Letters to Santa from Shakespeare Characters

Ghostlighters,

Michelle Ephraim is a Shakespearean scholar who has done some admirable work, particularly on the role of women in the Elizabethan theatre culture. I just found this from her on McSweeny's:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/12/17bicks.html

Enjoy!

A NUMBER

Posted: Nicole Ogurek's online casebook for the School's upcoming production of Caryl Churchill's A NUMBER. Enjoy!

Lue Douthit Visit

On October 14, Dr. Lue Douthit [ http://www.osfashland.org/about/people/bio.aspx?id=5 ] visited the Collective. We ran her pretty ragged; an eleven-hour day of addressing dramaturgy, playwriting, and directing students. We learned a great deal about her work at Ashland. I'm asking students to post their reactions below.

Dramaturgy is like

Inspired by Brookly-based playwright Matt Freeman's blog entry, "Playwriting is Like" [see archive], I have perhaps imprudently created a bunch of my own.

Sorry.

-Doc

***********

Dramaturgy is like being that one scientist in the Godzilla movies who says “for god’s sake, don’t do that!” and then they do it and Godzilla destroys the city and everyone blames you anyway.

Dramaturgy is like throwing a rope to someone in quicksand who keeps saying “Quicksand? What quicksand?”

Dramaturgy is like leading a team of intrepid, fearless explorers into a deep dark cave for hours and hours and you turn around and no one is there.

Dramaturgy is like discovering, trapping and mounting a rare and exotic insect, spending years unlocking its secrets, and in so doing revealing valuable and wonderful lessons of life, and when you present the findings at the science conference everyone is horrified that you killed the insect.

Dramaturgy is like being in love with someone who is somehow never around when your friends want to meet her.

Dramaturgy is like finding a cure for a disease that no one is complaining to be suffering from.

Dramaturgy is like getting lost on your way to the map store.

Dramaturgy is like studying for years and years and then getting a terrible job which affords you the most meager existence possible and you are totally unappreciated and you wake up every day and you can't WAIT to go to work.

Dramaturgy is like being in a room where everyone is blindfolded except you, and you're gagged.

*******

Midsummer Casebook

Ghostlighters,

Another really excellent piece of work here from Anthea, supported by Clare and Zander. The online casebook for Midsummer's! In the blog feeds. Congrats, Midsummer team!

-Doc

Dramatist Guild Roundtable on Dramaturgy in the American Theatre

Dear Ghostlighters,

We have been reading an article from The Dramatist, the publication of the Dramatists' Guild, of a Roundable that took place in 2002 about dramaturgy in the American theatre. Participants included Mark Bly, Anne Cattaneo, Liz Engleman, John Dias, Janice Paran, Oskar Eustis, Michelle Volansky, Edward Albee, Susan Birkenhead, Gretchen Cryer, Carol Hall, David Henry Hwang, Shirley Lauro, Emily Mann, Polly Pen, and Jeffrey Sweet. Everyone is invited to post comments here - questions, rants, raves, cries of anguish, diverse alarums, calls to war, whatever. Non-CMU readers, we'd love your thoughts as well.

-Doc

Barbarous Nights Online Casebook

Dear Ghostlighters,

Corinna Archer's online casebook for Barbarous Nights, the new adaptation of the works of Frederico Garcia Lorca which she is executing with CMU director Sam Creely, is a really excellent piece. The Nights crew presented their research last night at the first rehearsal, and we will be watching the blog from here from now on. Check for updates as the rehearsal process progresses.

http://www.barbarousnights.blogspot.com/

-Doc