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Non-traditional
Casting
by Jack Marshall
In
transferring the drama to Alabama and casting the play with
African American actors, The American Century Theater and
director Ed Bishop are to some extent changing the author's
intent and veering from the company's usual production practice
of trying to stay as close to the spirit of the original show
as possible. This is the still-controversial realm of non-traditional
casting, and That Championship Season is an excellent
case study of the practice.
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The
One Hit Wonders of 1960-1975
by Andrew White, PhD.
Pop quiz: What do Tad Mosel, Howard Sackler,
Charles Gordone, Paul Zindel and Jason Miller have in common?
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Making
a New Play Out of Old Pieces
by Jack Marshall
Drama Under the Influence, the latest addition
to The American Century Theater's "Reflections" series, demonstrates
the stage director's creative and substantive role in communicating
ideas, subtext, historical commentary and emotions that would
not register on the audience without his efforts.
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Women,
the Theatre, and the Avant-garde
by Andrew White, PhD.
By the early 1900's, middle-class white women could adopt
the stage as a profession and enjoy respectable careers as
actors or playwrights. It was still a struggle, however, for
female playwrights to get their works produced. Some of them
simply shelved their plays; others responded by creating their
own small companies.
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"Save Eugene
O'Neill!"
by Jack Marshall
On January 2,the
Washington Post reported that the Fairfax County library system
was dumping thousands of volumes that had not been checked
out in the last 24 months. Among the classics tossed to make
room for more novels by John Grisham and Tom Clancy, the ghost-written
autobiography of Hillary Clinton and the fulminations of Bill
O'Reilly and Ann Coulter: Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the
Roman Empire; Voltaire's Candide, Hemingway's
For Whom the Bell Tolls, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
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