In life — and especially in the arts — people are fond of excusing failure by blaming it on societal prejudice. “If only I wasn’t a woman,” (or black, or short) “then I would have made it.” While many instances of such bigotry can be cited, there’s another harsh but…
A writing professor once warned me that no matter how hard a playwright tries to avoid it, one character in the piece usually represents the writer, and that role often evolves into the most meaty and authentic. Sure enough, upon yet another examination of The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman’s classic…
Everyone who commits the slightly demented act of remaining in theater remembers when that thrill of the stage first seized them. For me it was being cast as Lola in my high school production of Damn Yankees. I walked around the streets of Queens brazenly singing such classics as “Whatever…
Coproducer/cofounder of the new Miami Skyline Theatre Allen J. Zipper impresses me as not only a practical and inspired man, but also a most amusing one. For years he worked in the marketing, public relations, and production departments of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, as well as working as an actor…
People in the arts love to expound theories about talent: Is there such a thing? Can it be developed? Are some lucky souls just born with the right stuff and everyone else is lost? Is it just luck or a smart mouth? In teaching, I like to offer my own…
I, unfortunately, vividly remember George Peppard’s sad impersonation of acting last year in The Lion in Winter. I’m steeling myself to face the prospect of Marlo Thomas interpreting John Guare’s masterpiece, Six Degrees of Separation, in the coming season. And I’ve recently come from viewing another impotent TV hack, Adrian…
Alan Farago poses a challenging question at our interview at J.J.’s restaurant several blocks from El Carrusel, where he’s starting his new company, Theater FLX. “Why does the city of Miami think theater is unimportant but finds the money to build monuments?” I can only sip coffee, because if I…
The solid triumph of Bill Clinton and the brutal lashing of the religious right suggest that the country is ready to move forward again instead of twenty steps back. With a renewed spirit of hope, the mass audience heads to the laboratory, resolved to try brave experiments, such as saluting…
I mentioned in a previous column that this quote is attributed to Eugene O’Neill: “The artist who tries to save the world loses himself.” I’d like to add that, in the case of Edward Albee, the artist who tries to save himself loses his art. Desperate to retain his former…
Since I’m about to deal with a murder mystery/courtoom drama — Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 Broadway hit, A Few Good Men, which is now enjoying a satisfying production at the Caldwell Theatre Company — allow me to play Sherlock Holmes for a moment and hypothesize how this particular work came into…
If I ever question the validity of devoting so much time to theater criticism in a town like this, there’s no stronger reassurance than the occasional, sudden privilege of attending a momentous event or meeting a luminary from the world of the stage. Last week I enjoyed the honor of…
In an effort to market the newest commandment — Thou Shalt Have Family Values — both major political parties have made attempts to define just what a family is. According to their guidelines, several groups didn’t cut the mustard. Forget gay couples and straight married ones without children. And forget…
Though I was provided with excellent seats for “Give ‘Em Hell Harry!”, and though artistic director Arnold Mittelman was gracious enough to invite me to his theater balcony supper afterward, I must confess that I walked out of the play shortly after intermission. Now, as a critic, one might argue,…
‘Tis the season to face the theater of 1992-93, so a broad review of last year’s high and low points seems to be in order, as well as a peek into which shows ahead merit breaking into the piggy bank. And since everyone in this place remains too polite to…
Admittedly, it’s helpful of the Miami Herald to separate theater listings into “Professional/Equity,” “Professional Non/Equity,” “Community,” “Dinner Theater,” and “In Spanish” (as if Spanish is a show-business category), but such divisions mean nothing unless they are defined. As South Florida gains a more vital, arts-oriented population and more refugees from…
Every molecule of my hyper-educated mind, every atom of refined artistic taste yearns to dismiss the old-fashioned, cornball 1950 John Patrick comedy, The Curious Savage, now transported through that ever-churning South Florida time machine to the stage of the Caldwell Theatre. This is not new, not moving, not powerful, and…
Of all the techniques used to teach acting, Sanford Meisner developed one of the most famous, practical, and, curiously enough, the simplest. Meisner and his Neighborhood Playhouse cohorts (count David Mamet among their graduates) believed that the key to the craft was found simply in the art of listening and…
Despite the normally vapid state of TV, remote-control fast-forwarding does occasionally result in the unearthing of something worth staring at. Case in point: One night while zapping through the dreck I came across an interview, conducted by Dick Cavett, of the cerebrally luminous author/philosopher Gore Vidal. America’s internal conflicts, postulated…
First, an anecdote, since as most populations outside America know, a sense of humor can help to ease one’s pain. The story concerns nineteenth-century playwright Sir Charles Sedley, author of the comedy Bellamira. During the very first performance of the play, the roof of the theater caved in. Luckily, few…
The great posthumously celebrated poet and recluse Emily Dickinson wrote: “One need not be a chamber to be haunted/One need not be a house/The brain has corridors surpassing/Material place.” I begin with this verse partly because Emily haunts the stage brilliantly through the efforts of Academy Award-winner Kim Hunter, in…
What was Vince Rhomberg at the Public Theatre thinking when he allowed the vanity production Yetta & Sophie In Miami Beach to occupy his space under his sponsorship? Despite the fact that I was told repeatedly by the management that it was a “hit,” and despite the fact that some…
The word “thespian” is derived from the name of the first actor who made history, Thespis, who dazzled the crowds at the festival of Dionysus in 534 B.C., but stirred up controversy simultaneously. According to Plutarch, the Greeks initially questioned the morality of drama; Solon, the great lawgiver, publicly denounced…
