WHERE OCCUPATION MEETS OBSESSION: The Mystery Project Continues

In a previous post, I confessed (as we mystery lovers tend to do) that every year I force my drama students to submit to honoring my passion for classic mysteries by engaging them to come up with an original mystery play of their own. It’s a complex and difficult project, and many tears are shed …

ACRIMONY! Agatha and Adaptations

This April theme to which All the Tuesday Night Bloggers Aspire is An Admirable Act. I Attribute it to the Allure of Alliteration. Anyway, As Bev’s Adorable Artwork Alludes, in April, Anything Goes . . . just as long as it begins with the letter A. You can imagine, knowing me as you do, my …

ACTORS AND AGATHA: An Acerbic Analysis

I have a bone to pick with Agatha Christie. Yes, I know, I’m her biggest fan. Why, this very month, my pal JJ (of The Invisible Event) and I will be stepping in the ring and going several rounds in the whole Christie vs. Carr debate. But here’s the thing: in addition to my role …

. . . A PLACE WHERE DREAMS ARE BORN: Finding Neverland

As you get older, one of the more interesting and, perhaps, melancholy aspects of life is watching things you identified as cultural icons slip into the darkness of lost memory. Mary Tyler Moore, who died recently, starred in two of my favorite sitcoms of all time and represented a certain type of woman who combined …

MYSTERY AND HISTORY: The First Classic Murder Case

It’s a new month, so the Tuesday Night Bloggers are changing the subject! Throughout November we will be discussing mysteries that have some connection to history. I would like to modestly boast that this was my idea, and I sold it as a topic broad enough to encompass a variety of perspectives. Yet, while my …

HARRY POTTER AND THE CREATIVE CASH COW

The seven books of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter saga occupy a prominent position on my bookshelf (the downstairs one in the living room!) I read them all and listened to the audio versions read by the marvelous Jim Dale, he of a thousand voices, many times! I own the movies (except for the last one …

THE FINAL BON-BON: “Waitress”

Waitress is an odd duck. I saw the movie when it first opened, and I have a vague memory that I enjoyed it and that it made me hungry. The musical is even odder, though, because it takes the film’s identity as a comedy-drama and stretches the hybrid form into extreme shapes that sometimes made …