Category Archives: Acting

LYRIC OPERA OFFERS BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL JENUFA

Confession, repentance, and forgiveness are in woefully short supply in today’s world. So it comes as no small pleasure to find them the bedrocks upon which Leos Janacek built his amazing opera, now wowing audiences at the Lyric Opera The Moravian composer Leos Janacek (1854-1928) would be called a “late-bloomer” in today’s slang. He was […]

November 13, 2023 – 11:44 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on LYRIC OPERA OFFERS BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL JENUFA

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 […]

October 30, 2023 – 3:26 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LEHMAN. THE LEHMAN TRILOGY AS GREEK TRAGEDY, AMERICAN STYLE

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 […]

October 6, 2023 – 12:21 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, Dance, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Poetry, Politics, Quotations, Talks, Theater, Uncategorized, World Affairs | Comments Off on FINE ARTS BUILDING IN AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY

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 […]

October 5, 2023 – 11:15 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Art, Books, from Paul, History, Music, Opera, Quotations, Theater, Uncategorized | Comments Off on DIRECTOR RE-WRITES FLYING DUTCHMAN

STEPPENWOLF’S NO MAN’S LAND: THE HOSPITALITY OF HIRST

As a theater student in college during the 1960s, nothing excited my classmates and me as much as a new play by Harold Pinter. When we found a new Grove Press copy of the latest Pinter play, we would gather on the steps of the theater building, randomly assign roles, and begin a reading. The […]

August 21, 2023 – 10:55 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater, Theology | Comments Off on STEPPENWOLF’S NO MAN’S LAND: THE HOSPITALITY OF HIRST