"Let us amuse ourselves today, You will never guess my name, and I won't ask you to try. I am a mad spirit or goblin. I come from the other world, and one of those spirits, Actus or Plautus orders me to tell you that a comedy will be played this evening."
Angelo Beolco, Playwright and Actor 1502-1542 Read More »
When creating the characters of the masks in The Innamorati (and they are a lively bunch) I was profoundly influenced by both the traditions of the Commedia Dell 'Arte but also by Keith Johnstone's' brilliant work Impro, on improvisation for actors and the power of the mask to influence the actor through a form of
Research Notes: Masks and Trance I Read More »
I posted a few field drawings of my mother Jeanette Snyder yesterday, and wanted to add some more of them because I think they are charming — and remind me of the days when field researchers lugged heavy tape recorders, cameras, and note books, just in case all that heavy technology failed, leaving only the
More Field Drawings: Darjeeling, India 1964. Tibetan Lhamo Performances. Read More »
I have been working through my mother Jeanette Snyder's papers — including a cash of drawings, and strips of contact sheet photographs (many that were never developed and for which the negatives disappeared many years ago) on her research of the Tibetan Lhamo in 1964. She rote a wonderful article "The World Beneath the Tents"
Bittersweet: An Afternoon Under the Tent Watching the A Ice Lhamo Perform Read More »
Have you even noticed how it feels like your characters are peering over your shoulder as you write? Making sure, no doubt, that you will properly represent them. So many authors have written on that weird sensation that characters take over one’s life, that they refuse certain manipulations, that they interrupt the flow of writing
I’m Being Watched: Characters Weigh In on the Progress Read More »
I spent the morning revising a bit and adding more art to “A Chorus of Clowns and Masked Comic Theater,” an article I wrote long ago for the “Folkroots Column” in Realms of Fantasy and then republished the Journal of Mythic Arts. I had almost forgotten how interesting it was (well…to me at least) reaching
A Chorus of Clowns Redux Read More »
Actor John Turturro has acquired the rights to create a filmed version of Italo Calvino's Italian Folktales (perhaps my all time favorite fairy tale collection). Last year, Turturro tested the waters so to speak with a new play "Fiable Italiano" adapted from Calvino's collection. It was performed before sold out audiences in Turin, Naples and
John Turturro And Italo Calvino: Italian Folktales On The Stage And On Film Read More »
