This morning, I had the honor to take Dreamgirls cast member Aubrey Poo (pronounced Poh-oh) to four radio stations for…

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In the last days of Fall 2001, I was among several fledgling writers led by the late, great Digby Wolfe creating a radio show that was recorded before a live audience. Called “Green Chile Stew,” it was an hour-long…

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   Stand in a semi-circle. On cue, stomp your right foot, then clap your hands, then thrust your right hand in the air while speaking a letter of the alphabet, clap your hands again, then stomp your left foot. Then the person…

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   Outside, a million people streamed through the streets in revolt. Inside, a million thoughts swirled through my head.

   On May Day, 2006, protestors across the…

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   I started working for…

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   I’ve been thinking a lot about spaces lately. My thoughts are, as far as I can tell, random, unconnected. If you find a theme, let me know.

   • When you walk into a theater before a…

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   I kept getting the emails: Landmark Musicals was holding auditions for 1776 this weekend. Hm. I hadn’t performed in 13 years. The idea was intriguing.…

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     A woman dabs on a bit of perfume for her night out. She and her husband are seeing a show in Popejoy Hall. They arrive at their seats. The man next to them complains to the ushers that the…

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     I love talking to people about theater, especially people who do it on bigger stages than I, so to speak. I got that opportunity last spring when I interviewed Jeff Moss, director for both …

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         Some mornings it’s tough to know what business I’m in.

     I work in a basement office. I process numbers, edit words, answer phone calls, attend meetings, monitor budgets. How different is that from any other office job?…

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     “I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly high.”

     People who perform for a living do it for the glory, right? They just want to be…

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     My friend Elizabeth told me she was trying out for Anything Goes. Landmark Musicals holds its auditions…

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     When I first watched the video of Alice Tan Ridley singing on America’s Got Talent, I had the same reaction as the judges: surprise, awe and a shiver of joy. When I…

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About 150 years ago in Western cultures, men and women did not touch while dancing. It was considered far too indecent. Then along came the waltz.

Of course, now we consider the waltz to be a very tame dance, but in its origins the idea of a man putting his hand on a woman’s waist or…

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In ancient Greece, theaters were only active twice a year. The elders considered drama powerful enough that it was rationed to the public so as not to cause too much emotional distress for citizens.

In Shakespeare’s day, there were only a handful of theater companies, so…

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Yul Brynner famously played the role of King Mongkut in The King and I 4,525 times before he died in 1985. How did he keep his performance of that role fresh?

One of the demands for an actor is to make each show look like it’s the first time his character has ever experienced…

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Don’t you love going to shows with friends? Apparently, so do the women of Delta Sigma Theta.

Sunday night, before the final Albuquerque performance of The Color Purple, a few dozen members of the local chapter of…

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In this season of gift giving, I find myself feeling very lucky. I’ve lived much of my life working in and around the performing arts and a couple of days ago, it occurred to me why I so enjoy live performances. When someone performs for an audience, he or she is showing humanity at its best.



Working at Popejoy Hall the past decade and a half, I’ve watched audiences react to some very special performances. There’s a transformative magic in an exceptional live performance, an alchemy… Continue