Chinquapin Parish Kidney Beans and Wild Rice

Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias is an iconic story about the ties that bind friends, families, and communities together. With a script that has proven to be a touching, transcendent piece in the theatre, as well as an iconic film, Steel Magnolias is a veritable parade of memorable lines and quotable quotes. As the narrative takes […]

Mother Courage and Her Children: More Than Just a War Play

More than any other play, I think, Mother Courage and Her Children shows the deeply troubling social blindness caused by war. That’s why I was so stunned when I opened up the program for the university production I saw this weekend and read a Director’s Note that said, “This is not an anti-war play; it’s […]

7 Women Playwrights to Read, Watch, & Know

The love of good storytelling isn’t bound by age, gender, or membership in certain identity groups. It’s human nature. I find a great deal of pleasure in seeing stories on stage that not only take me away from my everyday life, but challenge me to discover something distant, or unheard of. While I certainly appreciate […]

A Christmas Carol: Please Sir, I Want Some More

People just can’t get enough of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. There are so many stage adaptations produced each year that American Theatre Magazine eliminates the title from its list of most-produced plays since it would always be in first place. On IMDB, there are hundreds of screen adaptations, ranging from movies to parody TV […]

Anna in the Tropics: Cultural Intersections

In a world where we are more likely to read stories about how our differences separate us, it’s important to remember that we can learn from these differences, too. Anna in the Tropics, a beautiful play by Nilo Cruz, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The play has much to say about how cultures intersect. This convergence, […]

Angels in America: The Theatrical A/B Test

Rare is the opportunity to observe an A/B test on stage. Acting teachers likely see this sort of thing more often, but regular theatre artists like me certainly do not. On occasion, I’ve seen the same show twice, with an understudy going the second time. I’ve seen nine different productions of A Funny Thing Happened On […]

The Oldest Profession: Dialogue You Can Relish

Food has been a major theme in much of my writing, and let’s be honest, my actual life. Growing up in the South surrounded by a farm family, most days were scheduled according to when lunch needed to be ready for everyone who working in the field. As soon as the last farmhand left the […]