Mosher's Pickle Jar

Director Gregory Mosher, now at Columbia after decades as an influential theater (and film) maker in Chicago, New York and London, will headline a chat about the uncertain future of the performing arts this coming Monday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m. at the Picnic Market Cafe. Details here.

Funny thing, I was just reading Lincoln Center's 50th anniversary retrospective today, and in the story about the troubled history of the Beaumont, it's commonly acknowledged that Mosher is the A.D. who cracked the theater's secret code and turned the place around with the 1986 production of House of Blue Leaves, and a series of hits that included Anything Goes, Sarafina!, Our Town, and Six Degrees of Separation.

But, Helen Sheehy's article relates, he remains disarmingly modest about his success:

"Everybody had been trying to get the lid off the pickle jar for years," he said, "and the guy who finally does it doesn't deserve the credit."

Babelfish Strikes Again

Got this email today from a Russian theater in Chekhov's hometown, responding to a fact-checking question:

Expensive colleagues!

Festival in Taganrog the seventh under the account. The following festival is planned in September, 2010.

With pleasure we invite you to take in it part in quality of guests of honour!

"Expensive colleagues" is so much more attention-grabbing than "dear friends," don't you think?

UPDATE: One of the productions at that Russian theater's upcoming theater festival is something called "Five poods of love," which is not a mistranslation--it refers to a description Chekhov once offered of The Seagull, as detailed here:

In a letter to his friend Aleksei Suvorin as he was finishing The Sea Gull, Chekhov said that it contained 5 "poods" of love, along with four acts, a landscape with a lake, very little action, and a lot of talk about literature.2 A pood was a pre-metric Russian weight measure equivalent to 16 1/2 kilos or 36 lbs. So we have 180 pounds of love in the play, which I take as a lot.

It's About Time?

As I walked to A Steady Rain last night on 45th Street, I had a fleeting moment of exhilaration when I looked around and saw straight plays everywhere: God of Carnage, Oleanna, Superior Donuts, and the show I was headed to (no great shakes, by the way--it's a Lumetian/Lehanian act-off that the walrus-moustached Daniel Craig handily walks away with; more here). My excitement was a little tempered by the comment I heard as I left: "I like this whole 90 minutes thing," said one woman, and then I passed this sign in front of Oleanna:

Playgoer alert!

An Unlikely Couple

Spotted over someone's desk here at TCG.

Craft Studies

I saw someone reading Mamet's True and False on the train the other day, and it reminded me of the coverage we gave it in Back Stage West when it came out, including a good Q&A with the author that I'm still proud of. I'm less proud of a sit-down I had some years ago with the British auteur Mike Leigh (I link to it somewhat sheepishly), which I thought of with some pain when I happened to read Chloe Veltman's in-depth, supremely craft-focused Q&A with Leigh in The Believer.

Cause for Celebration

What a pleasure that my first big feature for American Theatre since starting here full-time--one of four profiles of newish artistic directors doing interesting things all 'round the country--is of Michael Shepperd and the Celebration Theatre. It's been years since I've seen either in person, but writing this piece allowed me to conjure some fond Left Coast memories and talk to some exceedingly cool folks. Enjoy.

Linkz R Us

• The top 10 non-holiday shows on American stages this coming season.
  
• This might be better than the play.
  
• To the ramparts!
  
• Richer than fiction: Jon Lee Anderson in Rio.
  
• Now my wife will want to move to Sweden.