He created the role of Motel the Tailor in Fiddler on the Roof. He directed Elizabeth Taylor in The Little Foxes. He – well, it would be easier to list what he has not done during a lifetime in the theater. But what most surprised me about our conversation was his description of his lifelong friendship … Continue reading »

  “Failure is a very creative place,” asserts James Nicola, artistic director of New York Theater Workshop where singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin developed their flamboyantly successful Hadestown, a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth. But is failure really so useful, or is it just, well, failure? Rachel and Anaïs consider that … Continue reading »

  It rankles when non-Asian actors are cast as Asians, yet you needn’t be Scottish to play Macbeth. How to reconcile these two ideas? David Henry Hwang takes up the question with wit, warmth and insight. Perhaps best known for his play M Butterfly, he co-wrote the musical Aida and is a staff writer on … Continue reading »

An actor and director – his staging of Dominique Morriseau’s “Skeleton Crew” is about to open at the Atlantic Theater – he rejects petty domestic drama, asserting that no writer who’s endured oppression would create such a scenario: “That’s why you never see a brother writing a play about falling in love with a goat … Continue reading »

  His  plays, including Lend Me a Tenor, have been performed in 30 countries and 20 languages. When we spoke at Princeton’s McCarter Theater, he asserted that comedy is as important and serious as drama, which gave me a chance to quote Coleridge – “The true comic is the blossom of the nettle.” – something … Continue reading »

The former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also has a celebrated career in the commercial theater, having staged both Cats and Les Mis. We spoke in a dressing room at Theatre for a New Audience, right after he led a rehearsal of Pericles, where he asserted that Shakespeare is like Picasso in … Continue reading »

 Actor Jessica Hecht has appeared on Broadway in Julius Caesar, Harvey and A View From the Bridge, for which she received a Tony nomination. Among her Off-Broadway work, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl, whose other plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; The Clean House; and Passion Play – productions swiftly followed by … Continue reading »

 She is in her 25th season as artistic director of the McCarter Theatre, and her work has been seen, well, everywhere. In 2012, she directed A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. Among her own plays: Still Life and Having Our Say. We convened at the Princeton Public Library along with our musical guest, fiddle player … Continue reading »

 This splendid actor is perhaps best known for her performances in Wit and Angels in America and now has recurring roles on The Affair, The Americans, and House of Cards. We spoke at the National Black Theater, an event produced with Epic Theater Ensemble, featuring original music from the cast of Shakespeare Remix: Hamlet & … Continue reading »

 The Tony-winning director of Raisin in the Sun, he was the artistic director of Atlanta’s Alliance Theater and has directed at Washington’s Arena Stage, Boston’s Huntington and Chicago’s Goodman. Among his film and TV credits are a remake of Steel Magnolias and a musical built on the work of Tupac Skakur. I’m almost certain these are two … Continue reading »