Staff Blog Entries

The Little Flower of East Orange at Ion Theatre

"Don't get old, Nadine," says silver-haired Therese, hooked to intravenous painkillers on a Bronx hospital bed. "I don't think I'm ...

Remembering Dr. Faustus

In recent blogs, Lamb's Players artistic director Robert Smyth looked back on the company's most "important" productions, not favorites, necessarily, ...

Protest lecture

"A Hammer, A Bell, and a Song to Sing" fails to inspire

The San Diego Rep has "expanded and enhanced" an earlier draft of this tribute to protest songs, from the American ...

Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (nine through 12)

Lamb's Players Theatre is currently staging its 300th production. Artistic director Robert Smyth looks back on the company's 12 most ...

Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (five through eight)

Lamb's Players Theatre has produced 300 shows. Artistic Director Robert Smyth looks back on the 12 he felt were most ...

Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (one through four)

Around the World in 80 Days is Lamb's Players Theatre's 300th production. Robert Smyth has been with the company since ...

Kahneman II.5

I still can't shake Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, especially on the eve of an election. Early in the ...

Kahneman II

This isn't a review of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. It's a re-view of quotations from the book, which ...

Kahneman I

Books and plays throw punches. They hit in the moment, and often that's about it. Some, however, throw counter punches ...

Words by...at North Coast Rep

He's usually recognized, these days, as the three-letter answer to a crossword entry: "George's brother" - Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin ...

Post view: Women on local stages

A recent survey announced that, even in these allegedly enlightened times, playwrights still write far more roles for men than ...

Sophocles

An old question asks: If you could invite five historical figures to dinner (and could speak their language), which five ...

Around the World in 80 Days at Lamb's Players

Brian Rickel & Jon Lorenz/photo by JT MacMillan A "give it another week" opening night. Laura Eason adapted Jules Verne's ...

The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, at Moxie

Photo credit: Daren Scott What sounds like an untoward oxymoron's an actual place: Pope Lick is a creek near Fisherville, ...

Kita y Fernanda at Mo`olelo

On paper, Dona Silva Valderama and daughter Fernanda are documented immigrants from Mexico. They live in a big house in ...

Life Imitates Art

In his famous preface to Miss Julie, August Strindberg lambastes women's liberation. Those who try to break from male dominance ...

Julia at Ion Theatre

August Strindberg died 100 years ago. To celebrate the Centennial, Ion Theatre's 50th production is its fifth world premiere. Claudio ...

He said, she said

Mark Sylwestrzak and wife Eileen Bowman just completed working on stage together in 2 Across at Vista Broadway Theatre. In ...

David Mamet on Glengarry and other matters

Playwrights have studied David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross as much, if not more, than any other contemporary work. Over the ...

Mistakes Were Made at Cygnet Theatre

The producer's nightmare: push a project to Broadway through a gauntlet of nay-sayers: the playwright, iconic young stars, agents, a ...