We really don't care about theatre do we?

And I don't know if she's overrated as much as overlooked -- I haven't read reviews praising her symbolic role in the play. Though I would say that it adds to the scale of the play having someone outside of the family and the sheriff in the script.

Actually I do like quite naturalistic stuff with really subversive undertones. I'm not asking for people rolling around nekkid in peanut butter and jelly with flashing lights (lights, lights,lights..) screaming out 'APPLE' or nothing, I just want something a little more original.

But what are some better American plays written since 1995?

If i could afford to go I'd know, maybe.

I'm with you there. That's why I go to museums when I go to NYC.

OK, who's got an extra Polish Macbeth ticket? (I probably shdn't go anyway...)

http://www.broadway.com/Gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=569220

In the heights: tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7 - I have an extra free ticket if anyone wants it!

BUMP

haha, I thought that was a musical about Brooklyn Heights until I looked it up just now.

so i guess you don't read the arts section, huh...

lol title of thread otm

I do read it sometimes, but I kind of have a musical theatre filter.

if anyone wants to see Rock of Ages, a new 80s rock musical featuring songs of whitesnake, bon jovi, pat benetar, etc., pls to webmail me and i will send you an email with free tix details. lol. (this time you don't have to go with me, if it helps).

btw in the heights was great! and britney spears was there. a winnar is me.

i also saw A Man for All Seasons last weekend. Langella was awesome. the first act's a bit slow, but the second totally makes up for it.

YES, XP (if it doesn't suck)

these are previews tix?

I cannot attest to sucki/nonsuckiness bc I've not yet seen it. Yes, it's starting previews tomorrow (today).

but Thomas More has all the good lines in A Man for All Seasons; the drama is gamed.

he made them really clever! also we had a moment of silence for paul newman after the show. how sweet.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/homepage/pix/kafka2.jpg

Pictures like this drive everyone away from theater.

Unrelated to the photo above, I'm in the middle of directing Alan Ayckbourn's two-evening, six-hour play The Revengers' Comedies at a large state university. We open in three weeks. After years of doing storefront theater in Chicago, it's nice to be doing in a show in a 420-seat theater with all the trimmings.

tza, pls tell me about tix pls!

good luck Eazy. i'm bugging out just now designing my first stage show (production and set design) for the first scottish production (2nd in the UK) of tennesee williams' "and tell sad stories of the deaths of queens". it's just under an hour. i can't imagine the stress a six hour show would involve.

will post pics if i get any good ones. the show is sold out so i don't even know if i'll get to see it!

After reading quite a lot of plays this year I've just been reading a review of 'The Norman Conquests' and thinking about catching at least one of them for a first outing ever ever at a theatre:

http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php

(good luck jed)

cheers j.

btw, i am coming to london in november to see this:

http://www.forcedentertainment.com/?lid=1081

come and see it, i can't guarantee it will be good but i'm making the 400 mile trip to see it so you can tell i'm a fan.

Ah, Riverside Studios, keep meaning to go to their cinema.

Not knowing whether it will be good is the best recommendation, in my book. I'll be there (not sure which day)

i'm there on saturday. it would be great to see you (this time).

let me confirm that though, i didn't buy the tickets but i'm pretty sure they were for sat.

Yeah, same here - let me know..

anyone interested in seeing lucia di lamermoor tomorrow night, i can get you tix. email me.

that's lucia di lammermoor tomorrow night. lol.

I would if I didn't already have plans... next time?

I didn't know about that Norman Conquests happening at the Old Vic -- looks great.

The epic I'm working on is overwhelming at times, but it's coming together well. Main thing I've learned is that Ayckbourn knows exactly what he's doing with his stage directions, even if it's not until tech that they make perfect sense instead of just being a moment of color.

Yesterday, I saw a run-through of a stage adaptation of George Saunders's short story Jon at a theater here in Chicago. Opens in a few weeks, and it was really extrordinary.

i would have liked to see this new seagull, and also dr. atomic, but of course i'm not going to becz they're expensive and i never have any time anyway. :(
living in new york can be frustrating.

Eazy, what did you say about Dr. Atomic screenings (I think this was on a Facebook status update or something)?

I crashed Dr. Atomic at intermission in Chicago, and loved it. I figured some folks would be leaving at intermission, especially season ticket holders, and ended up getting an eleventh-row seat. That was the Peter Sellars production. The new one looks good if a bit more obvious -- I'm planning to see the live screening of it in November.

xpost!

Yeah, I would go see that with you.

Noon on the 8th in Evanston could work fine for me.

will keep you in mind, forks! i can't go tomorrow night (stupid class), but i saw this production last year and it was great. i can also attest that diana damrau sounds AMAZING. am going to doctor atomic on 10/25 (not free but whatever) and i can not wait!!!! the music is niccce.

gabb, sorry bout rock of ages! i didn't see your msg on the thread... that's why i initially said interested parties should email me (webmail me if you don't know address) so i could forward along the ticket acquiring info.

it was a pretty hilarious show in that there was a silly girl-meets-boy story line thrown together so that at key moments of heartbreak they could burst into 80s song. finally won me over about halfway through the first act with foreigner's "i want to know what love is." also, they let you drink in the theater. that helped. don't see it running too incredibly long, but former american idol contestant constantine was not bad.

also, for major lols, i am seeing mary poppins on sunday! was considering the language of trees as well, but i need more time not spent in dark rooms, i think. especially before weather is bad.

also tipsy - they have added more rush tix for all perfs of atomic (not just weeknights), so you could get orch seating for $20 or $30 if you luck out.

new production is supposedly pretty static as far as staging, but i think the music may make up for it. it is so gorgeous. the director is super nice, though! (not that that makes up for weird staging, but i think this is also her first foray into opera, having previously worked in film, so i can see how it might be easy to fall in the trap of being too static in staging if you're used to working with a camera). finley and cooke sound really great, though!

Theater folks have been e-mailing around this article from The Stranger: "Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves. The "they let you drink in the theater" above reminded me of this.

yeah, my colleagues and i keep coming back to the conversation of making theater-going an "experience" as a means to attract audiences. the babysitting idea also falls into this. Arena Stage in DC is a good example - their new facility will be much more of a 'community' w the surrounding waterfront shops, etc. some places do a 7pm "rush hour" show to get you in and out earlier on a weeknight, too.

i guess the rush hour deal is kind of the opposite of creating an "experience" but both ideas make things more accessible.

rock of ages again... email me.

Julio, saturday for definite.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/theater/29arts-LAURENGRAHAM_BRF.html?em

this is not necessarily looking promising

saw atomic last weekend. loved it. it IS kind static in the 2nd act, but i think that it sort of fits the "hurry up and wait" feel of what was happening. still gets a little difficult to watch sometimes but i kind of like the idea that it makes you uncomfortable. it's really an uncomfortable subject. anyway, i think that the music more than makes up for it, especially oppenheimer's aria at the end of act 1 (almost like baroque sighing... so f***ing gorgeous!) and the scenes with kitty (just learned the woman playing her is younger than i am, which makes me want to go jump out a window or something).

Timely revival - just this very minute off to the Old Vic to see 'Table Manners' from Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests.

hey jaymc and eazy, what is it about doctor atomic that has inspired you to commit to going to see it in the movie theater? john adams? atomic bomb? anything to do with seeing opera in the movies? i am curious... i can't get any of my friends to go see anything.

Let us know how it goes.

I thought I'd heard of Ayckbourn's name before and it finally hit this week that it was in connection to Alain Resnais, he adapted one of his plays to his last film Private Fears in Public Places. Really liked it myself but its lodged in my memory as the last time I heard a random punter act all angry at a film at the end of its screening. xp

hey jaymc and eazy, what is it about doctor atomic that has inspired you to commit to going to see it in the movie theater?

It came out of being a huge admirer of Peter Sellars, who directed the pre-Met productions of Doctor Atomic. Until the NYTimes articles a few weeks ago, I had assumed this would be his production. So that's what drew me in, but I'm still interested in seeing this new version.

Sellars understands as much as anyone alive about the fundamental nature of live theater. I heard him give a talk at the University of Chicago earlier this year and scribbled down everything I could -- typed up my notes in two parts: here and here.

Here's a camera-phone still from my current production of The Revengers Comedies:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z128/ericzieg/revengers4.jpg?t=1225481168