Monthly Archives: October 2023

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LEHMAN. THE LEHMAN TRILOGY AS GREEK TRAGEDY, AMERICAN STYLE

On February 10, 1949, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premiered at New York’s Morosco Theatre. Seventeen days later the New York Times published an essay by Miller entitled, “Tragedy and The Common Man.” From that time on, high school and college students would discuss the possibility of an American tragedy: Can a classical tragedy […]

FINE ARTS BUILDING IN AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY

The City of Chicago proclaimed Friday, October 13, as “Fine Arts Building Day” in recognition of its 125th anniversary year. The Fine Arts Building also played a significant role in the history of the American theater by hosting the landmark Chicago Little Theatre. When the Fine Arts Building opened in 1885 as a Studebaker automobile […]

DIRECTOR RE-WRITES FLYING DUTCHMAN

Director Terry McCabe has written brilliantly about the director’s historical obligation to a dramatic  text: “I believe the director’s job is to tell the playwright’s story as clearly and as interestingly as possible.”[i] The operas of Richard Wagner debuted in Chicago with Leonard B. Grover (1833-1926) whose company first performed a Wagnerian opera in the […]