Playwright in NY

Bobbi Gordon

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:21:18 GMT

A short note to mark the passing of Bobbi Gordon. She was a member of the original Compass Players in Chicago, sharing the stage with Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Shelley Berman, Severn Darden, Barbara Harris and her husband Mark. She was also a valued member of the New York Writers' Bloc, a group of writers, actor and directors who met weekly and built a lot of good stuff. Among the people who were fortunate to have her either act or comment wisely on their stuff -- Donald Margulies, Jane Anderson, Winnie Holzmann, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara and me. Bobbi and Mark's son, Keith, joined the group when he was sixteen and instantly impressed us with his talent and intelligence. He's since become an important indie film director.

There's going to be a memorial at New Dramatists in New York. People interested in details should e-mail me.

Stoppard

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:04:59 GMT

OK, I wasn't as thrilled by COAST OF UTOPIA as many of my fellow Tony voters and some of the critics (do remember, the critics were not unanimous). But there are some treats coming up, including a radio version of his new play, ROCK'N'ROLL as well as new versions of ARCADIA and ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.

Incidentally, BBC Radio makes virtually all of its stuff available online on demand for seven days after its broadcast time. Right now, if you go there you can get Damian Lewis in Terry Johnson's INSIGNIFICANCE (a what-if play about Marilyn Monore, Einstein, DiMaggio and Joe McCarthy) and the third of Alan Ayckbourn's NORMAN CONQUESTS cycle. They're always running great stuff on BBC Radio.

Below is the BBC release --

Jeff

--------------------

Dateline: 15th June, 2007

Stoppard Radio Season

Sir Tom Stoppard is to be celebrated across BBC Radio with a season of his work on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 7.

This includes the radio debut of his most recent play, Rock 'N' Roll, which has been specially adapted by Stoppard with a new final scene.

The season also features new Stoppard adaptations of Arcadia, The Fifteen Minute Hamlet and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, and listeners are given another chance to hear some of the acclaimed playwright's best radio productions.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead will also be the subject of a Night Waves: Landmarks programme on Radio 3, in which a panel of cultural figures re-evaluates one of his most respected works.

Radio 4 launches the Stoppard season with Albert's Bridge – first produced by BBC Radio Drama in 1967 – it has been described as Stoppard's finest radio play. Originally broadcast by BBC World Service, this 1988 production stars Paul Copley as Albert and features a cameo performance by Norman Bird.

Radio 4 will also broadcast a new adaptation of Arcadia, staring Jason Watkins as Bernard, Nicola Redmond as Hannah and Jack Laskey as Septimus, and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, with John Dougall as Hamlet.

Radio 3's Drama On 3 broadcasts Rock 'N' Roll and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.

The cast of Rock 'N' Roll includes Bill Paterson as Max, Daniel Evans as Jan, Penny Downie as Eleanor, Amanda Root as Esme and Ron Cook as Nigel. And in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Rosencrantz is played by Danny Webb, Guildenstern by Andrew Lincoln and Player is played by Desmond Barrit.

Radio 3's Night Waves: Landmarks will be examining Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, 40 years after this unique play made Tom Stoppard's name at the age of 29.

BBC 7 will be broadcasting In The Native State, originally broadcast in 1991, with a cast that includes Peggy Ashcroft and Felicity Kendal; a 1978 adaptation of The Dissolution Of Dominic Boot with Derek Fowlds and Maria Aitken; and a 1989 re-edit of the 1970 production of Where Are They Now? featuring Timothy West.

Broadcasts

Friday 29 June, 9pm, Radio 4
Albert's Bridge
Saturday 30 June, 2.30pm, Radio 4
Arcadia
Saturday 30 June, 7pm, Radio 4
The Fifteen Minute Hamlet
Saturday 30 June, BBC 7 (time tba)
In The Native State
Saturday 30 June, BBC 7 (time tba)
The Dissolution Of Dominic Boot
Saturday 30 June, BBC 7 (time tba)
Where Are They Now?
Thursday 5 July, 9.45pm, Radio 3
Night Waves: Landmarks
Sunday 8 July, 8pm, Radio 3
Rock 'N' Roll
Sunday 15 July, 9.40pm, Radio 3
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

My father

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:26:58 GMT

My father died last week. A shy, gentle, very principled guy. I get particular satisfaction out of living a life that continued the trajectory of what he would have liked to have done. He wanted to write fiction, but the need to support a family led him to a life of writing p.r. for the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, mostly writing up the ideas nd acocmplishments of scientists affiliated with those schools. He had several degrees in history, and he introduced me to my fascination for the subject. He also introduced me to writing. There were always typewriters and mimeographs around the house, and the rooms were filled with books and music and the respect for ideas. I have an anthology coming out from Northwestern University Press. I had so hoped to be able to place a copy in his hands and say thanks. But I don't think he had any doubts about how deeply I felt indebted to him and how much I loved and respected him. I'm just sorry that he was so shy that he didn't have the pleasure of more good company in his retirement.

Playwrights and work

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:31:01 GMT

A link to a piece by THE GUARDIAN's Michael Billington.

Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - theatre: All play and no work in today's theatre -- http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2007/04/all_work_and_no_play.html

I think he's right. In a recent article, Robert Brustein wrote about how many playwrights today are writing on topics they've researched in books rather than stuff they've observed in life. When you think of O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Lanford Wilson, and a lot of our other leading lights -- most of them had experience being poor or working in pretty rough conditions and drew on these experiences in their work. Our most vivid work play is probably GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, based on time Mamet spent working in a real estate office.

I sometimes think that playwrights-in-training would be done great favors if they were scooped up and dropped in cities where they knew nobody, had no cell phones, and only had a hundred bucks in their pockets. They might actually have to confront the lives of people unlike their own. And we might see some different plays, plays that reflect more than the struggles of artists and the easy cynicism and the slapstick tragedy (nice phrase from Williams) that characterizes a lot of the young writing I encounter. (Not to mention the endless Mamet, Durang and SOPRANO wannabes. When I teach in colleges, I also always get ODD COUPLE on steroids -- stories about rude or insane roommates.)

Jeff

Off to Chicago

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:17:45 GMT

The Victory Gardens Theatre [http://www.victorygardens.org/default.asp] is officially opening its new home this weekend. I am a resident playwright there and so am looking forward to the festivities. Writers have been encouraged to dress up in costumes appropriate to the 1920s, which is appropriate because the building in which our theatre is now located is the Biograph Theatre which for years was a movie house and was notorious for being where gangster John Dillinger was ambushed and cut down after emerging from having just seen the movie Manhattan Melodrama. (His death, of course, was re-enacted in other movies. Not that this has anything to do with Victory Gardens.) I'm planning on showing up as a reporter from the Chicago Examiner, which is the rag to which Hildy Johnson and Walter Burns swore loyalty in The Front Page, the first great play about Chicago.

I'm beginning to get a little excited about the move. Truth to tell, I liked our old space a couple of blocks south on Lincoln Avenue just fine. I thought it was a warm, intimate house and I had a great time putting up a series of plays there. (My loyalty is less to buildings than to collaborators.) But, during my last visit, I was taken on a tour of the new building and can see all sorts of things that will now be technically possible for the first time under the Victory Gardens banner.

Though I don't know the man, I'd like to give a nod to Mayor Daley. I don't claim to be expert on the ins and outs of his administration, but I do know that his record is unequaled among mayors in the United States in the support of theatre. With his help and influence, a number of companies have grown into splendid new homes -- the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare and Lookingglass. With municipal support like this, it's no wonder that Chicago has become one of the world's major theatre towns.

Update on NAMES and other stuff

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:28:01 GMT

Learned from director Jim Glossman that Norma in Value of Names will be played by Liz Larsen. I've admired her work a lot, so this is swell news. She's a bit older than any Norma I've ever seen, but I gather that Jack Klugman wanted someone playing the part who looked like she could conceivably be his daughter rather than his grand-daughter. I'm kicking around adding some lines to account for why Norma's in the circumstance she's in at the age she is. Maybe she had a marriage go wrong and has returned to attempt an acting career.

A lot of traveling this summer. First taught at Theatermakers for the the O'Neill, then a couple of weeks at the Summer Improv Retreat outside Woodstock, then taught at Chicago Dramatists and participated in the casting and first read-through of Court-Martial at Fort Devens at Victory Gardens, then to Pennsylvania for a wedding and a baptism (yes, the same family), and then to Stratford to see seven plays in four days.

Wow, I'm glad to be home. (Was also glad to see Meryl Streep and Austin Pendleton in Mother Courage and my friends Jay O. Sanders and Reed Birney in Stuff Happens within days of each other in Central Park. Both exciting evenings.)

I'll try to be a bit more timely in posting stuff here in the future. I don't mind being prompted by readers ...

SOL SCHUMANN in Minnesota

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 05:01:16 GMT

Just read online that The Action Against Sol Schumann is going to open the season for the Mennesota Jewish Theatre. If all goes as planned, that means I'll see five different scripts get mounted in regionals this season. (Well, I might not get to see them all. I don't have an immediate plan to go to St. Paul, unless I'm invited.)

I have about a week to try to get things into order before heading up to Big Indian and this year's Summer Improv Retreat. That will be followed by my pitching in a little on a performance retreat that will follow that week. Then off to Chicago to teach at Chicago Dramatists for a weekend. Then I'll stick around for a bit for casting and an initial workshop of Courtmartial at Ft. Devens. This is a piece based on a true story about some black WACs who stood trial when they defied a racist colonel in 1945. Nobody seems to know this happened. I was stunned when I stumbled on the story. Doesn't need any artificial boosting. The facts presented cleanly are pretty astonishing. Some of the material is adapted directly from the transcript of the courtmartial.

After the workshop, I get to go to Stratford, ONT to see some Shakespeare. My friend Colm Feore is doing three leads in rep, and I look forward to seeing him be his usual brilliant self.

Happy but ...

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:37:04 GMT

The local big paper review of my directorial debut, the Blueberry Pond production of With and Without (a play I developed from improvisations about ten years ago) has just come out and it's quite good. Read for yourself -- A weekend in the country

The only thing -- he says you're not going to like these characters. Which means, probably, that he doesn't like these characters. Now I'm glad he likes the play so much and recommends it, but, damn it, I do like these characters. All of them. They don't always behave well, but they mostly intend well and they do try to find honor in their situations.

This has happened a few times -- getting good reviews that I'm pleased to quote but (I think) misread the play. I'm not going to say this is as annoying as getting bad reviews that misread the play (after all, bad reviews by definition always misread the play, yes?), but it is annoying. These characters may be fictional, but, damn it, they're my people and I'm protective of them.

A little news

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:32:55 GMT

Once upon a time, if you had a play that was licensed by Samuel French or Dramatists Play Service, you would generally know about productions after the fact when you got your royalty statements. Sometimes I would learn about stagings that were within traveling distance I would have liked to have seen, but were long closed by the time I was aware that they had happened.

Courtesy of Google, this has changed. You can have Google make regular searches for you of any new postings on the web that contain phrases you enclose in quotation marks. I've put the titles of my plays in my Google search service. So now I often learn about productions in the offing in my e-mail.

So it is that I learn tonight that John Cullum has been cast to star with Jack Klugman in my play The Value of Names at the George Street Playhouse this fall. I'm delighted, of course, but I sure would have liked to have found out about this through a call from someone at the theatre. Ah well. The show is going to be directed by a friend, Jim
Glossman, and I expect to partake of rehearsals. This is Klugman's third production of this play, and I'm delighted he likes it so much that he keeps returning to it.

WITH AND WITHOUT

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 03:26:51 GMT

I've been running workshops as a playwright-in-residence at a small theatre in Westchester called Blueberry Pond. (When I say small, I mean 49 seats.) They've done me the honor of asking me to direct a revised version of my play, With and Without, there.

And I've been having a ball. It helps that I have a really solid cast. I'm particularly pleased to be working again with Michelle Best, who did such a good job a couple of months ago in Bluff at the 78th Street Theatre Lab. In fact, she's playing a part that two other members of the Bluff cast have also played (Kristine Niven originated the part in its workshop near Lake Placid, and Sarah Yorra played it in Philadelphia a few years ago).

As it happens, the day after the show opens, I'm scheduled to head for the O'Neill Center to teach as part of the national Theatre Institute's summer program, so I'll only get a chance to see the show in front of an audience twice -- at an invited dress on Thursday and opening night Friday. I'd be delighted to see any of my friends at either of these performances. Drop me a line at DGSweet@aol.com if you think you can come. The information is at this link: With and Without at Blueberry Pond