Friday, April 30, 2010

Still Midnight (2010)

Still Midnight Still Midnight by Denise Mina


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stayed up past my bedtime to finish this excellent crime novel! Ever since discovering the Garnethill trilogy, I have been impressed with Denise Mina's ability to create a world peopled by flawed characters that we care about while telling a compelling story.

The bumbling criminals in STILL MIDNIGHT reminded me a bit of Elmore Leonard but the horror of random violence kept the proceedings grounded in Glasgow. DS Alex Morrow is an angry, disatisfied woman both at work and at home. Watching her spar with her partner while recognizing her total dedication to solving a terrifying kidnapping forces the reader to reluctantly give Alex some of the respect she deserves.

Mina starts with what could be stock characters and through small details eventually reveals them more completely. Even Alex herself is unmasked.  

View all my reviews >>

David Mamet's THEATRE (2010)

After reading Terry Teachout's comments about David Mamet's new book, called simply Theatre, I searched for it and found that the Ann Arbor District Library had a copy on order. I have requested that my local library purchase a copy as well but it may be a while before I get to read it. Check out what Teachout has to say about the book  here and comments about Mamet's top plays here.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, #1) A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin


My rating: 1 of 5 stars
The public library's NEA Big Read selection this year.

I took the paperback with my on a trip recently and managed to read the beginning but just couldn't get into it. Fantasy and science fiction, in general are not genre's I enjoy. That having been said, I have read and enjoyed 'speculative' fiction and the Harry Potter series.

Rather than punish myself any longer. I am not going to finish this book. The guilt is almost overwhelming.

View all my reviews >>

The Play That Changed My Life (2009)

The American Theatre Wing Presents the Play That Changed My Life: Americas Foremost Playwrights on the Plays That Influenced Them The American Theatre Wing Presents the Play That Changed My Life: Americas Foremost Playwrights on the Plays That Influenced Them by Ben Hodges


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Subtitled 'America's Foremost Playwrights on the Plays That Influenced Them', I have not been able to discern why these particular nineteen playwrights were chosen and some others were not. That having been said, I found all the essays/interviews fascinating. Closest to my own experiences with theater growing up were those of Christopher Durang. He knew and loved "Fiorello" and "Carnival" both of which I saw in try-out in Philadelphia as a teen. He also had attended the Paper Mill Playhouse where I was lucky enough to perform with the Children's Theater from the John B. Kelley Playhouse in the Park (now long gone). David Ives's story of being inspired by Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn in "A Delicate Balance" and then meeting them years later was touching. But the story that most affected me was that of Doug Wright, who made me cry. The two people who most influenced him were taken away long ago by A.I.D.S.

Highly readable and inspirational, this is a great book for anyone interested in theater. It certainly made me think about the experiences the propelled me to love theater.

View all my reviews >>

Friday, April 23, 2010

Backwards and Forwards (1983)

Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays by David Ball


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another overdue book from the library. Recommended by 'becoming a dramaturgist' friend Deb, I had to ask my local library to find it somewhere else in the state. By the time I got the book, the time allowed to read, even this slim book, was not adequate.

Author David Ball was a professor in the Drama Department at Carnegie Mellon when he wrote this book. He has impeccable credentials since then as well. That being said, I found some of his writing rather juvenile. He refers to those who don't understand a play as "dumb readers". Once you get past those types of comments, which are probably meant to draw in the especially educated readers of his book and as a joke, his concept of playreading is fascinating.

His primary suggestion is that you cannot understand a play in totality unless you can connect all the dots. Why do things happen? What propels them?  He posits that by being able to start at the end and work your way to the beginning of the play you will see those important connections.

Using HAMLET as a major focus, he discusses how the play can be built to the best advantage for performance. This is an important book for anyone interested in directing, playwriting, or dramaturgy.

View all my reviews >>

Friday, April 16, 2010

I Capture the Castle (1948)

I Capture the Castle
A beautiful coming of age story set in a small village in England in the 30s is told through the journals of Cassandra Mortmain during her seventeenth year. I can't believe I never discovered this story while I was growing up. I think I got it confused with Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Insightful, charming and intelligent, Cassandra 'captures' the castle and all the denizens therein and nearby in a way that enticed me to stay up past my bedtime to finish reading it.

Beginning in extreme poverty because James Mortmain can't write a follow up to his classic book, the family prospers under the benevolence of the new landowners of the castle. Romance follows but there isn't a Hollywood ending. There is, of course, a thoughtful and 'right' ending.

Author Dodie Smith, who was already an established playwright, later became better known for writing The Hundred and One Dalmations, a children's classic.

And even though the movie isn't rated highly, I watched a trailer and decided I needed to request it from my local library, which, of course, didn't own it. Thank goodness for MeLCat, our statewide interlibrary loan system.

View all my reviews >>