There should be a special Tony this season for “best camera operator backstage in a Broadway house.” There are so many contenders!
14.05.2025 01:19
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There should be a special Tony this season for “best camera operator backstage in a Broadway house.” There are so many contenders!
In my review of Purpose, I mentioned Phylicia Rashad's mother, Vivian Ayers Allen. I want to explain why, because she's a quite remarkable person and I think knowing about her explains a lot about Rashad and Debbie Allen (Start of 🧵)
I'm going to be thinking about this Fosse choreography on the streets of New York tonight. He made people look so interesting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrZ...
I'm on a Fosse kick today so here's Gwen Verdon on the Ed Sullivan show doing "If My Friends Could See Me Now." She was so wonderful and so charming.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJKR...
This little snapshot of a flash piece is quite the "quick punch to the gut" if we've ever read one. Read @lucygram.bsky.social's CLICK/CAPTURE here: expositionreview.com/flash-405/cl....
#ExpoContributor #Flash405
Image of seven of my books with Haymarket, Hope in the Dark (black), Whose Story Is This (violet), Men Explain Things to Me (blue), Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, coedited with Thelma Young Lutunatabua and including 20 amazing writers from around the world (green), No Straight Road Takes You There (yellow), The Mother of All Questions (orange), and Call Them By Their True Names (red).
Happy Valentine's Day, especially to anyone who might identify with one of the letters in LGBTQ, particularly the day after someone Trumpy stripped the letter T and then the letter Q from the National Park Service website for Stonewall in New York City.
To get real nerdy, this is helpful to learn about Guthrie's impact re: the thrust, or "open" stage, which is the thing that got me excited about him as a teenager (that & his focus on rep ensembles, yes I have always been a huge nerd): www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
TG re: being tall (he was 6'4"):"Women to whom one has just been introduced think that it breaks the ice if they scream, 'Goodness, you're tall!' How would they like it if I broke the ice first, by screaming, 'Goodness, what thick ankles!' or 'Goodness what a bust!'" www.anglocelt.ie/2022/05/15/t...
This history of the Guthrie Theater is quite good if you're curious, although I do take issue with the statement that it's founding symbolized "the birth of the not-for-profit resident theater movement" (tell that to Zelda Fichandler). www.guthrietheater.org/globalassets/pdf/guthrie_history.pdf
Guthrie on casting big names (from the interview above): "I'm always meeting ladies at parties who say 'When are you going to have Laurence Olivier here?'" Guthrie was funny! Also apparently went to a lot of parties and met a lot of women.
You can hear Guthrie talk about the foundation of The Guthrie, his thoughts about Broadway and why he didn't think they the Guthrie should do new plays, and "the lost art" of teaching audiences good taste, among other things, on this great (& short) radio interview: libnews.umn.edu/2017/05/engl...
This letter, from an actor in Guthrie's epic 1948 production of "Ane Satyre of The Thrie Estaits" at the Edinburgh Festival, really sets the scene for that production. I wish I could find some photos of it but I'm not certain any exist. www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/1303...
At the start of this, Michael Langham tells a rather mundane story about his girlfriend running late to the theatre that ends with his 1st time seeing Guthrie (in the wings). It gave me the giggle I needed today. Langham went on to eventually run the Guthrie Theater. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0JG...
I'm doing some research on Sir Tyrone Guthrie this week and I always love the gems I come across on this kind of dive.
Tennessee Williams by Eliot Elisofon, 1947
It's worth juxtaposing his photo of Tennessee Williams with this later photo I spotted at the New York Historical Society recently (please forgive me for not getting that photographer's name). That man LIVED A LIFE in between those two photos.
Eliot Elisofon was a pretty amazing photographer - you can see a bunch more of his work here: artsandculture.google.com/search/asset...
Eliot Elisofon, 1947
Eliot Elisofon, 1947
I would kill to know if this was all Kazan's staging (because this must have been during tech?) or if Elisofon arranged any of these. My bet is on Kazan.
In honor of the fact that last night I spent too much $ on a ticket to see Paul Mescal play Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire," here are some amazing photos that I have recently become obsessed with, from rehearsals for the play's 1947 debut. Shot by Eliot Elisofon. www.life.com/arts-enterta...