What I mean

You know, I get tired of sniping over the bows. On Planet Alison it seems a necessary evil, silence being a slow, deadly acid, but in all th...

Wrapping the wraps

My, we're a reflective bunch; it's a regular hall of mirrors out there in cyberland, where us "non-professional critics" (...

Review: Entertaining Mr Sloane

Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton, directed by Simon Phillips. Designed by Shaun Gurton, lighting design by Matt Scott, music by David Che...

2006: The Wrap

As I lay champagne on ice and chill the flutes, preparing for my Olympian end-of-year reflections, I realise that I've had a good year h...

Hmmmmmm

For reasons that utterly escape me, my feed is popping up old posts that I haven't touched at all. Is there a doppelganger reposting whi...

Blood sport

Over in his virtual Berlin, Daniel Schlusser thinks that artistic argument is all too polite. He wants blood. Says Daniel:I suppose I am ac...

Holly, mistletoe and other un-antipodean things

As you all know, TN is a stickler for tradition. I even managed to arrange some snow for our bushfire-stricken Alpine regions and, since I b...

In Which Little Alison Gets Cross

Here is a picture of TN this week. Not a happy blogger, is she?To drive away the clouds louring o'er this house (and just before Christm...

Debate? What debate?

Asks Supernaut (aka dancer Frances D'Ath) of the so-called "controversy" around the Melbourne Festival.Slagging match of the ...

That "entertainment" word

Prompted in part by a glum viewing of the Short & Sweet website, our favourite New York tragedian George Hunka lets rip on the commodifi...

Strong action

Signs of hope? James Strong, the new(ish) chair of the Australia Council, has put his weight behind yet another inquiry into the "troub...

Review: Short & Sweet

Short & Sweet 2006: Week 3 Top 30. Various artists. Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre.As everyone knows who is not from Mars (or out...

Exploding Melbourne blogs

Metaphorically speaking, of course...A number of new theatre blogs - mainly by theatre practitioners - are crossing my screen, and it occurs...

MIAF: The thrashing begins

Predictably, the guns are out already on the Melbourne Festival's decision to extend Kristy Edmunds' term as festival director. Of ...

MIAF: Edmunds scores another year

It's official. After much speculation, it was announced today that Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts...

More geek stuff

Technophobes can shut their eyes now ...I can't work out how to solve the post feed issue. Blogger has removed the handy "recent po...

Crampton on criticism

UPDATE: Just caught up with Rat Sass's take on what he calls blogosphere "theatre talk" and the "contra-review". Am...

Housekeeping

Since we've been talking about fairness all week, I feel obliged to point to this. I've given Cameron Woodhead some curry in these p...

Review: A Mile in her Shadow

A Mile in her Shadow by Robert Reid, directed by Aidan Fennessy. Design by Anna Cordingley, lighting design by Matt Scott, original music an...

On being nice

UPDATES: Some well-considered words from Ben Ellis over at Parachute of a Playwright and gobsmacked disbelief from our man in berlin Daniel...

Review: Translations

Translations by Brian Friel, directed by David Mealor. Design by Kerry Reid, lighting design Geoff Cobham. With William Allert, Michaela Can...

Criticism and audiences

UPDATE: In the comments, Ben makes clear that Chris Bendall's howl that he was taken out of context is perfectly just. My sincere apolo...

Around the web

Prompted by recently seeing Endgame, I've been having a private Beckett-fest of my own lately, revisiting some of those inimitable writi...

Correspondence: Chris Bendall

Chris Bendall, artistic director of Theatre@Risk, is - quite understandably - rather pissed off at his production being the sacrificial lamb...

Review: For Samuel Beckett

For Samuel Beckett: Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, directed by William Henderson and Anne Thompson. Design by Julie Renton, lighting design by ...

The problem of praise

UPDATE: Pertinent to the discussion nicely bouncing along in the comments here: a speech by the distinguished American critic Eric Bentley o...

Essay: The Theatre of Difference

Last Sunday, Daniel Keene delivered the 2006 Rex Cramphorn Memorial Lecture to around 300 people at the Malthouse. It was a grand afternoon....

Mad as a Coote

The Liberals have announced their arts policy and, by gum, I'm off to tell those demonstraters outside Bracksie's office (just down...

Review: Babes in the Wood / Tomfoolery

Babes in the Wood by Tom Wright, directed by Michael Kantor. Music by Iain Grandage, design by Anna Tregloan, lighting by Paul Jackson, chor...

Clarification: Artistic Counsel

On the weekend, a few people asked me about my job at the Malthouse Theatre. This is because in an otherwise quite decent interview with Da...

Review: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, adapted by Peter Evans and Anita Hegh, directed by Peter Evans. Design by Adam Gardnir, l...

Bits and Bobs

A group of talented young theatre artists is bringing some of Australia's theatre history to life at the Northcote Town Hall this week (...

Rex Cramphorn Memorial Lecture

This Sunday, get along to the Malthouse to hear Daniel Keene deliver the Rex Cramphorn Memorial Lecture, an annual lecture to honour the mem...

Review: The Damask Drum

Mishima in the City: Duets of Desire. 2: The Damask Drum, adapted from the plays by Yukio Mishima and Zeami, directed by Robert Draffin. Fil...

15th century post modernism

You can tell that I'm writing a novel. It's having lamentable affects. I'm (mostly) doing my 2000 words a day, but it seems to b...

Oddments

Regular TN readers will know I have the odd problem with documentary theatre, but it has entered a new and surreal dimension that makes my f...

Stars etc

American bloggers are getting very excited about the appointment of Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton as the joint artistic direc...

Desperate Days in the Bunker

I feel like I can't be bothered to mention this, but I suppose I should. Perhaps it's anticipatory hysteria at the thrashing the neo...

Arts funding: some further thoughts

Some notes arising out of the present discussion:1. The question of funding the arts is a no-brainer for artists. Not, as alleged by populis...

Speaking up for theatre

I just did something unprecedented, and closed off the comment thread to my post on the threat to La Mama's funding. TN had swum into th...

La Mama, funding and freedom of speech

Good things come to those who wait. The Age finally ran my opinion piece on La Mama Theatre being put "on notice" by the Australia...

Off the Deep End

Depressing news on the grapevine today - ABC Radio National is axing its popular daily arts program The Deep End. Which means, aside from Th...

Review: Killing Game

Killing Game by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Greg Stone. Design by John Bennett, lighting by Nick Merrylees, sound by Greg Stone and Evan Dri...

Review: Simple Gifts

My review of George Ogilvie's autobiography Simple Gifts, published by Currency House, was broadcast today on ABC Radio National's T...

MIAF: The Wraps

The Age has several wrap-ups today on MIAF, in general dubbing this year's festival a rather puzzling success. Arts Editor Raymond Gill ...

MIAF: Pichet Klunchun and Myself

Festival diary #7TN is recovering nicely after three weeks of extreme culture vulturing (not as extreme on my part as some others, to whom I...

MIAF: Peepshow, Blind Date

Festival Diary #6My apologies for the tardiness of these reviews. Retrospectively, I diagnosed myself with what Osip Mandelstam called Pre-L...

MIAF: I La Galigo

Festival Diary #5As we enter the third week of the Melbourne Festival, TN finds herself a little alarmed by how easily she fades these days....

Festival nannies

Miriam Cosic, Arts Editor for the Oz, writes waspishly today of the handwringing apparently going on over Kristy Edmunds' MIAF:POOR Mel...

MIAF: Voyage

Festival diary #4Voyage by dumb type, performed by Manna Fujiwara, Yuko Hirai, Takao Kawaguchi, Hidekaazu Maeda, Seiko Ouchi, So Ozaki, Nori...

MIAF: Now That Communism is Dead My Life Feels Empty

Festival Diary #3Now That Communism Is Dead My Life Feels Empty by Richard Foreman. Direction, composition and design by Max Lyandvert. Ligh...

Briefly off topic

My review of JG Ballard's new novel, Kingdom Come, was broadcast today on ABC Radio National's The Book Show. Transcript and audio h...

MIAF: Ngapartji Ngapartji, La Fille de Cirque

Festival Dairy #2Keen observers might notice that TN is wilting a little. I'm not complaining - far from it - but I'm thinking rathe...

MIAF: Tragedia Endogonidia, 1984

Alison's Festival Diary #1 Yes, it's that time of year again: the Melbourne International Arts Festival has invaded and transformed ...

Fringe Review: Rubeville and Debris

Rubeville, written and directed by Thomas Henning. Music by Liam Barton, Sebastian Steiger and Sean the Saw. With Gareth Davis, Dylan Young ...

Notables

Your faithful blogger has had an indifferent week, struggling with a cold and a short story and losing on both fronts...but I will heroicall...

Blogrollin'

After much procrastination (it's my middle name) I've finally ordered my disgracefully chaotic blogroll. Alphabetically, if you plea...

Artaud and sedition

My mini-essay on Antonin Artaud in my review of Jet of Blood, in particular my (yes, provocative) speculations on the connections between ex...

Notable Misses

First on the list is Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, now being performed by Eleventh Hour. This is a real miss - guys, I really tri...

Review: Jet of Blood

Jet of Blood, adapted from Antonin Artaud, directed by Olivia Allen. Designed by Adam Gardnir, lighting by Luke Hails, sound by Hayley Forwa...

Pink and pleased

Theatre Notes is all flustered with excitement this morning, having scored a mention - along with some of her favourite theatre bloggers - ...

Storeroom shenanigans

Was it me who said I had to pull back on this blog? I'm good at foolish statements like that. No sooner do I say that poetry has burned ...

Autobiography of Red

Autobiography of Red, based on the novel by Anne Carson, devised and performed by Luke Mullins. Sound design and composition by Jethro Woodw...

Things on Sunday: An Ordinary Man

Your hostess with the mostest is up for the next in the Things on Sunday series at the Malthouse. It is the screening of the award-winning d...

Thompson's Bank

I am going to renovate my lacksadaisically-updated and chaotic blogroll, promise - some new things there but it's all looking unalphabet...

Honour Bound

Honour Bound, conceived, directed and co-designed by Nigel Jamieson. Choreographed by Garry Stewart, composition and sound design by Paul Ch...

Em 4 Jay

A slight divagation in normal broadcasting to plug Em 4 Jay, Alkinos Tsilimidos' new film, which opens tonight at the George Cinema in S...

Notables

Lots happening this week and much of it worth a peek as Melbourne theatre heads into its busiest time of year...It's the final week for ...

Contemporary Australian Drama

Reviewed for The Book Show, ABC Radio National - you can listen to me here or read on...Contemporary Australian Drama by Leonard Radic. Bran...

Of the blogs

Our New York friends Superfluities and Parabasis alert me to Time Out New York's theatre editor David Cote's swanky new blog Histri...

The Skriker

The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, directed and designed by Brian Lipson. Lighting by James Shuter, audio visual by Qiao Li, visual effects Nic...

Notable misses

As I keep saying ad nauseam, I can't get to everything I'd like to see. So I'm going to do the obvious thing and institute a reg...

Profile: Lindy Davies

This week, Lindy Davies announces that she will leave her position as Head of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Drama at the end ...

Specula

For those who were asking - the radio play Specula, my collaboration with composer Sam Mallet, is now online at ABC Radio National.

Female of the Species

The Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Patrick Nolan. Designed by Dale Ferguson, lighting by Matt Scott, composer Dav...

Radio spots

Those curious to hear my dulcet tones can listen to me speaking about Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species on ABC Radio'...

George Fairfax Memorial Award

Last night I had the pleasant task of helping to give away some money to a young artist. It was the announcement of the winner of the Georg...

Your turn

ABC Radio National program Airplay is broadcasting my radio play Specula either today or yesterday (they say August 26, I was told 3pm on Su...

Well, then...

A few days ago I mentioned that I had to cut back on my workaholic tendencies before I either collapsed or began to write bilge.A writer wou...

Construction of the Human Heart

Construction of the Human Heart by Ross Mueller, directed by Brett Adam. Lighting by Rob Irwin, sound by Casey Bennetto. With Fiona Macleod ...

More about me

For which this blog is not intended, so I promise I will get back to controlled egocentricity very soon.However, I feel that I need to expla...

Vale

Over at Sarsaparilla, Kerryn alerts me to two deaths. Playwright Alex Buzo, one of the pioneers of the New Wave Australian drama, died after...

Belatedly...

I ought to read Andrew Bolt's blog more often. I'm not sure whether I should be flattered - it seems that I'm a "much talke...

Critical masses

Thanks so much to everyone who posted nice comments on the essay I dragged out of the archives. Theatre Notes feels loved and cherished... T...

Festen

Festen, dramatised by David Eldridge, based on the dogme film and play by Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens Rukov and Bo Hr. Hansen, directed by Sim...

From the archives

Today, for a couple of reasons, I was going through some old work, and I found this essay. I don't think it has ever been published, and...

More Things

Your faithful blogger is again hosting Things on Sunday at the Malthouse Theatre on, yep, Sunday. The topic is "The Empty Space", ...

Not Like Beckett

Not Like Beckett by Michael Watts, directed by Michael Kantor. Design by Anna Cordingley, lighting by Niklas Pajanti, sound and composition...

Elsewhere

TN has been catching up on her blog reading, which was interrupted by a refreshing three weeks away from a computer screen. And to say I am ...

You heard it from Ben first

The Australian finally catches up (via the London Times) on the Comedie-Francaise/Handke stoush, an issue followed closely on Ben Ellis'...

The Trial of Salome

The Trial of Salome, adapted and directed by Bob Pavlich. Designed by Romanie Harper, lighting by Gwendolyna Holmberg-Gilchrist. With T'...

Festival polemics

My response to the Craven/Usher attacks on MIAF runs in the The Age today - online here.

Pigs in New York

Good to have news of local pigs kicking up their heels in New York. The inimitable George Hunka of Superfluities reports on Lally Katz, Chr...

Alison's Marvellous Adventure

This one's for my friend Dan, who told me that he's really sick of reading that last "Gadding About" post. Yes, impatient ...

Gadding about

I'm about to take my leave of Melbourne for three weeks as I head for the northern hemisphere to declaim my poems to hushed crowds in Co...

The Fall

The Fall by Albert Camus, adapted by Michael Cronin from Justin O'Brien's translation. Directed by Emma Valente, with Drew Tingwell....

Handke and Heine

A final note on Peter Handke, via Pierre Joris at Nomadics, to wrap up the controversy about the Heinrich Heine Prize. Earlier this month, H...

Cake and champagne

Theatre Notes celebrates its second birthday this month: it was in June 2004 that my lightbulb moment happened and I started blogging theatr...

Eldorado / The Session

Eldorado by Marius von Mayenburg, translated by Maja Zade, directed by Benedict Andrews. Design Anna Tregloan, lighting design Paul Jackson,...

Circus Oz

Circus Oz: Laughing at Gravity tour. With Svetlana Bunic, Stuart Christie, Jim Dunlop, Mel Fyfe, Sharon Gruenert, Scott Hone, Christa Hughes...

Lally Katz and the Terrible Mysteries of the Volcano

Lally Katz and the Terrible Mysteries of the Volcano by Lally Katz, directed by Chris Kohn. Design by Adam Gardnir, lighting by Richard Vabr...

Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon / Vaudeville X

Chronicles of the Sleepless Moon written, devised and performed by Joseph O'Farrell, Miles O'Neil and Glen Walton. The Suitcase Roya...

Housekeeping

I just gave my home page a very overdue once-over - combing out dead links, a few updates and the like. Meanwhile, reviews of Suitcase Royal...

Being Gilled

Mr Raymond Gill, the esteemed arts editor of The Age, often gives the impression that he would rather be doing something else. Anything else...

Charcot / The Lower Depths

Charcot by William Glaser, directed and designed by Clare Watson. Lighting by Paul Lim, music and sound design Kelly Ryall. With Miriam Glas...

Over at Sars...

...as Sarsaparilla, the Australian group litblog to which I'm contributing, is winningly referred to already, I've posted a short m...

Handke again

Peter Handke is in the headlines again, this time after he was stripped of the prestigious Heinrich Heiner Prize by the city of Dusseldorf....

Renovations

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I have given Theatre Notes a swish new look. Unless they're squinting at it through Internet Explor...

Headlock / The Clean House

Headlock, text by David Denborough, directed by Kate Denborough. Set and lighting, Ben Cobham, Music by Byron Scullin. With Luke Hockley, B...

Things

Launching with a bang on this momentous Monday, with posts already on the imminent demise of the novel, the situation in East Timor, an obit...

Things on Sunday

Wondering what to do this Sunday? Of course you are. So head on down to the Malthouse, where your faithful blogger is hosting the next Thing...

Bien-pensants, pfft!

The rebarbative Gilles d'Aymery gives his opinions on l'affaire Handke some vigorous exercise (for background, just scroll down) a...

The Shakespeare we have to have

I am not reviewing Romeo and Juliet, The Bell Shakespeare Company's first touring production for this year, for two reasons. One is that...

Language and war

Worth reading, for those intrigued by the conundrum of Peter Handke's attitudes to Serbian nationalism and by the nexus between language...

Under the weather

Ah Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne: would it be home without the weather? It's a Melburnian obsession: every conversation, on buses, on ...

Mrs Petrov's Shoe

Mrs Petrov's Shoe by Noelle Janaczewska, directed by Chris Bendall. Video Kirrilly Brentnall, design Kelle Frith, lighting Nick Merryle...

And as for the play?

Michael Roloff, Handke's English translator, has some noteworthy comments on the Handke controversy at this colourful Handke web page, w...

Blognote

Just added a couple more links from the Northern European English Speaking Sphere of Influence (ie, England and Scotland) to my theatre blog...

And Handke says...

Update: Via Playgoer: The London Times weighs in with a think piece that defends Handke - and art - against narrow moralising. Unfortunately...

Handke comedie update

Update: Our Man in Paris Ben Ellis updates the story with an excellent post that summarises for us blockhead monolinguists some of the admir...

A Single Act

A Single Act by Jane Bodie, directed by Julian Meyrick. Design Louise McCarthy, lighting Ben Cobham, composer Darrin Verhagen. With Anita He...

Le Grande Affaire Handke

Over at Parachute of a Playwright, Ben Ellis has an excellent update on the Handke affair. He translates an article from Le Figaro (Paris...

A View of Concrete

A View of Concrete by Gareth Ellis, directed by Lauren Taylor. Design by Adam Gardnir, lighting Richard Vabre, composer Tom Spender, sound d...

Round the Blogs

I've just updated my Blogroll (scroll down the side panel) to add some great theatre blogs that have swum over my screen recently. So do...

We Built This City / It's a Mother!

We Built This City, written and directed by Donna Jackson. Composer and band leader Mark Seymour, percussion director Mark Grunden, media ar...

Handke update

News from my spy in Paris. It seems that the Comédie-Française's decision to cancel a production scheduled for early next year of Peter ...

Peter Handke banned

Update hereOur Man in Paris Ben Ellis reports that the Comédie-Française has effectively banned Peter Handke's plays from its repertoire...

Top Ten

And while I'm being immodest...Theatre Notes is chuffed this sunny Anzac Day to see that we're featured as a Top 10 Theatre Blog on ...

A personal note...

Daniel Keene must be in the zeitgeist this weekend. He turns up in two newspaper articles - one an interview in the Financial Review with Ch...

Comedy Festival

Comedy Festival: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, devised and edited by Jon Haynes, David Woods and Jude Kelly, directed by J...

Doubt

Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, directed by Julian Meyrick. Designed by Stephen Curtis, lighting by Matt Scott, composer Max Lyandvert. With ...

It Just Stopped

It Just Stopped by Stephen Sewell, directed by Neil Armfield, designed by Stephen Curtis. With Marcus Graham, Catherine McClements, Rebecca ...

Bread and circuses

Melbourne's Commonwealth Games party is over, but it seems that the $13 million cultural component - a huge program of free events which...

A musical interlude

Surely it's the first time a theatre stoush has inspired a song - in any case, British singer Billy Bragg has written a song protesting ...

The ideology of theatre

Playwright and critic Walter A. Davis has a brilliant and thought-provoking essay just up at MCW News which takes apart the tired old left/r...

East

East: Elegy for the East End and its Energetic Waste by Steven Berkoff, directed by John Bolton, lighting by Toby Bolton. With Andre Jewson...

Nomadic posting

Poet and translator Pierre Joris today posts an illuminating comment on his Nomadics blog that illustrates some of the ugliness of debate ar...

The Nero Conspiracy

The Nero Conspiracy by Enzo Condello, directed by Beng Oh. Designed by Kat Chishkovsky, lighting by Nick Merrylees, sound by Robert Harewood...

Round the blogs

In the beginning was the Word. Give something a name and lo! it exists... The theatrical blogosphere is alive with discussion of something t...

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk - one of the few journalists whom I wholeheartedly respect - weighs in on the Rachel Corrie issue in The Independent, with an a...

Housekeeping

The blog has been getting a little messy lately, and it's hard to find and access old reviews, so Theatre Notes got out the broom today ...

Notes from elsewhere

The peripatetic Chris Boyd is posting some lively reviews of the Adelaide festival over at The Morning After, with mucho lush pictures. Wi...

Endpapers

Jasmine Chan, playwright and travel blogger extraordinaire, has begun a review blog, Endpapers Performance Review, which is well worth check...

The Royal Court bristles

And with good reason, if this press release posted in full by Playgoer is indeed their side of the increasingly intriguing New York Theatre ...

Ray's Tempest

Ray's Tempest by Steve Rodgers, based on an original script and idea by Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh. Directed by Bruce Myles, desi...

Reading for Peace, La Mama

UPDATE: Eliot Weinberger very kindly corrects me: there is another reading being organised in Sydney, hosted by the Sydney Moving Image Coal...

The controversy spreads...

The New York Times has at last broken its silence on the controversy over the New York Theatre Workshop's cancellation of the Royal Cour...

Masthead

A brief announcement that Issue 10 of Masthead, my annual ezine, is now unleashed upon a breathless world. Poetry, prose, texts for theatre,...

More on Rachel Corrie

The debate continues unabated in the blogosphere, accompanied by a strange silence elsewhere...Garrett Eisler at the indispensible Playgoer ...

Silencing Rachel Corrie

Update: James Nicola, stung by criticisms of censorship, has issued yet another statement. Playgoer and Superfluities are giving his third d...

Cargo

Cargo by Sarah Cathcart and Kerreen Ely-Harper. Performed by Sarah Cathcart and Kerreen Ely-Harper. Design by Anna Borghesi, lighting design...

Things on Sunday

Your faithful blogger is playing panel host for the next Things on Sunday event at the Malthouse. I'm hoping to host a fascinating conve...

Blogosphericals

Almost a decade ago, when I first began exploring the net, theatre seemed like the last bastion: so deeply rooted in real time and physical ...

Can't Leave Tomorrow Alone/One Way Street

Can't Leave Tomorrow Alone by Vanessa Rowell, directed by Emma Valente. Design by Kate Davis, lighting by Rebecca Etchell. With Ma-an Ad...

Major funding problems

Further to some recent discussion here on commercial shows mounted by subsidised theatre companies: the Sydney Morning Herald runs a story ...

Virgins

Virgins: a musical threesome by Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant, directed by Dean Bryant. Musical director Luke Byrne, design by Adam Gardnir. ...

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, conception Rebecca Feldman. Directed ...

Blog update

I've added a few new blogs to my theatre blogroll - scroll down the sidebar and check them out!

The True Amazon Adventures of Roger Casement

The True Amazon Adventures of Roger Casement by Andrew Shaw, directed by Robert Reid. With Mike McEvoy, Elliot Summers, Robert Lloyd, Michae...

Dumbshow

Dumb Show by Joe Penhall, directed by Peter Evans. With Aaron Blabey, Anita Hegh and Richard Piper. Designed by Christina Smith, lighting d...

Blogosphere alerts

It's all happening in the theatre blogosphere. First of all, my estimable colleague Chris Boyd has kicked off his own theatre review blo...

New Year Celebration

A Richard Foreman quote to stir up the New Year, which comes courtesy of New York blogger/playwright George Hunka: I BELIEVE THAT NOW IS THE...