Multiple Things I Have Read Recently and Liked

I figured I'd go with a very descriptive title for this. Why get fancy?

- Via the Clyde Fitch Report, say hello to Karen Greco and PR for Smarties. Her bona fides are, well, bona fide. And these two posts are both grand. It might just be NYC's answer to Adam Thurman. (Who, by the by, has been doing some good work lately himself.)

- Speaking of good work lately, Garrett at the Playgoer has been en fuego as they say on Sportscenter. Read this, this and this, if you haven't already. How's that for a slice of fried gold? Heckuva week, Playgoer.

- Earth Hour happened this weekend. Did you know about it? I didn't until the last minute. Playwright and blogger Susanna Speier wrote about her Earth Hour, and her thoughts have some relevance for theatre, I think:

Rituals with sticking power are infectious as a hit summer blockbuster. They are not the created by well intended non-profits. They are a cultural invasion and an accident. Rituals with sticking power surge up from a deeply visceral collective impulse that is rarely understood at the time of the surge. Whether they want to be or not, people get sucked in by their centers of gravity. Rituals, like languages, evolve through practice as their context is defined and re-defined.

It's good stuff, and worth a longer look (I'll post more on this later). RTWT.

- Also in the world of not-quite-theatre, but totally related (at least in my mind), Charli Carpenter at Lawyers, Guns and Money has a great discussion on measuring race here. Given theatre's diversity problems and looking for solutions, this is interesting stuff to consider.

- Via Rob at The Wicked Stage AND Freeman, TCG's new blog is here. And it's pretty good stuff.

- This is a great interview.

- This is all British-y and whatnot (like a good cup of tea), but it's still pretty spot on. I do like a good manifesto.

We are also here today to make some noise. Governments of any colour are rightly frightened of the ability of performers to make a fuss. We can be very loud, with a size and volume hugely bigger than the amount of subsidy it takes to shut us up. Good. Keep it up. Be proud, be loud, be heard.

Via.

- And last, but not least, in pluggery, my good friend Maria Gabriele's play, Graceful Living is getting a workshop this week at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. She is funny as hell, smart and, as an outsider to American culture (she's a German emigre), she catches weird things that we American often miss. If you can, check it out.