Our Blogs
First-year teacher
Getting in the mix
I just performed for the best audience of my entire life!
Strut and Fret
Playworks: Call for collaborators
The Thespian Playworks team is looking for some experienced student designers (set, lighting, costume, sound) and stage managers to help bring this year’s four winning finalist scripts to life.
In the Moment
Holding that mirror up to myself
This was a big year for me in terms of creativity and finding new challenges. I took on a role in a mainstage production with my own students, and I co-wrote a play that was produced in a workshop production. Both of these projects were exciting, and a bit scary. Both challenged my safety zone and put me in a position where I could ask myself afresh who I am and how have I changed—two questions that are far less likely to occur when we repeat our usual work patterns year after year. In that play I co-authored, one of the characters observes angrily that no one ever really changes.
Critic At Large
A minority view on 'Matilda'
I don’t say this to be contrary, but I think that Hands on a Hardbody was a better show than Matilda is.
Matilda seems to be the runaway hit of the season and generally got enthusiastic notices. I haven’t read the Roald Dahl novel on which it is based nor have I seen the film Danny DeVito made of it some years ago. I don’t know how faithful the musical that recently opened at the Shubert Theatre is to the original, and I can’t say how much of my dissatisfaction with the way the story builds goes back to the original book.
Playwright Now
It's fun to connect the dots
This week, our first-ever guest blogger…
Eddie Zipperer is a former Georgia Thespian and award-winning playwright whose youth plays have been performed on five other continents. He received an M.F.A. in creative writing from Georgia College in 2008, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. His plays are available from Dramatic Publishing Co., Eldridge Plays and Musicals, and Pioneer Drama.
Thespian Officers
Storytelling
For a long time, I wanted to be a film director. I wanted to lead other creative individuals on a project—direct actors, design shots, and ultimately feel the accomplishment of finishing a film.
Design & Production
Outside the box
Prior to beginning this post, let me assure you that I am not a great user of the latest “catch phrases.” As a high school teacher for twenty-plus years you would think contemporary phrases and terminology would have entered my vocabulary but much to my students’ dismay (and occasional confusion) I still speak like the fifty-four-year-old man I am.
