Tag Archive | Learning
Vomit Writing Magic Muse
Being a playwright- finding your muse is very important- having your space, having your music, having your spells, chants, and charms around you as you write is very important. But sometimes it just doesn’t come. My first mentor/friend in playwriting was Stephen Adly Guirgis. Outside of my mother, he was the first person who told […]
Very Appropriate
Hello! The African-American (AFAM) Studies Department at Boston University is hosting an event, which guarantees to unpack cultural politics with you… {Stealing Culture: The Complicated Politics of Cultural Appropriation} Tuesday March 20th, 6-7:30pm BU Photonics Center, RM. 206 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston, MA 02215 Imagery courtesy of artist: Shannon Wright, “Shared or Stolen: An […]
Breaking the Echo Chamber
In a liberal arts bubble, it sometimes feels like an echo chamber. I am confident about values, I understand my moral compass. I try my best not to hate, to judge, to hurt someone intentionally. So should I be afraid to play a character that does not share my own values? I have been asking […]
WTF is a play cycle – Pt. 6 – Night Cap
Returning to my former naive B.A. acting studies questions: They can do that? Of course they can, the mind and hand of a writer has no restrictions. If the writer feels the stories out of Pine City is incomplete and if there is an audience that will watch or read another visit. There will be […]
WTF is a Play Cycle – Pt. 4
The Purpose of Play Cycles/Artist Prophet The Greeks were not only telling tales to reintegrate their citizens but they were developing stories that encapsulated their history, stories that allowed the viewer to examine civilization. In Julie Spark’s Playwrights’ Progress she states that the greek plays were performed as a mode of civic self-examination. Writers get […]
WTF is a play cycle – Pt. 3
Going All The Way To The Beginning – What Cycles Meant to the Greeks Skimming through the index of old theatre history textbooks looking for modern cycle plays I came across the word – Trilogy. Millennials typically think of a trilogy as a collection of books – that eventually turn into blockbuster movies but looking […]
Streeeeeeetch
I came into the process of Our Town with a few ideas about the play. It’s overdone. My mother announced my casting assignment to the web of her community and people of my grandmother and mother’s generations came out in droves to tell me what character they played in high school… Is wide acclaim and […]
WTF is a play cycle – Pt. 2
But Why Serializations? Similar to our desires to be intrusive, we have a natural instinct of habit which modernly can perpetually turn into rituals and addictions. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s, found that it would take roughly twenty one days to create a habit or one episode of Absolutely Fabulous to get […]
Lessons Relearned
Right now I have no less than 6 drafts of blog posts. They’re a combination of half-formed thoughts and abandoned ideas. Things I have either been distracted from, deemed unworthy of finishing or simply given up on. Usually I don’t have a problem with free thinking prompts, or spaces that give unlimited possibilities to write […]
An Hour with AXIS Dance Company
Today I had the incredible pleasure and honor to attend a collaborative workshop between the 2017 Acting Major class and AXIS Dance Company. AXIS is a dance company based in Oakland, California that exists to “change the face of dance and disability.” They are currently celebrating their 30th anniversary, and are here for a week-long residency […]
Keeping It In the Room
Over the past few days, I have found myself constantly reminded of a conversation we had in class recently about what it means to be a generous artist in a collaborative process. It was the discussion in which we talked about the value of “keeping things in the room,” and finding ways to voice your thoughts for the benefit […]
I Finally Stopped Thinking About Writing
Over the summer, I spent a lot of time writing. And by writing, I mean this: “I’m writing a play,” I told my friends and family members. “You can read it soon,” I assured the curious ones. But really, I was just sitting around and picturing the act of writing in my head. Not a huge amount […]
Reviewer or Critic?
A couple weeks ago in class we had a conversation about the difference between someone who reviews theater and someone who critiques it. The consensus was that a reviewer is someone who writes about a play towards the beginning of its run in order to give a yay or nay on whether someone should see […]
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 