[Caveat: I wrote the following over the weekend before I'd had much a chance to read up on Shaw's take on things. Now I know more. Tomorrow I'll return to this theme. What follows in this post is uninformed and rambly, but I'd still be interested in seeing a production that came at the play …
Improvisation, Freedom, and The Will to be Yourself
"In a self-protection mode, we are not truly free to teach, learn, create, improvise, or love." In going through some old papers the other day, I came across a remarkable little article by Dennis B. Plies, a professor of music at Warner Pacific College, in which Professor Plies addresses improvisation. The title of the article …
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Roosevelt’s “Titanic”
The musical Titanic has a great protagonist--a doomed ship. The tough thing is...everybody knows the end of the story. But strangely, our knowledge of the end is also what gives the story it's edge. It's a god-like power, knowing the person you're listening to is going to die long before it happens to them. …
Taproot Theatre’s “Brownie Points”
Theatre as conversation starter: it's a metaphor we often pull out when we're trying to justify theatre's existence. "To teach and to please" was the catchphrase back in the 18th century, and Taproot Theatre's current production--Janece Shaffer's Brownie Points--manifests that ideal explicitly. One of the characters even suggests early in the play that there …
17 Steps to Beating Resistance
Keeping the themes of "The War of Art" (by Stephen Pressfield) going one more day, let me ask you this: how did the battle with Resistance go today? Here's how it went for me, and the 17 steps I took (or that I felt myself taking? Or that someone gave me the strength take? Or...) …
JEFF BERRYMAN 