The Word of the Day is: Postracialism

I’d like to give big props to the Philadelphia Inquirer and my editor, Becky Klock, for including two full-length theater features (one of them mine) and a theater review in today’s Magazine section of the paper. It’s not often we get so much space, but when it happens, it’s a glorious thing.
That said, I’d also [...]

Passion Play

After my radio appearance, where I feared that I sounded completely incoherent, it turns out may be I wasn’t such a disaster after all. Ellis Henican used a bit of our conversation in his Sunday Newsday column, and it reads about right. I apologize in advance of your reading it that I sound a bit [...]

The Sadistic Seder

Since I’m gearing up to host a Passover seder for 13 at my house this weekend. (13 Jews at a seder? We know what happened at the last one… Someone better watch their back!) So in the interest of saving my sanity, I will suspend blogging until next week, but in the meantime, here are some suggestions [...]

A Cold Wind Blows from Europe

This morning on the BBC World Service, English National Opera artistic director John Berry discussed a work they’ll be premiering in England, and not–though they’ve been partnering with the Met in New York–here in the U.S. I missed the beginning of the piece, so unfortunately can’t say what it is (my guess is that it’s [...]

Arts Journalism Not on Display at Newseum

The brand new temple of free speech, Washington’s Newseum, opened Friday to less than enthusiastic reviews, most noticeably from the New York Times, who, along with the paper’s owners, the Ochs-Sulzberger Family, were heavy contributors to the museum. Such is the nature of a free and fickle press.
Aside from journalists’ naturally contrarian tendencies, there may [...]

Karen Getz vs. Spike Jonze

In case you missed today’s Philadelphia Inquirer article about choreographer Karen Getz, the idea was to complement Getz’s upcoming 1812 Productions piece Suburban Love Songs and adapt it for real suburbanites. Getz makes choreography for non-dancers and the six of us who participated definitely fit the bill.
Why did I insert myself into the article?
You try coralling [...]

Drinking My Milkshake

There is much hand-wringing these days among arts journalists about the death of arts criticism and journalism. As goes print media, so go its gatekeepers, reduced from comfortable staffers to itinerants, blogging for their dinners. The Philadelphia Inquirer has one staff theater critic left–and I’m guessing that’s because he still earns his keep as Travel [...]

Top 5 Performances… Ever

Ok, let’s do this thing. 
If you’re reading this blog, you want to know more about what makes me tick, why I’ve loved certain pieces, hated others, and what makes me think my opinion is any more valid than yours. 
So here’s some background, inextricably linked (and hyperlinked) to the performances–in the order in which I’ve been [...]