“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Uncle Walt’s verse gets renewed life on stage in the millennial classic Dead Poets Society – an ode to nonconformity and self-expression in a world that vows to stamp out individualism in favor of conservative practicality. Despite its flaws, the film remains one […]
The 2016 American election has produced a plethora of absurdities – occurrences so outside the realm of fathomable civil conversation and political discourse that we might as well have been transported into the Dune universe. Because of the bizarre antics of the candidates,* parodying this election season almost seems a fruitless exercise. A lowball not […]
My parents say I was awestruck. I was young – seven years old, and it was my first musical. Cats. A flurry of feline acrobats spinning across the stage in perfect synchronization, chorusing the words of literary heavyweight T.S. Eliot in intricate makeup and patterned body suits. Of course, I was awestruck – I was […]
A few years ago, Bletchley Park became a minor academic obsession of mine. After discovering the code-breaking history of this British installation, I read everything about Bletchley that I could get my hands on, from books about the history of Bletchley and its hard-working inhabitants to Alan Turing’s biography and his paper on computable numbers. […]
J. Stephen Brantley has a distinct voice for re-creating the New York of yesteryear – to paint a picture of the gritty pre-Giuliani New York that I only know from films and rerun credits of Saturday Night Live. Of course, living in the city during that time was bound to have some lasting effects, and […]
Every other month, seven playwrights come together at The Tank in Manhattan to engage in a creative collaborative process that results in seventy minutes of artistry sharing common themes and elements. The structure of Rule of 7×7, the brainchild of writer and producer Brett Epstein, sounds simple – seven writers conceive of and produce seven […]
August in New York City can only mean one thing: it is Fringe festival time. Each year for two weeks in August, the Fringe takes over a vast array of cozy theatre venues throughout Manhattan to showcase new and established talent and unique theatrical story-telling ventures. Unfortunately, between travel and work obligations this summer, I […]
Millennials, like me, who graduated from high school in the mid 2000s are hovering around the life cornerstone of “30” – no longer able to blame bad decisions on youth and expected, perhaps, to embrace the responsibilities of an adult life.* For many, this time of life includes a journey home to attend one’s 10-year […]