I began writing this blog in Rijeka, Croatia, a town on the Adriatic Sea, while re-staging a production of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE that premiered shortly before Covid shut down the world.
A true revelation, I am convinced, can only emerge from stubborn concentration on a single problem. I have nothing in common with experimentalists, adventurers, with those who travel to strange… more
The expression “the medium is the message,” coined by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, meant that the technology that we use embeds itself in any message that we receive. Later, feeling that… more
From now through April 2nd, you can catch SITI Company’s brand new production entitled Chess Match No. 5, Tuesdays through Sundays at the Abingdon Theater in midtown Manhattan. We hope that you will… more
The political cataclysm that recently landed upon our collective heads is a dangerous call to attention but also an opportunity. We are currently facing a crisis in the guise of a future that may be… more
Every autumn I arrange two museum visits with my first-year Columbia MFA directing students. On November 9th we were scheduled to meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Museum of Modern Art on 54th street in… more
On the evening of October 24th SITI Company will host a Noir Dinner, a fundraising event, in the wonderful restaurant known as the Library at the Public Theater where we will be honoring the brilliant… more
I recently saw a Polish production of King Lear at the Venice Biennale directed by Jan Klata. But Lear was missing. Literally. At first the character of Lear was represented by an empty chair and a… more
I lost count of the times that I have entered a room to find my wife Rena weeping amidst objects or photographs from her past. I watch how she gently and lovingly holds the objects that had once been… more
Ric Zank and his company, the Iowa Theater Lab exerted a significant influence on me as well as on many of my colleagues during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The work was physical, imagistic,… more
As a midyear transfer student at Bard College, I stood on a long line to sign up for a popular theater class taught by Bill Driver, the chair of the theater department who would soon become my first… more
Many years ago my T’ai Chi Chuan teacher Jean Kwok made a trip to Hong Kong. On her first morning in the city she walked into a nearby park to practice her form. The large park was filled with many… more
You are free to choose what you want to make of your life. It’s called free agency or free will, and it’s your birthright.(Sean Covey) The moment that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanatta first… more
For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.(Elie Wiesel)Poet and activist Maya Angelou wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.” In small quotidian… more
Composer, music theorist, writer and influential artist John Cage, known for his delight in the unplanned and the unexpected, nevertheless recognized the necessity for an artist’s rigorous… more
You need something to open up a new doorTo show you something you seen beforeBut overlooked a hundred times or more.(Bob Dylan, from Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie)
"If two roads open up before you, always take the most difficult one. Because you know you can travel the easy one." (Raymond Belle – Parkour Traceur) As a teenager I was deeply enamored with… more