tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78551648591395299872024-02-07T20:01:13.348-05:00The Journals of Ian ThalThe Unimaginatively Named and Infrequently Updated Blog of a Massachusetts-Based Playwright, Critic, Journalist, and Theater EducatorIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.comBlogger287125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-12580514021981649002017-06-06T18:46:00.001-04:002017-06-06T18:46:59.011-04:00Staged Reading: THE SECOND ANNUAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING TAKEOVER AND SLUMBER PARTY at Blunt Objects Theatre's Bacchanalia 2017, June 22-23The Second Annual Administration Building Takeover and Slumber Party will receive a staged reading as part of Bacchanalia 2017, Blunt Objects Theatre's two-day festival of staged readings on June 22nd and 23rd and 7:00 p.m. at Mag's On Elysian Fields in New Orleans!
The festival's theme is protest -- and the play is loosely based on protests in which I participated in college. Other plays on theIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0940 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117, USA29.9673652 -90.05708149999998129.9671502 -90.057396499999982 29.9675802 -90.056766499999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-44482349865552759082017-03-16T02:00:00.000-04:002017-03-16T10:07:42.468-04:00JAN KULTURA and Why We Need Plays About Capitalism
Over on 2am Theatre, the long-running group blog featuring essays by various theater artists and pundits, Pete Miller, explains just "Why We Need Plays About Capitalism".
After a summary of how economists define capitalism, its functions, goals, and the ways it often fails short of its goals, and noting a general dearth of plays addressing these topics, he turned to a survey of 41 plays on the Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-48556143178581787032017-02-20T09:00:00.000-05:002017-02-20T09:00:29.891-05:00"Talia" A Radio Play Now on The New Play Exchange
Back in 2015, a radio producer who had read my Arlecchino Am Ravenous invited me to contribute a script for an anthology series he was planning, a collection of audio drama adaptations of the tales the Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile (1566-1632). The Pentamerone is the earliest known attempt to collect a nation's folktales, in this case, the nation of Naples, and was to inspire the Brothers Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-65602471773697730392016-08-16T09:47:00.001-04:002016-08-16T09:47:44.801-04:00JAN KULTURA, SUBSTITUTE TEACHER, MEETS THE CROWD at Silver Spring Stage One Act Festival, August 25-28Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, Meets the Crowd will be part of the second week of Silver Spring Stage's One Act Festival running from Friday, August 26 to Sunday, August 28 (the Thursday, August 25 show is a pay-what-you-can preview performance.)
The play will be directed by Sue Bevine and will be sharing the bill with plays by D.L. Siegel, Michael Wolfson, and Jacy D'Aiutolo. I will be in Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0Silver Spring Stage, 10145 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20901, USA39.021239 -77.0117133-18.098082999999995 117.7539117 90 88.2226617tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-27449925532590555922015-12-09T22:11:00.002-05:002015-12-09T22:11:49.204-05:00Photos of JAN KULTURA in Rehearsal With UptownWorks NYCUptownWorks NYC posted photos from rehearsals for my play Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, Meets The Crowd which they will be presenting as part of the inaugural event in their Liberated One-Acts series of staged readings.
Plays by Michael Panes, Christian Cole-Howard, and Gabriel Straszun will also be featured that evening.
The reading will be held on Sunday, December 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com01005 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10025, USA40.8013598 -73.961026516.9564723 -115.2696205 64.6462473 -32.6524325tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-72741802760966201652015-12-02T17:29:00.000-05:002015-12-10T05:51:50.606-05:00Staged Reading: JAN KULTURA, SUBSTITUTE TEACHER, MEETS THE CROWD Presented by UptownWorks NYC 12/13
My one-act play, Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, Meets The Crowd will be be receiving a staged reading directed by Daniela Hart as part of the inaugural event in UptownWorks NYC's Liberated One-Acts reading series on Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 7:30 pm.
I will be in attendance.
UptownWorks NYC is run by Amanda Black and Daniela Hart. This post will be updated as more information becomes Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com01005 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10025, USA40.8013598 -73.961026516.9564963 -115.2696205 64.6462233 -32.6524325tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-14036862317624836062015-11-22T18:41:00.000-05:002015-12-02T17:31:55.966-05:00Staged Reading: THE SECOND ANNUAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING TAKEOVER AND SLUMBER PARTY at Arts Resources For the Tri-State
My one-act play, The Second Annual Administration Building Takeover And Slumber Party, will be be receiving a staged reading as part of Arts Resources for the Tri-State's New Works festival in Huntington, West Virginia on Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 7:00 pm.
The reading will be directed by Stephen Vance and feature a cast of Michael Naglee, Joanna Murdock, Nora Ankrom, Dylan Clark and will beIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0900 8th Ave, Huntington, WV 25701, USA38.4150456 -82.44221829999997938.4149971 -82.442297299999979 38.4150941 -82.44213929999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-41629121851809364512015-11-20T13:09:00.000-05:002015-11-20T13:09:29.062-05:00Ilan Stavans "The Oven": Performance and Panel Discussion At Charlestown Working TheaterTonight, November 20, I will be moderating a panel discussion after a performance of Ilan Stavans' The Oven at Charlestown Working Theater. My panelists will be Stavans, who wrote and performs in the show, and director Matthew Glassman.
The Oven is an autobiographical piece about Stavans' experience of an ecstatic ritual as a guest of an indigenous religious group in the Columbian Amazon.
Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-8553121671653425552015-09-16T16:47:00.000-04:002015-09-16T16:47:27.251-04:00On The Arts Fuse: New Rep's Boston Premiere of Arthur Miller's BROKEN GLASSOn The Arts Fuse I review New Repertory Theatre's production of Broken Glass, a play by the major American playwright, Arthur Miller, that first premiered in 1994 had to wait until his centenary before it was ever presented in the Boston-area.
A major theme of the play is anti-Semitism: Both the violent anti-Semitism that erupted in Germany in November 1938, in a pogrom now known as Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-36622777679210399372015-08-28T16:18:00.001-04:002015-08-28T16:18:38.255-04:00On The Arts Fuse: Maiden Phoenix' THE WINTER'S TALEOn The Arts Fuse I review Maiden Phoenix Theatre Company's all-female outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale that closes on August 30:
While I do note that there are at points where the production is uneven (some of this reflects more on the difficulty in staging any of Shakespeare's "problem plays" than it does on the company), it has many aspects that make it worth seeing, Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-65826354956240128822015-08-20T09:00:00.000-04:002015-08-20T09:12:11.442-04:00The New Play Exchange: Recommendations Received and What I Have Learnt
In my previous post, I described the New Play Exchange in terms of some of the problems in "the new play sector" that I believe it may help resolve, noting how playwrights simply upload their plays and allow them to be searched by those seeking new plays to develop or produce.
A key tool that makes it possible for directors, literary managers, and dramaturgs to search for new plays is metadata.Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-41746087091706801072015-08-19T09:00:00.000-04:002015-08-20T09:28:16.277-04:00The New Play Exchange: Some Brief Recommendations
Earlier this year, I joined the New Play Exchange, a platform that may end up radically changing the new play sector of the theater industry.
Under the old model, playwrights would submit their work to theaters and hope to get someone interested in the work they had labored upon. On the other end of this submission process developed a class of of theater professionals whose duties included theIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-56107963361511974872015-08-18T08:23:00.001-04:002015-08-18T08:23:19.956-04:00On The Arts Fuse: Double Edge Theatre's "Once A Blue Moon"Last week, I travelled to the rural town of Ashfield, Massachusetts, to review Double Edge Theatre's summer spectacle, Once a Blue Moon (Cada Luna Azul).
What sets Double Edge Theatre apart from other troupes is that it has always forged an intimate link between the world of physical theater and the world of literature and ideas.
As I note that while Once a Blue Moon is a devised piece Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-77534882402594951652015-08-12T16:29:00.000-04:002015-08-12T16:29:26.364-04:00On The Arts Fuse: I Review EYES SHUT. DOOR OPEN. By Cassie M. SeinukI haven't blogged about the last few reviews I did for The Arts Fuse in part because they came out so close to their closing date.
My latest review is of Wax Wings Productions presentation of Cassie M. Seinuk's Eyes Shut. Door Open. -- a Cain and Abel story set on the SoHo arts scene:
Seinuk, of course, knows her mythology, and the allusion to and repetition of mythological violence elevates Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-36446009329754578862015-06-15T14:51:00.001-04:002015-06-17T11:02:40.400-04:00On The Arts Fuse: THREE by Emily Kaye LazzaroOn The Arts Fuse, I review Emily Kaye Lazzaro's Three currently running at the Boston Center for the Arts. The play, directed by A. Nora Long, and presented by Boston Public Works, is, sadly, a huge disappointment. For several months, I have championed the mission of Boston Public Works, a theater company centered around a collective of playwrights producing their own work (see my 2014 interview Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-81311569351244108222015-06-02T10:24:00.000-04:002015-06-02T10:24:10.206-04:00On The Arts Fuse: Actors' Shakespeare Project's "Henry VI, Part 2"On The Arts Fuse, I review Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of Henry VI, Part 2, which despite being the origin of the oft-quoted line, "The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers", is rarely performed. This presentation, currently running at The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University through June 7, is masterfully directed by Tina Packer. I was particularly taken with the character Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-52939394400634907452015-05-21T14:51:00.001-04:002015-05-21T14:51:09.179-04:00On The Arts Fuse: I Review Bridge Repertory Theater's "Julius Caesar"On The Arts Fuse, I reviewed Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston's production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. While I admire the visual style and the sonic rawness of this interpretation, I feel much of the story and political subtext is buried in the breakneck pacing.
Julius Caesar has long been the best known of Shakespeare’s Roman plays: its plot and the historical events that inspired it are Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-68182823095371669132015-05-19T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-19T09:00:07.351-04:00On The Arts Fuse: Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett's "Albatross"Back in February I reviewed Albatross, a theatrical adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's narrative poem, Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I judged the play, written by Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett, performed by Evett, directed by Rick Lombardo and produced by The Poets' Theater quite highly, noting its all around excellence, and I expressed hope that it could be remounted (preferably Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-38559314206176885442015-05-18T13:52:00.000-04:002015-05-18T13:52:23.627-04:00On The Arts Fuse: I Review Jeff Talbott's “The Submission”On The Arts Fuse I review Zeitgeist Stage Company's current production of Jeff Talbott's play, The Submission a dark and transgressive comedy directed by David J. Miller about a playwright who hires an actress to hide the fact that his play about an alcoholic African-American woman and her card-shark son was actually written by a middle-class gay white man:
Today, many dramatists feel under Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-42005347643188816182015-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-16T11:38:37.987-04:00The Kilroys Were There: Playwrights, Gender, and Class: At the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Conference, Boston 2014, Part VNote to the Reader: The following account of the June 26-29, 2014 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference in Boston was originally written for The Arts Fuse, to which I am a senior contributor but for various reasons, was not used.
-I.T.
The Kilroys, a collective of female playwrights formed in 2014 and based in Los Angeles, had made a splash in online discussions of the newIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-16260645085629721242015-05-13T12:00:00.000-04:002015-09-16T11:39:22.569-04:00The Dramaturgical Black Box: A Playwright's Perspective: At the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Conference, Boston 2014, Part IVNote to the Reader: The following account of the June 26-29, 2014 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference in Boston was originally written for The Arts Fuse, to which I am a senior contributor but for various reasons, was not used.
-I.T.
For the playwrights, the world of literary managers and dramaturgs is a black box: plays or ten-page excerpts are sent in with a brief Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-85458483505492743692015-05-13T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-16T11:38:04.646-04:00Playing It Safe With Film Critic Wesley Morris: At the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Conference, Boston 2014, Part IIINote to the Reader: The following account of the June 26-29, 2014 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference in Boston was originally written for The Arts Fuse, to which I am a senior contributor but for various reasons, was not used.
-I.T.
newplay on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
As one of only four film critics to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, former Boston Globe Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-39134884199796804792015-05-12T17:00:00.000-04:002015-09-16T11:40:35.715-04:00When a Conference Comes To Town... At the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Conference, Boston 2014, Part IINote to the Reader: The following account of the June 26-29, 2014 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference in Boston was originally written for The Arts Fuse, to which I am a senior contributor but for various reasons, was not used.
-I.T.
The last time I had attended a major national theater conference was in June of 2012, when Theatre Communications Group (TCG) came to Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-86692936266913224902015-05-12T13:26:00.000-04:002015-05-12T13:26:26.442-04:00Critic's Notebook: At the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Conference, Boston 2014, Part INote to the Reader: The following account of the June 26-29, 2014 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference in Boston was originally written for The Arts Fuse, to which I am a senior contributor. As it grew in length, and was continually delayed because other assignments had more pressing deadlines it started to develop into a form that was not well-suited for The Arts Fuse – aIan Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7855164859139529987.post-12044804044132668832015-05-06T09:00:00.000-04:002015-05-06T09:00:01.877-04:00On The Arts Fuse: “Scenes From An Adultery” — Where’s the Sex?On The Arts Fuse I review Ronan Noone's sex-farce, Scenes From An Adultery currently playing at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown and directed by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary. Unfortunately the script is both sexless and feckless.
Many a fine comedy has been built around gossip, secrets, and people’s askew perceptions of the sex lives of others. The problem for Noone’s Scenes From An Adultery is Ian Thalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com0321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA42.3628377 -71.16466270000000842.3569747 -71.174747700000012 42.3687007 -71.1545777