In the last few weeks, two people died who were very important to me. Agnes Wilcox was the founder of Prison Performing Arts, a multi-discipline, literacy and performing arts program that serves incarcerated adults and children in Missouri. Before she started PPA, she ran TNT: The New Theatre in St. Louis. TNT’s project to create...
Category: Theatre
Mother Antonia in her element
A couple of photos of this year’s performance of “The Fundamentals, with Mother Antonia” at the St. Catherine University Reunion. I think you can see that the actor, Megan Campbell Lagas, is enjoying herself. The enjoyment was catching! When she described the Katies’ 1920 basketball victory against the Gophers, the audience cheered. Last year’s performance...
No, YOU’RE upside down
Prepping for a meeting on the “History of Calculus” project, I was happy to learn that this old series of instructional physics films is available online. The “Frames of Reference” episode (below) is a classic, managing to engage its audience without pandering. If we can do something similar with “History of Calculus” I will be...
Grudge Match
I asked Stacey (over at the Alumnae Relations department at St. Kate’s) if they wanted any rewrites on the Mother Antonia piece before starting to rehearse it for this year’s reunion. Stacey mentioned that after last year’s performance, someone had shared the story of how Mother Antonia gave permission for the basketball team to wear...
Lunch Theatre
I know this is short notice, but if you’re in the Twin Cities there’s an opportunity to see a one-act play of mine this Saturday at noon. I wrote the script ten years ago because a women’s group had asked Theatre Unbound to provide entertainment at a lunch they were giving. They wanted something 20...
The History of Pre-Calculus
Sunday night I attended a workshop with company members of Green T Productions, to bring them up to speed on the discussions Kathy Welch (Green T Artistic Director) and I have been having about the “History of Calculus” project. I was afraid that the company members would find the topic dry or not see any...
The History of Calculus
I’m embarking on a new project with Green T Productions. I’ll be a consulting playwright on a work developed by the ensemble, similar to my role on Silkworms, though in this case I’m involved earlier, helping to choose and focus the subject matter. The working title is The History of Calculus, but I’ve promised we’ll...
Calculating vulnerability
I’m reading Fred Kaplan’s The Wizards of Armageddon. Was struck by a quote from an Air Force colonel responding to projections of what might happen to U.S. bases in the event of Soviet nuclear attack. I hope none of you are taken in by all this slide-rule razzmatazz. Remember slide rules? I bet that only...
Me and Mother Antonia, part 2
In the wake of the monologue I wrote last year about their first president, Mother Antonia McHugh, the Alumnae Relations Department at St. Catherine University asked me to write about her for their magazine. A new book has just come out about the chapel she built at St. Kate’s. No matter how many articles and...
Dreadnought
A while ago, I mentioned getting feedback from a fellowship application panel. This winter, I worked on revising the script based on their observations. The proof copy for the revised version arrived today. (The script is available here – or download it here.) Sometimes in the midst of a revision, I’ll realize I already have...