Author Archives: Christopher Arnott

Connecticut Stories on Stage Playwriting Competition—Staged Readings of the Winning Plays Closed. Presented by Connecticut Heritage Productions April 17 at the Arts Hall, Educational Center for the Arts, 55 Audubon St., New Haven. Directed by Kenneth Heaton and Peter Loffredo. Stage Manager/Lighting Designer: Seth Harris. Producer: Michael Eck. Rosary Peas by Michael Burgan. Won in … Continue reading »

TOMMY SCHRIDER , SANS POOP, IN BATTLE OF BLACK AND DOGS LAST YEAR AT THE YALE REPERTORY THEATRE. PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS Ask and ye shall receive… a pile of shit. Gratefully, I should add. On Friday I posted an item about a Yale Rep stage effect and casually mentioned that I’d love to know … Continue reading »

I’m dashing off now to Never Ending Books, 810 State Street, for the latest Play in a Day exercise—today, Monday April 18, from 2-5 p.m. Last school vacation, we staged a ten-minute version of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard with a cast of children aged 6-11. This time it’ll probably be Aristophanes—rehearsed, designed and performed all … Continue reading »

The trend of deliberately bad theater singing—which began with the glut of plays and musicals about Florence Foster Jenkins between 1999 and 2005, and could also be said to include The Producers—now continues with a musical about The Shaggs. The legendary trio of New Hampshire siblings recorded The Philosophy of the World, one of the … Continue reading »

Edward Albee won an awarded from the MacDowell colony. But doesn’t Albee run his own writers’ colony, the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center? What a kindly colony macdowell must be; not a jealous bone in its yard. The MacDowell award was announced last week, but won’t be presented until August. Albee is only the … Continue reading »

MERRITT JANSON AS HELENA IN AUTUMN SONATA. PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS, COURTESY YALE REPERTORY THEATRE You know that line in “Comedy Tonight,” the Sondheim song from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum?: “She plays Medea later this week!” Well, Merritt Janson plays Rosalind in Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like it later … Continue reading »

Just as the Yale Cabaret 2010-11 season was concluding and the Summer Cabaret Shakespeare Festival was getting trumpeted louder and louder, along came the just-in-time announcement of who will be running the school-term Cabaret next year: Sunder Gangliani Kate Attwell, Lileana Blain-Cruz Michael “Micky” Place plus Matthew Gutschick as the Managing Director. That’s right, four … Continue reading »