theplanningstage

[theplanningstage]

"Theatre is life enhanced."

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[theplanningstage]

Y'all, it has been literal months and I'm still not over how Born With Teeth was simultaneously a vicious takedown of the myth of William Shakespeare the man and one of the greatest entries to that mythos.

That is some A+ playwrighting right there...

Spoilers below the break!

"Do you hate me now? I’m not who you thought I was? Oh, Will would never be so treacherous. Oh, that’s not the Will we know. Well, no. You don’t know me. You know a fairy tale of a country boy made good, the genius earnestly scribbling his way to glory. Christ, are you really that naïve? Do you think anyone ever got rich, got famous and beloved and violently admired by staining his hands with nothing worse than ink? Do you think a career like mine just happens? I would have knocked Saint Paul into the fire if he’d got in my way. From the day my father took me to see the players I knew what I wanted. I wanted money, I wanted glory, I wanted a name. I did not want failure, still less the small room with the sharp instruments. They broke Tom’s hands. (Slight pause) Yeah, no thanks. I loved Kit, but I have worlds to write, and if only one of us could have the brilliant future, it’s not an agonizing decision. Trust me. The man who wrote Iago knows what it is to betray a friend."

...I had to lie down for a minute after this monologue. Just stunning, stunning work by Liz Duffy Adams.

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BORN WITH TEETH dir. Daniel Evans (London Wyndham’s Theatre — 13 August to 1 November 2025) ››› Ncuti Gatwa as Christopher Marlowe ››› Edward Bluemel as William Shakespeare

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Obsessed.

Ncuti Gatwa & Edward Bluemel are set to ignite the stage in "Born With Teeth" at Wyndham’s Theatre! Catch their Marlowe-Shakespeare showdown, Aug 13-Nov 1, 2025

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Incorporating injuries and disabilities into theatre is essential. Everyone's story deserves to be told, and we need representation to make things come alive -- you find ways to work with disabled folks, whether that's taking more time, making things accessible, choosing your venues, your material, etc.

I truly cannot overstate how cool it is that Patrick Page’s injury is getting not only accommodated for in Hadestown, but worked into the character completely. His medical boot will be part of the costume! They are reworking the choreography for his dance with Persephone! And what’s even cooler is that this will be ON FILM!! Hadestown has been continuously making huge steps in theatre, but opening up disability representation and showcasing how disabilities can be accommodated in theatre is so important. This will be preserved on film and I really do hope it will open up many doors for disabled performers both in Hadestown and other pieces of theatre, musicals and plays and all the rest. I can’t wait to see how they incorporate this into the show and what it brings to Hades and his dynamic and relationship with Persephone. Patrick and Amber are both spectacular performers I’ve had the honour of seeing and I am so excited to see their characters evolve again alongside each other with this added level to Hades’ role. I could go on and on but it’s just so cool and Hadestown continues to be the greatest thing on stage

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I love Hadestown so much because in the original myth Eurydice very explicitly dies and that’s why she’s in the underworld. The musical takes a much more metaphorical approach. And what does the love of my life, Anais Mitchell, choose to use as an allegory for death?? Getting a shitty job. And that’s honestly so real of her

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If Hadestown has a moral, she says, then it’s “you have to try, you have to have hope, not because success is a given – it’s not. Orpheus fails. We heroicise” – here she breaks off to apologise that jet lag has led to her making up words – “we heroicise Orpheus not because he succeeds but because he tries, and that endeavour alone is worthwhile. How to live, and not merely survive, is to believe things could change.”

Anaïs Mitchell on her musical Hadestown: 'I worked on it so long I was afraid I'd never make another record'

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hermes in hadestown is the exact opposite of an unreliable narrator. a tortured narrator. a little *too* reliable. incredibly aware of exactly what is happening at any given moment, vaguely spoiling it for you in the beginning, despairing every second of it. but ultimately motivated to continue to tell the story over and over and over with a smiling face for the sake of the audience, and for the sake of the characters themselves, singing it again to keep them alive. knowing how it will end, but singing it again so that the cycle may restart and eurydice may come back to life. enduring the misery of it all, over and over, holding the knowledge of what will come to pass but continuing anyway to see orpheus happy just one more time before it all goes down in flames again.

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Ophelia vibes.

Maria Magdalena in Meditazione - Jusepe de Ribera, 1623.

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the grief of growing

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Good morning, SMblr! This is an assignment for one of my classes; while this isn’t *exactly* a tech brief, it’s right up my alley. I took a bit of an informal approach, but I want to share in case anyone out there would find this useful/have something to add. This is still a draft. 

Of course, there is more than one way to make a calling script; some people like to set up different columns in the margins and others like the dreaded text boxes…. But this is the way that works best for me, in Word, at least. You can do the same thing in Excel too! 

@stagemanagereej this is the assignment you asked about! What do you think?

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FRIEDA LEPOLD Snow White Dress if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

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Paul Hogarth illustrations for New Penguin Shakespeare (1980s)

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Pisses me off how good Shakespeare actually is. Like yeah he's actually that good. People hype him up like he's the best English writer ever, and yeah he's actually an S+ tier writer.

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love shakespeare. did a hamlet run tonight, looked someone dead in the eye to say “am i a coward?” during a speech and the fucker shrugged and nodded