Film review: Shiva Baby

Film review: Shiva Baby (2020) Shiva Baby demonstrates the continuing power and richness of the classic theater trope of a dinner party gone bad. The film is a fast paced comedy that concentrates on family dynamics, inter-generational conflict, sexual complexities, and social repression. But not everyone gathered for the shiva in Shiva Baby understands the … Read more

Turn your stand-up comedy set into a 10-minute play

A stand up comic can write a wonderful 10-minute play out of one routine. All you need for a play are two characters in an interesting conflict. Theaters offering a 10-minute play festivals primarily select comedies, and often appeal to the same audiences that love stand-up. Nearly all ten-minute play festivals explicitly reject monologs. After … Read more

10-minute plays: Be kind to your actors

Theater is a collaborative process, of course, at the end of which everyone should be happy, not just the playwright and audience. We want to give actors interesting roles in an interesting play, not a menial chore. We can give them a head start towards success and satisfaction by following these suggestions. Help the actor … Read more

10-minute plays: Embrace minimalism

10-minute plays: Embrace minimalism Plays happen on stage, but they also happen in the imaginations of the audience. The less there is on the stage, the more there is to imagine. Go for the great strength of the short play — a spare, intense, concentrated experience arising out of the irreducible essentials of theater: actors … Read more

10-minute plays: What audiences want

10-minute plays: What audiences want Audiences want to be entertained They don’t want to be lectured or hectored. They want their attention kept on something interesting that someone else is doing. As an old Hollywood hand simply advised, don’t be boring. Start with interesting characters in an interesting situation, and then keep your play moving … Read more

The problem with the Poetry Voice

After hearing a recording of Sharon Olds reading the opening of one of her poems, “Balladz,” I am reminded that the default “poetry voice” style of recitation or reading constrains the poem. It is obsolete and dated, but not yet abandoned. The poetry voice, as I hear it, is a relatively monotone and slow recitation … Read more

Five thoughts about the war in Ukraine, on the fifth day

Five thoughts about the war in Ukraine, on the fifth day 1. When Vladimir Putin continually insisted in public that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, he might not have considered whether this would seriously damage the morale and motivation of Russian soldiers when they are told to kill Ukrainians. 2. Grandmas heading out to … Read more

Interview with Randy Brown

Interview with Randy Brown Randy Brown is a poet, journalist, and editor, and a leading figure in the veterans’ writing movement. He is the author of the award-winning poetry collection Welcome to FOB Haiku (Middle West Press, 2015); editor of a 2016 book-length collection of citizen-soldier journalism; poetry editor of the on-line literary journal As … Read more

Civilian War Casualties Day

Civilian War Casualties Day This is a call for an informal Civilian War Casualties Day. A call to you to help a community group acknowledge once a year the suffering caused, intentionally or coincidentally, to civilians by war and terrorism. Are there many civilian war casualties? The ratio of civilian war deaths to combatants’ deaths … Read more

Review: Alan Farrell, Expended Casings

Review: Alan Farrell, Expended Casings In his foreword (whimsically rendered “Deployed Forward”) to this collection of his poems, Alan Farrell ridicules pretension, incomprehensibility, poetry as therapy, literary critical jargon, posturing, the cult of free verse, swingebuckling, and shallow war poetry cliches. You sense that he is trying to be restrained and polite, and barely succeeding. … Read more