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.
Yea, I was the youngest playwright with a B’way opening ever and the 1st Black woman; what about it?
March 11 will bring the anniversary of the NYC premiere of A RAISIN IN THE SUN (1959), and one of those days that changed theater forever.
Exciting to be gearing up for #CSRaisin here with not one but TWO response plays.
“The greatest moment for a playwright is when you’ve written a play, and you’ve gone to see it night after night, then one night the cast takes it to a whole new level, and you say: ‘Did I write that?’”
(via halvorsen)
As a venue or production company you most probably spend a lot of time trying to find out what your audiences want and expect from you. Well, I hope you do. But what about that odd minority group who regularly visit your venue, who perhaps see more productions than the majority of your audience and who may have some impact on your future sales – theatre critics?
Backstage at the Goodman: The Piano Lesson (by turgical)
This 18 minute video-documentary provides a behind the scenes look at Lloyd Richards’ production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson at the Goodman Theater, Chicago, in Feb. 1989. Note that Wilson had not yet decided that Berniece would be able to keep the piano at the end of the play because Boy Willie realizes that it helps her to exorcise the ghost of Sutter. This change was then made at the Old Globe in San Diego, prior to the Broadway and the Pulilzer Prize being bestowed on the play.
Theatre-goers have been enjoying performances with a difference during a new festival in London - interactive plays, performed by solitary actors to a single audience member.
“A Choreographer Hopes His New iPad Application Will Lead Theater Productions Into the Future”
Well, that title pretty much says it all. Click through for a wealth of more specific links.
CENTERSTAGE patrons talk about their relationship with the theater and recall memories of favorite shows.
CENTERSTAGE - MY CENTERSTAGE (by drury bynum)
So says Liam of his newly opened pub:
Liam Flynn’s Ale House is a new public ale house in the Station North Arts & Entertainment District of Baltimore City. Informally known as the Pub or Liam’s, The Ale House has 15 taps. 2 being for locally brewed, cask-conditioned “Real Ale”. We specialize in British Isles Ales, Whiskeys & Ciders. We have a growing range of Scottish beers and English Ciders Are home to the Glasgow Celtic F.C. & London Fulham F.C. Supporter’s Club although we welcome every fan of Soccer, Rugby and Gaelic sports.
Well, you can add to this litany, supporter of local arts and culture. On two coming Sundays (Jan 22 and Jan 29), Liam’s will play host to FREE public readings of two of the plays in Martin McDonagh’s acclaimed Leenane Trilogy. Starting at 8 those nights, you can drink along with the daft denizens of Connemara as company members from Baltimore’s Everyman and Single Carrot theaters join CENTERSTAGE folks for first Beauty Queen of Leenane then The Lonesome West. And the middle play of the trio? Well that’s A Skull in Connemara and you can catch that Jan 26 - March 4 over at CENTERSTAGE. So fill up on McDonagh while you have the chance, and get to know the newest destination spot on North Ave—then make sure you stop by the current digs of both Everyman and Single Carrot, both close at hand.
Great interview with Steven from Universes ensemble — reflecting on 16 years of collaborative creation.
It’s eerie. Sitting in my apartment on Calvert Street in Baltimore, I am rereading a play that I directed 10 years ago, laughing at it again, saddened by it anew, finding new nuance or perhaps the same inflections which are subjected to “halzfheimers,” as CENTERSTAGE’s Associate Artistic Director Gavin Witt calls it.
Si Osborn is back with me to remember that which I don’t, and three new folks are there to remind me that it is a fresh discovery to them and that they have new slants to offer that will awaken the play in ways I have not imagined. Jordan Brown, Richard Thieriot, and Barbara Kinglsey now will dig out the truth of Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy. It’s every bit as funny as I remembered it, and now, 10 years later, deeper for the aging perspective I bring to it.
I’ve done several plays more than once in my life. Twelfth Night, Much Ado, Rounding Third, Better Late, and each and every one revealed itself in different ways as new actors slipped into the skin of the characters.
More interesting though is the impact that the Baltimore audience will have on our production. In theatres across the country productions are presented, same text, and same actors, and a play can vary widely in reception and resonance. Baltimore audiences will shape and inform what the play means for them. Any given night different audiences take what they will from the performance and in collaboration with the cast shades of meaning and feeling will emerge for both. This is the particular boon to live theatre, and the thrill for a cast, a director or a playwright.
Mick Dowd is a walking ghost of himself, living with the spirit of his dead wife Oona day and night. Visitors drop by to drink his Poteen, share the news of the tiny town they live in, gossip and petty resentments abound. You know what Irish Alzheimer’s is don’t you? We forget everything but a grudge. And Mick Dowd is the victim of the village’s vicious wagging tongues. To be under the scrutiny of these petty people, would crush anyone’s spirit, not to mention darkening their lives.
And it’s funny! Really funny, and it’s that humor that keeps McDonagh’s plays alive and thriving. I think this is the first McDonagh to visit CENTERSTAGE, and I am honored to share it with you.
-BJ Jones (Artistic Director, Northlight Theater)
