4 Plays and a Novel

This week, I am preparing for various theater-related activities:

1) I am going to see The Color Purple on Broadway on Sunday as one of the shows for the Broadway Teacher's Workshop professional development I am participating in, so I thought I should re-read the novel. It was just as raw as I remember, and I suspect the musical is not as frank in its use of language and discussion of sex and abuse. Before I go, I want to see the film version with Oprah since I've never seen it.

2) I am directing School of Rock at CA next winter and have started planning for it already. I received the libretto as an advance in the mail and read through the script. It will be a fun show for us!

3) I am taking a directing course at Yale, and we had to read three plays that we will use as texts over the 9 days of coursework: The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, and As You Like It by William Shakespeare. I am very familiar with Menagerie since I have read it many times and performed it in high school, but it is an enjoyable re-read. I have read the Shakespeare before too and it is a fun, zany read. The Guare was new to me (I have read his other play Six Degrees of Separation but this one was darker and weirder). It is a black farce that has an underlying social message and a tragic ending, but throughout the play, you may forget that in the comic antics that distract you. This makes the ending/message more poignant. I recommend seeing rather than reading, though, because the tone of the play is not expressed best on the page -- it is a play to be best experienced on stage.

For the next two weeks, I may not have the opportunity to read too much because I will be seeing many plays/musicals (including Hamilton!!) and attending workshops and classes. I had a brief moment of imagining starting a new blog to chronicle and review all the shows I see but maybe that is a challenge for next year.