Theater history tells us that world’s first playwright after the fall of Rome (500 years after, to be precise, at the end of the 10th Century) was a German nun, Hrotsvitha, who penned six comedies in Latin, based on Terrence, with Christian themes.

Three hundred years later, as the Renaissance began, the next plays appear, first in Italy, in Latin, then Italian; then in France, Spain, the HRE; later still (16^th Century) in England: Medwall, Heywood, Lily, Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Dryden (to name a few).

All men.

Continue reading First Professional Female Playwright →

“We Must Be Careful in the Woods”

I will begin by confessing that for the past year I’ve been having coffee at Starbuck’s on East Bloulvard with David Watkins every Saturday to read and re-read, over and over, David Mamet’s 1972 tour-de-force, The Duck Variations—his second play (after Lakeboat). Initially, the goal was to stage it, but David couldn’t remember the lines. (He’s an octogenarian engineer who hasn’t been on stage since college). Ultimately we read it at Julia’s Cafe & Books for an audience of two: my wife and daughter. A passerby stopped and watched for a while . . . Continue reading Mysterious Mamet →

All great plays written before 1923 (according to Wikipedia) are in the public domain. That’s a lot of plays, most of which are available free on line at Gutenberg.com.

Most modern plays, on the other hand, are still under copyright, and must be purchased.  Continue reading Procuring Scripts →

Or not.

The Very Last Thursday Morning Morning Cold Read will be the 8th of May. Why beat a cold horse?

What happens next depends on how many people respond to this post with days and times they’re likely to show up once in a while to read. If the pool is large enough to guarantee a four-um (quorum of four), we’ll keep on keeping on.

Whether we’ll still be at Julia’s will depend on their availability at our best time. We may be looking for a new home as well.