11 December: Plays and things
Dec. 11th, 2014 23:14Favorite plays, what you like about theater, etc. for ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
via_ostiense
I kind of have a type when it comes to plays--you might be able to figure it out when I say that my favorite playwrights are Tony Kushner, Tom Stoppard, and Mary Zimmerman. Honorable mentions to Brian Friel and Michael Frayn, too. And Shakespeare of course but that's practically a given. I really like plays that go after big ideas, that unite ideas and people, that think and dream big. I also really like wordplay.
Favorite individual plays? Stoppard's Arcadia, Frayn's Copenhagen, Kushner's Angels in America (I make no claims that my tastes are unconventional), Zimmerman's The White Snake (note to self, her Wikipedia page is badly out of date). I also really enjoyed the Beardo musical, and I've liked everything I've seen of Stephen Sondheim's so far--really, my theater education is pretty woeful, particularly for someone who once had her own one act plays performed in her high school.
I think what theater excels at is the fact that it's in the moment--which is obvious, but because it's a time-bound thing (even more than all art) it can bridge the gap between times and places with very little effort. The cricket scene in The Invention of Love is one such example--the finale of Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights, in which medieval and contemporary Baghdad are briefly one, is another. I don't actually know a lot about theater, so I can't speak from a place of any especial knowledge, but that's always the magic for me--how we can go anywhere without leaving the same room, transported by some people in costumes. It's a definite kind of magic.
Now I really miss Shotgun Players and Berkeley Rep. I never wrote up the last shows I saw there--Tom Stoppard's Salvage and Dear Elizabeth, respectively, both of which were really good. Salvage in particular was excellent, but then, I do love Stoppard. (P.S. Shotgun is doing an all-female playwrights season in 2015!)
via_ostiense I kind of have a type when it comes to plays--you might be able to figure it out when I say that my favorite playwrights are Tony Kushner, Tom Stoppard, and Mary Zimmerman. Honorable mentions to Brian Friel and Michael Frayn, too. And Shakespeare of course but that's practically a given. I really like plays that go after big ideas, that unite ideas and people, that think and dream big. I also really like wordplay.
Favorite individual plays? Stoppard's Arcadia, Frayn's Copenhagen, Kushner's Angels in America (I make no claims that my tastes are unconventional), Zimmerman's The White Snake (note to self, her Wikipedia page is badly out of date). I also really enjoyed the Beardo musical, and I've liked everything I've seen of Stephen Sondheim's so far--really, my theater education is pretty woeful, particularly for someone who once had her own one act plays performed in her high school.
I think what theater excels at is the fact that it's in the moment--which is obvious, but because it's a time-bound thing (even more than all art) it can bridge the gap between times and places with very little effort. The cricket scene in The Invention of Love is one such example--the finale of Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights, in which medieval and contemporary Baghdad are briefly one, is another. I don't actually know a lot about theater, so I can't speak from a place of any especial knowledge, but that's always the magic for me--how we can go anywhere without leaving the same room, transported by some people in costumes. It's a definite kind of magic.
Now I really miss Shotgun Players and Berkeley Rep. I never wrote up the last shows I saw there--Tom Stoppard's Salvage and Dear Elizabeth, respectively, both of which were really good. Salvage in particular was excellent, but then, I do love Stoppard. (P.S. Shotgun is doing an all-female playwrights season in 2015!)