By Hap Erstein Chances are you do not know the name Daniel Maté, but if The Theatre at Arts Garage’s artistic director Lou Tyrrell’s hunch is right, you soon will. He is so excited by the talents of this 38-year-old composer-lyricist-playwright that he has scheduled two of Maté’s show for this season. The last time he did that was in the 2001-2002 season of Florida Stage, … [Read more...]
Playwright Macmillan: How ‘Lungs’ came to be
Rising British playwright Duncan Macmillan is gaining considerable attention and productions with his seriocomic play Lungs, now playing at The Theatre at Arts Garage through April 14. In it, we eavesdrop on a couple, M. (Cliff Burgess) and W. (Betsy Graver), contemplating having a child, but concerned about bringing one into a world of global anxiety and political unrest. We … [Read more...]
Playwright sees spirit of art in ‘Ghost-Writer’
If you knew that a book called The Iron Whim describes itself as “a fragmented history of typewriting,” you may not bother to pick it up. But you will be glad that Michael Hollinger did, for it led him to create Ghost-Writer, his latest work to be produced by West Palm Beach’s Florida Stage. For as dry as the book sounds, it is full of juicy literary anecdotes. “A couple of … [Read more...]
‘Clybourne Park’ playwright wants to get under your skin
Playwright Bruce Norris has no use for writing scripts that do not provoke audiences. Typical of his work, if there is such a thing, is Clybourne Park, which looks at race relations in this country and suggests that communities change faster than our racial attitudes. “Well, we’ve obviously made some very important political strides and obviously some very important things … [Read more...]
Playwright Laufer thrilled with reponse to ‘Sirens’
She has had three of her plays premiere at Florida Stage and one of them -- the apocalyptic comedy, End Days -- had an off-Broadway run last spring. But with her latest work, Sirens, showcased at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., last month, Deborah Zoe Laufer landed on the radar of the nation’s regional non-profit theaters and commercial … [Read more...]
Playwright Seth Rozin explores faith, humor
Playwright Seth Rozin is the founder and producing artistic director of Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company. But when it came to premiering his latest script, Two Jews Walk Into a War . . ., he thought that Florida Stage was a better fit. So continuing in Manalapan through Nov. 29 is the seriocomic tale of a Middle Eastern Odd Couple, the last two Jews left alive in … [Read more...]