the family are a family in real life, adding yet another layer to this marvel. Also, as a Chicago theatre practitioner it was great to see so many Chicago faces in the ensemble all doing remarkable work.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading: Travel Day

Sunday Morning Reading is taking the week off as I depart Memphis and head back home to Chicago. A new Sunday Morning Reading will be back next week. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to read this Sunday morning, you might want to check out this excellent review of The Lehman Trilogy, the show I just directed at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. Sounds like we did it right, at least in this reviewer’s mind.

See you next Sunday.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: Pure Adrenaline

Adrenaline is a funny thing. It can drive you further and faster. Call it a high. Stories are legion of an adrenaline rush giving folks superhuman-like powers in extreme circumstances. But the bill always comes due once the rush is over and the crash happens.

I’m rehearsing this beast of a play, The Lehman Trilogy, while suffering a bit with a pulled groin. Yeah, that slows you down. During the day I do my usual treatments to ease the pain and get around as best I can doing a bad Walter Brennan impression. I’ve had this problem before so there’s a ritual and a regime. But in the moments before rehearsals begin I feel things easing up and never notice it at all once we commence and push through rehearsal.

One of the characters in the play ends a monologue with the following:

LEHMAN CORPORATION. Created by Philip Lehman.

Pure finance.

Invest money only to make money. No companies to fund.

No industries to launch. No markets to explore. Pure money.

Pure adrenaline

Well, we all know how that ended.

Sure enough, once rehearsal ends though I pay for it as the pain comes back bit by bit and so it’s back to the ritual. Unitl the next rehearsal. Probably not healthy to be doing things the way I am, but hey, we open a week from tonight.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome and check out The Lehman Trilogy Diaires here.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: Jacks of All Trade

When you’re in school (which was ages ago for me) learning your craft and finding out if you have a voice worth sharing as a theatre director, no one teaches you many of the lessons you will one day need to apply in doing what you love. I’m guessing that applies to most pursuits in life. There are times though that can try your patience unless you were brought up with a father like mine who taught you how to deal with the crazy curve balls that get thrown at you from plumbing to staying warm to how to navigate unexpected weather disruptions.

As I sit here this morning in this lovely Southern town beset by the vagaries of winter, compounded with the already slower rhythms native to the region, we’re having lots of fun trying to keep The Lehman Trilogy ship sailing along. Winter weather is playing havoc with all the usual fun things that come with it: icy conditions, burst pipes, power outages, travel and delivery woes, and a pulled groin from bailing water from one of those burst pipes. I’m not blaming anyone for the choices they are making. Life sucks here for most right now and folks have to make their own choices.

Fortunately, we’re reasonably self-contained as an ensemble and have kept our work on course as we head into technical rehearsals this weekend. I’m sure (hope?) we’ll find our footing and head into next weekend’s opening in good shape. Things usually work out that way in this game.

Onward

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome and check out The Lehman Trilogy Diaries here.

The Lehman Trilogy Diaries: A Show Finds Its Home

We spent the weekend taking the stage for the first time in rehearsals for The Lehman Trilogy here at Playhouse on the Square. What a joyful and glorious weekend of rehearsals it was.

Pictured above is me (on the right) with this astounding cast, Michael Gravois, Kevar Maffit, and John Maness. We’re all smiling because we’re really enjoying this process. These three are putting their all into this beast of a play. Their roles require as much work as if they were each doing Hamlet.. They are rising to the challenge and then some.

Let me tell you it’s not often that you feel this joyful at this point (transferring from the rehearsal room to the stage), but the work is so good, so rich, so fun, and most importantly so collaborative that there’s no other way to express it. The other day I wrote about my fears of missing the intimacy of the rehearsal room before we moved. Well that intimacy transferred right along with our props and all those bankers boxes. That’s rare. The four of us, plus our stage manager, Emma White, continue to experience the work and the story almost like we don’t want each day to end. That’s a bit silly of me to say because we push each other so hard that by the time we call it a day we’re exhausted.

The best part of our transfer from the rehearsal room to the stage is that a good 85% of our work translated intact. Often in that kind of space shift you lose quite a bit. That 85% has allowed us to continue advancing the story instead of spending time adjusting what we wanted to do to new realities.

Don’t get we wrong. We’ve still got a long way to go as we begin adding the technical artistry. Those technical elements are behind so we’re working to keep the cast focused on their part of the story telling and getting a little ahead before the inevitable begins.

Today is our final day off before opening so we’ll get a brief breather. Then onward.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome and check out The Lehman Trilogy Diaries here.

Sunday Morning Reading

Winter is bearing down on big portions of the U.S. Some places are already digging out. I’m in one of the former portions (Memphis) that doesn’t handle it well. So today, Sunday Morning Reading will contain less links than usual. We’re rushing to get things accomplished before folks anticipate a rough time (or a snow day) in this old southern town. But don’t rush through these links.

As for winter, Zoë Schalnger has a good piece up about The Threshold at Which Snow Starts Irreversibly Disappearing. Given deadlines and what’s impending here I sort of wish it never would appear, but that’s not the point of this article.

U.S. Politics may be a hot topic, but not enough to defeat Old Man Winter in Iowa where the first caucus will be held tomorrow for apparently no reason. The debate also rages on about the 14th Amendment. This piece from Jason Linkins, The Fourteenth Amendment Scolds Abetting Trump’s Return, turns up the heat on that issue and the media that keeps screwing up the coverage.

Natasha MH, talks about school reunions in The United States of Reunion. Great piece about the inner conflicts they can dredge up.

Smart is Not Always Wise. I concur. So does David Todd McCarty who penned this piece.

And for those who come here for a little tech, check out John Siracusa’s take on Artificial Intelligence entitled I Made This. Well worth your time.