About the Plays
Turning The Page
In the thought-provoking play Roe, playwright Lisa Loomer and director Vanessa Stalling give new voice to women who made history. Here, they offer some insights into the lessons that history offers.
About the Plays
An Enduring Classic in Many Forms
Charles Dickens began writing A Christmas Carol in October 1843; he completed it the following month, and it appeared in bookstores in December. Two months later, eight theater companies had mounted productions of the ghostly tale.
About the Plays
“The Sublime is Even Better”—Sarah Bernhardt, Actress/Entrepreneur
“There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses—and then there is Sarah Bernhardt.” — Mark Twain Few figures…
About the PlaysBlog & Buzz
Iowa Stubborn
This comic essay, in which Meredith Willson discusses his inspiration for "The Music Man," was originally published in "The New York Herald Tribune."
About the PlaysBlog & Buzz
76 Trombones, 62 Years Ago: The Debut of “The Music Man”
"The Music Man" creator Meredith Willson, a flautist and piccolo player, composer, conductor and musical arranger, seemed on the surface an unlikely candidate to create Broadway’s next hit, given his lack of experience in the medium....In the late 1940s, Willson began working on the first of his three autobiographies, "And There I Stood with My Piccolo." This lighthearted book explores Willson’s turn-of-the-20th-century childhood in Mason City, Iowa, where he adroitly honed the skills that enabled his professional career in music while also wholeheartedly participating in small town misadventures.
About the PlaysBlog & Buzz
Falling in Love with the Stage Musical
From Leonard Bernstein’s "Candide" to the Damon Runyan-inspired "Guys and Dolls," to her own adaption of "The Jungle Book," Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman has brought her unique style to this beloved American entertainment. She’s long exercised her chops on the Goodman stage and now returns with "The Music Man," the 1957 classic about a smooth-talking swindler and the small Midwestern town he wraps around his little finger.
About the Plays
A Seven-Play Success
“One of the most significant literary achievements in modern-day Chicago” ("Chicago Tribune")—Ike Holter’s seven-play “Rightlynd Saga”—is now complete. Courtesy of the playwright and dramaturg Kendra Miller, here is a look back at these remarkable works.
About the Plays
Blue Collar Blues
As historians often try to make clear, the us-and-them divisiveness that defines American life today did not spring full-blown from the election of 2016: our cultural discord goes back decades. And while its causes are varied, the threads of race and the economy are woven deep into the fabric of this dilemma. With "Sweat"—for which she won her second Pulitzer Prize—playwright Lynn Nottage unravels these knots and reminds us that so much of what sets us at odds is often beyond our control.
About the Plays
7-10 Split: Twilight Bowl by Rebecca Gilman
Lives that derail. Lives that never get up to speed. Ordinary people. Challenging circumstances. Playwright Rebecca Gilman is at home describing worlds in which folks find it tough to stand as straight as everyone thinks they should, or struggle to find a measure of contentment.
About the Plays
Creation: What’s the Catch? Finding Inspiration in the Artistry of Every Day
Manifesting a moment into a melody. Transforming a tragedy into a staged trilogy. Penning the pinnacle of a movement into poetic justice. When art…
