Says one former student, Paul Ketchum, “He knows exactly where to put pressure to release the inner playwriting beast of his students. Mac would hate this, but he’s like a fucking dramaturgical acupressure neuromancer.” Wellman talks teaching, structure (he hates it) and gossip with another former student, Eliza Bent.
Category: theatre
New Horizons In Merch: Britain’s National Theatre Brands Its Own Line Of Stage Equipment
“National Theatre-approved backstage hardware products will be developed as part of a new relationship with theatrical goods supplier Flints. The tie-up means that props and carpentry departments at the NT will test new products for Flints, including paints and other prop-making tools, which will then be given an NT ‘stamp of approval’ and carried in Flints’ catalogue.”
$200K Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award Goes To Sarah Ruhl
“Ruhl, 42, is based in Brooklyn and is the author of plays such as The Clean House, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, Passion Play and The Oldest Boy. She previously won the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant and is a Tony nominee and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.”
A Great Broadway Tradition, Lost: Sneaking In For Act Two
“There was a time when ‘second-acting’ – sneaking into a Broadway theater at intermission before the second act – was as common as the cigarette break in the middle of a musical. It was a time-honored rite of passage, practiced by generations of starving actors and students of the theater. … But today, when security is ultravigilant and shows are under pressure to sell out night after night, the practice has all but gone dark.”
Fire Closes Paris’s Mogador Theatre
The blaze began on Sunday morning (Sept. 25) under the theatre’s stage; it damaged the stage floor and scenery for the upcoming, and now postponed, production of Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.
The Payoff For Theatre That Stays Small And Local
“It seems the smaller the community, the more space there is to expand and embellish local narratives. Mixing one part fiction, one part myth, and one part truth, these narratives flourish in the festivals, parades, and plaques that have become the cultural landmarks of a city five miles north of Boston.”
When A Theatre Venue Shuts Down Suddenly In Virginia, Arts Groups Have To Scramble
“Other venues are stepping in to fill the artistic void, but many people are still expressing disappointment and doubt about the future of the downtown theater.”
The Intimate Details Of Theatre Poster Design
“I wanted something that you would look at, and without having it hit you heavily, you would understand it came from the ’20s and ’30s. We wanted to show a certain modernity that had style.”
Is This The Golden Age Of Playwriting?
“Or … is something else true? Is it actually a bear market? Is our theatre in a moment of peril?”
The Trial Of George W. Bush And An Audience’s Verdict
“Don’t worry if you didn’t know the 43rd president was on trial. This was an off-Broadway verdict, the conclusion to a new play called The Trial of an American President. The trial was fiction, but the vote, from nine members of the audience chosen to be the jury, was very real.”