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re: Theatrical Criticism

"The Dramatic Imagination" is by Robert Edmund Jones (and is a good suggestion!)
re: Theatrical Criticism

Since you're writing about Sweeney Todd, I would suggest Antonin Artaud's "The Theatre and its Double" and Peter Brook's "The Empty Space"-- "In Search of Theatre" and "The Life of the Drama" (both by Eric Bentley) might also fit the bill. Any good academic library should have all of these.
Would "Songs for a New World" work with a larger cast?

I'm getting ready to hold auditions for "Songs for a New World" and I'm interested in other people's opinions on how the show would work with a larger cast (than the traditional 4 performers). I know there was a production with a larger cast (that JRB endorsed) about a year ago in NYC. Did anyone see it? How was it? Have any of you seen other productions with larger casts? Thanks.
re: Who influenced David Mamet

Mamet has said that the novelist Theodore Dreiser is one of his biggest influences. I would say that one can also see echoes of Willa Cather and Richard Wright in his (especially his early) work.
re: Is Musical Theater a PhD Worthy subject?

Musical Theatre has been an accepted field of study in Higher Ed. for some time now (at least since the 1970s, when scholars first began to legitimately investigate "popular entertainment")-- go to your University's library and see if you can find books like Bruce Kirle's "Unfinished Show Business: Broadway Musicals as Works-in-Process", or John Bush Jones' "Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre" or Stacy Wolf's "A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical" for good examples of current academic work on musical theatre.

The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) maintains a list of PhD programs in Theatre (with links to the individual department websites). You may want to peruse the links and see what departments have faculty that specialize in Musical Theatre. http://astr.org/Resources/DoctoralPrograms/tabid/93/Default.aspx

I'm assuming, since you are thinking about a PhD that you are thinking about teaching college as a career. I must say, then, as a word of caution, that the job market in Academia is VERY tight right now (especially in a discipline like theatre) and doesn't look any better for the foreseeable future. You may want to check out the Careers section of The Chronicle of Higher Education as you think about committing a great deal of time and money to a PhD program. http://chronicle.com/jobs/

And, of course, talk to your professors and see what advice they can give you.

re: The Greatest Musical Theatre Composer of This Generation

Adam Guettel - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Michael John LaChiusa - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Jeanine Tesori - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
JRB - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Andrew Lippa - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Tom Kitt - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Marc Shaiman - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Stephen Flaherty - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Jonathan Larson - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Lin-Manuel Miranda - 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
Scott Frankel- 4 (DO NOT VOTE)
William Finn - 3
Frank Wildhorn - 2
Jeff Bowen - 2
David Yazbeck- 2
Stew - 2
Mark Ho

re: PBS to air McKellen's LEAR beginning March 25

So, who's planning on watching tonight?
re: Nauralistic monologue

For more contemporary naturalistic monologues, take a look at Beth Henley's CRIMES OF THE HEART or Marsha Norman's NIGHT MOTHER
Lighting Designer Jennifer Tipton wins the MacArthur "Genius Grant"

Congratulations to Jennifer Tipton for winning a coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Her most visible recent work has been with the Wooster Group, but she won the Tony years ago for Jerome Robbins Broadway. She also trained or influenced just about every lighting designer in the theatre today.


re: Dates set for American Buffalo with Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertaine

I've seen a couple of articles on this, but none say who is playing who. My guess is that Leguizamo is playing Teach and Cedric playing Don? Anybody know?

re: Best Place To By Theatre Books Online

try dramabookshop.com
Alec Baldwin in the Huffington Post: "What the World Needs Now is Patty Lupone"

"Where movies today all too typically use the name of a big star to draw you into a theatre, only to have special effects people take over, what happens at the St. James theatre is live. Real. It is a stage covered with remarkable actors, directed by Arthur Laurents himself, breathing new life into an old story. And, it is Patti. As I left the theatre. a young man turned to me and said, "I liked that a lot and I normally don't go to musicals." Another woman near us smiled and said, "That was no
re: Opinions on surrealism

I'm not sure what you mean by "popular" and "controversial" in the original post, but some of the more important/influential surrealist playwrights (all Europeans who also overlapped with the symbolist and expressionist movements) were:

Maurice Maeterlinck
August Strindberg
Alfred Jarry
Guillaume Apollinaire
Federico Garcia Lorca
Antonin Artuad

Surrealism was not the same thing as the Theatre of the Absurd-- in fact the surrealist movement predated Absurdism

re: Complete list of Broadway Rogers (RENT-related)



This site seems pretty comprehensive thru 2005 (although I can't vouch for it's veracity)

re: Asian performers/shows research and info needed

You should definitely check out Esther Kim Lee's book "A History of Asian American Theatre" (Cambridge University Press, 2006). You may also want to take a look at James Moy's "Marginal Sites: Staging the Chinese in America" (Iowa, 1993). Good luck-- it sounds like an interesting paper...
re: Performing Shakespeare

The John Barton volume is a companion to the series of videotapes he made with the RSC under the title "Playing Shakespeare." If you can find a library that has the video series, it's quite good.
re: Terrance McNally/Tony Kushner: Short plays?

You may want to check out Kushner's collection "Death and Taxes: Hydriotaphia and Other Plays" (TCG, 2000). It includes several of his short plays. My favorite is "Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh."
Williamstown Announces 2008 season

Looks like new Artistic Director Nicholas Martin has chosen an interesting season

ON THE MAIN STAGE:
“She Loves Me”
“The Three Sisters”
“A Flea in Her Ear”
“Home”

ON THE NIKOS STAGE:
“The Atheist”
“Harriet Jacobs”
“The Understudy”

Plus two more productions to be announced.

re: Your MOST BELOVED musical

Godspell and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown-- the first two shows I performed in
re: Video: Grand Hotel 'We'll Take A Glass' Tonys Performance

Perfectly staged and performed. I got chills when I saw this number performed when I saw the show (back in '89) and I just got them again watching the video. This is what I think of when I think of great theatre.
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