Sitting in Lynn Cullen’s Shadow

The first time I called Lynn Cullen’s talk radio program was in 1999. I was living in my parents basement while finishing graduate school. I have no recollection of why I called or what I wanted to say, I just remember what she said to me. Her sister Susan was on the air with her […]

‘Grist From The Mill’ trilogy explores steel mill storytelling

This weekend, Off the wall Theater debuts the first piece from a new trilogy by Lissa Brennan. GRIST FROM THE MILL is a trilogy of works of storytelling inspired by fairy tales and folk music, specifically Irish murder ballads which spoke of ugly events with considered beauty. The steel mills of Southwestern Pennsylvania go beyond […]

Q&A with Susan Stein, Playwright Offering Another Glimpse into the Holocaust Through the Diaries of Etty Hillesum

Etty The Play

Intersectionality is how to understand Etty Hillesum. She insists on not being defined by her circumstances (the Holocaust, yet unnamed), by her gender, by her religion, race, age, class, sexual orientation, political leanings. And yet she identifies herself as a woman, as a Jew, as a 28 year old middle class Dutch student. She is a truth seeker and digs deeply into her own self to work herself out. – See Etty the Play at Carnegie Stage February 7-10, 2019.

Review: A Christmas Carol at Carnegie Stage Gets Dickens Right

Spoiler – this adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic gets everything right about the systemic and institutional issues Dickens addressed without the sentimental Christmas washing we are usually handed. The playwrights here understand, as I like to say, that it wasn’t so much that Scrooge’s change of heart saved Tiny Tim as that fair wages, […]