Stand-Up Comedy in Ancient Rome
To quote playwright Alan Bennett: “If not quite a platform, a play is certainly a plinth, a small eminence from which to address the world, hold forth about one’s concerns…
Music and The Planets
When Gustav Holst composed The Planets in 1916, the Great War was raging, which surely induced him to open his symphonic suite with Mars, The Bringer of War. The Red…
Wonder of the World
Cass, the star of the play, declares early on that she is “a tall glass of bubbly cider.” This pretty well sums up the frothy nature of this madcap comedy.…
Into the Woods
“We have been in the woods for 20 months, now we are finally getting out of it,” said Kevin Wilson of the Zach Theatre, referring to the virus-induced shutdown of…
Wild West Texas Comedy
In 4 words, musical comedy is back! After a less than amusing pandemic that has shut down most theatrical productions for more than a year, the arts scene in Austin…
Nate on Comedy
Science and comedy are not so far apart. I don’t mean physicists tell bad puns about how many quarks can dance on the head of a pin, or that comedians,…
The Perils of the Homeless
All of those who attend the theatre are secure in the knowledge they have a place to call home. Few such people think the homeless also might have such a…
Bloom’s Last Book
I do not think Harold Bloom believed in immortality, only long life (he died at age 89 in 2019). What he called poetic immortality was merely extreme longevity, for even…
Mary Oliver and Nature
Review written by Conlan Salgado This is not the age of poetry, nor of great personalities. No one really knows at all what this is the age of, but I…
TAYLOR and CLIFT
Review by Dr. M. Emanuele The book Elizabeth and Monty by Charles Casillo is an enlightening glimpse of the intertwined lives of the movie icons Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.…