Podcast
Kerry Butler
Listen to Tony Award nominee Kerry Butler talk about performing for ice cream, her common ground with Daniel Day-Lewis, and her personal connection to her role in THE CALL.
Trailer
THE CALL
Interview
TheaterMania exclusive interview with Michael Greif, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie
Podcast
Tanya Barfield and Leigh Silverman
Interview
Tim Sanford and Annie Baker
Tim Sanford: Did your interest in theater grow out of your interest in film or was it contiguous? Annie Baker: I have always been interested in both theater and film. I think I was more movie-obsessed than theater-obsessed as a kid, though. It’s easier to learn about movies when you live in a small town in Western Massachusetts. My interest in theater initially sprang from my awesome high school drama teacher and the bizarre pretend games I played with my childhood friends in the woods. But my movie-love consumed me. I would happily see any movie at the theater and would spend hours agonizing over what movie to rent at our local independent video store. WARNING: Contains spoilers.
Trailer
Backstage with... Louisa Krause
Interview
An Interview with the Creators of "Far From Heaven"
Why Far From Heaven? Michael Korie: In New York, it’s always the right time for a musical about repressed homosexuality, spousal abuse, and racial politics. Now is particularly the right time because in a stealthy way it’s about today. My goal is to create musicals about the America we live in but without making it obvious. The audience at first believes it’s seeing a period piece. Then the realization creeps up, ‘Oh, this all still happens!’
Essay
Tim Sanford on "Far From Heaven"
The guidelines of our literary department state that we do not accept dramatic adaptations from other sources, except for musicals. As a writer’s theater, we often find the authorial voice becomes commingled or overshadowed by the originating writer in straight adaptations. But the form of the musical theater is essentially synthetic (made, not observed) and depends on the collaborative synergy of its creators to come into being. The best musicals find their originality and their voice through transformation. It usually behooves the creators to steer clear of widely known or beloved novels or films where an audience might have firmly held preconceptions about the source. Musicals based on somewhat more obscure sources usually provide the creators more artistic leeway.
Essay
The American Voice: A Brief History of Adaptation
There seems to be a modern complaint about musicals today that you can’t throw a stone down Broadway without hitting a marquee for a show adapted from a recent hit film. As often as not, these productions are seen as a quick fix for the instant marketing and branding of commercial enterprises rather than original shows. However, adaptation in musicals is nothing new, and people have been turning to other sources for a very long time. What’s often overlooked is that the process of adaptation, at its best, finds ways to expand the form of the musical and deepen the manner in which these stories explore our essential humanity.