In honor of our RAISIN CYCLE plays and the conversation they knit around the palimpsest of RAISIN IN THE SUN, check out this marvelous instance of textual “riffing.”
(via egoetschius)
The Thaumaturgy Department
thaumaturg
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
RACE - THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION
Transcript from episode 1 (of 3) in a brilliant series of conversations & videos from California Newsreel. Well worth the perusal. Here, they’re informing the conversation around upcoming Raisin Cycle.
BOSLEY’S BACK! Tomorrow night. Post-show. 9:30pm. 1st floor lobby. Bar’s open.Guys, they’re awesome. 1950s rock & roll, with an awesome entertainer at the helm.And the drinks are oh-so-cheap. What’s not to like?
Check out the music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjwGDVjlX8o and then come.
Cheers,Kellie
BOSLEY - SHARPSHOOTER OFFICIAL VIDEO (by BosleyVideo)
Marisa Wegrzyn’s MUD BLUE SKY explores unlikely friendships. As prodturg Kellie Mecleary shows in her program piece. But here is a remarkable short video that shows a score* of unlikely friendships forging, in real life, right before our eyes. So unlikely, yet so ordinary. Hard to imagine, and right at hand.
*not using “score” with any pretense of numerical or linguistic accuracy…
#CSMud #newplay @howdymarisa
I couldn’t stop smiling
This made me smile so much.
This is amazing.
(via natrosehillbilly)
Would you be surprised if I told you that, according to the Bechdel Test website, only 5 of IMDB’s Top 250 passed all three Bechdel criteria in 2010? Are we really asking too much of the film industry to include two women, who talk to eachother, about something besides a man? Surely this is the bare minimum of female representation we should expect from films. Women populate more than half of the world and yet we are still so often consigned to being the ‘love interest’ whose lives centre wholly around the male protagonist even to the point where the majority of mainstream films in our cinemas seem to find it impossible, in their entire run-time, to imagine a world in which a woman conducts a conversation that is not about a man.
It’s important to note that just because a film passes the test (or does not), that does not necessarily make it feminist (or not feminist). However, it is a useful gage and is a wheel-turner for other critical questions and thinking.
For a great example of this working in practice, check out Marisa Wegrzyn’s spanking-new play, MUD BLUE SKY, at centerstage!
#CSMud #newplay
(via egoetschius)
Teaser for MUD BLUE SKY
charming hand-drawn trailer for Marisa Wegrzyn’s MUD BLUE SKY, about to premiere at centerstage in baltimore. #newplay
Preserving (and Protecting) Pride of Place
A short reflection on Chicago’s historic bungalows - in light of RAISIN IN THE SUN, CLYBOURNE PARK, and BENEATHA’S PLACE (collectively the RAISIN CYCLE at CENTERSTAGE). #CSRaisin
Fun with White Privilege, as we get ready to start rehearsals Monday for #CSRaisin. That would be rep cast productions of Norris’ CLYBOURNE PARK and Kwei-Armah’s brand new BENEATHA’S PLACE, both alternative responses in conversation with Hansberrry’s gorgeous original classic, RAISIN IN THE SUN. So there.
lightening the mood…
fairly serious finance committee meeting, full of portent and ponderous prognostication, gets injected and infected with levity when - for a bet to benefit the theater - one trusty trustee enters with his hair teased and dyed to honor the hometown Ravens. well done, Ken, well done.
50!
Getting ready to blow out the blazing conflagration in celebration of CENTERSTAGE’s 50th anniversary.
While the whole year marks our semi-centennial celebration, by all accounts today, January 22, was our first official public event. So here’s to 50 more!
Gauntlet thrown, challenge issued
B’more to face San Fran in super Harbowl, wagers must follow… CS vs ACT!
“Dear Carey and Ellen,
Well, it has finally come to this. After years of friendly coexistence and mutual love and respect, you are now the sworn enemy.
The match has assumed Shakespearean dimensions.
Brother versus brother.
Long lost cousin versus better branch of the family.
Poe’s legacy versus the diggers of the Gold Rush.
Right coast versus left, and good versus evil.
Colleague versus colleague.
All riding on the fateful outcome of the Harbowl.
We proudly wager a dozen of our vaunted Faidley’s Maryland crab cakes against whatever you can rustle up to approximate that - if you dare.
Defiantly yours,
Kwame and Stephen”
Arriving in Baltimore for a “Hot Desk” residency at CENTERSTAGE. My original flight was cancelled due to fog. Next morning, it still lingers. Fog is such a fascinating phenomenon. How incredible that, with all our technology and innovation, something as simple and insubstantial as fog can bring everything to a halt. A humbling reminder that, no matter how far we advance, some things will always be beyond our control.
weather-inspired reflections from playwright nathan davis on his trip to centerstage/baltimore
Pie Lab is coming!
Feels like there have been a lot of “lab” type events lately, huh? Well none quite as special (or tasty) as this one…
CENTERSTAGE is proud to announce a special FREE Pie Lab on Sunday, December 16 at 7 pm at Liam Flynn’s Ale House.
Bring your best pie to be judged by our panel of three expert judges. Mix and mingle with the Bus Stop cast, enjoy your favorite pint, and savor a slice (or more!) of homemade pie.
The winner of the pie contest will win a CENTERSTAGE Gift Pack (4 tickets to any production this season!). All attending can enter to win tickets to Bus Stop. Our fabulous cut-outs of Bo and Cherie from Bus Stop will be in attendance for photo-ops and tunes for the evening will be provided by Baltimore band Her Fantastic Cats.
If you want show off your pie-baking skills register to participate in the pie contest by emailing Heather (hjackson@centerstage.org) your name and the type of pie you intend to bring by this Friday, December 14 at noon.
RSVP to the event on Facebook and share the event to help spread the word. Follow event happenings with #CSPie on Twitter and Instagram.
Visit www.centerstage.org for more details.
Box Office: 410.332.0033 | boxoffice@centerstage.org
Another Pub Lab… Get Your Poe On!
Here comes another one, all Poe and just in time for Halloween.
Pub Lab: Single Carrot Theatre’s The Poe Project
Sunday, November 4th, 7pm, Liam Flynn’s Ale House 22 W. North Ave
Single Carrot Theatre’s The Poe Project is an interactive new work derived from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. This is a unique performance opportunity for the audience to interact with artists and each other, while exploring the reaches of Poe’s indelible poetry and prose.
#publab
A batty bit of “POE”etry for a spooky holiday
From haunt of man, from day’s obtrusive glare,
Thou shroud’st thee in the ruin’s ivied tower,
Or in some shadowy glen’s romantic bower,
Where wizard forms their mystic charms prepare,
Where horror lurks, and ever-boding care!
But, at the sweet and silent evening hour,
When closed in sleep is every languid flower,
Thou lov’st to sport upon the twilight air,
Mocking the eye, that would thy course pursue,
In many a wanton-round, elastic, gay,
Thou flitt’st athwart the pensive wanderer’s way,
As his lone footsteps print the mountain-dew.
From Indian isles thou com’st, with summer’s car,
Twilight thy love—thy guide her beaming star!
“To the Bat” by Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823)
in honor of current production of #CSPoe
