Monday morning — The heavens opened today, as if in copious regret that the critics had left New London. Or gratitude, perhaps. It rained as we arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday, then gradually cleared to the glories of the last few days, so it all...
Sunday — We’ve had some moving moments this week at the O’Neill. Must be the spectre of ATCA’s birthing Under the Copper Beech so many years ago. Sunday afternoon a few of us attended the reading of Natashina Mechta, i.e. Natasha’s Dream at the Rose Barn Theater. Billed...
George White, tenderly holding the Tony. {Friday — In the room next to ATCA’s Friday morning meeting in New London’s Radisson Hotel, there was a gathering of suits paying tribute. Turned out, it was the local Chamber of Commerce honoring the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and its...
Official day #1: Had an animated and exciting conversation with one of the many directors at the O’Neill. It was so much fun talking theater ideas. Only lasted a couple of minutes, but it was so intense it’s easy to see how inspiring and motivating...
Thursday noon — “Not only did we get to ride on a school bus, we also got to show&tell.” Thus spake Leonard Jacobs, one of the intrepid gaggle of ATCA members who, Thursday morning, clambered off the yellow beast and up the steps to the boyhood...
Sitting on the porch of Eugene O’Neill’s Monte Cristo Cottage created a special variant of déjà vu that connected two giants of the American theater. Settling into one of the rocking chairs overlooking the Thames River felt just like settling into one of the rocking...
The Conference Hat: To embarrass the conference chair (this year, Chris Rawson), on the final day he’s made to wear a hat laden with memorabilia from previous conferences, presented by the previous conference chair (Jay Handelman, right, who chaired Sarasota). The chief recompense is that...
NEW LONDON and WATERFORD, Conn., Thursday, 7:30 a.m. — I arrived here Monday and the rest of the executive committee Tuesday, with the bulk of the participating ATCA members swarming in yesterday (and more to come today). But this is the first moment I’ve had to sit down...
Michael Phillips, film critic for the Chicago Tribune, most recently shared TV’s “On the Movies” with A.O. Scott as joint successors to Siskel & Ebert. Before that he had a record cross-country tour as theater critic, moving briskly from the Dallas Times-Herald to the San Diego Union-Tribune...
A trio of promising works resulted in a stimulating Festival of New Plays for the Southern Writers’ Project the weekend of May 16. Showing patience, Alabama Shakespeare Festival officials offered revised readings of the latest versions of two plays unveiled in 2009. Both Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s “The Flagmaker of Market Street”...