About ten days ago, I had the chance to see Frank Langella play the title role in The Father by Florian Zeller in an English translation by Christopher Hampton. I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to see it, other than wanting to see Frank Langella perform live and that the production directed by Doug Hughes had received positive reviews. Kathryn Erbe is also in it, and I knew her work from Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

On Friday, I had the chance to meet with Laura Fisher and Jespal Rajdev, who with their co-founder Adrienne Ferguson, started an online marketplace called TreePress. I've known about TreePress since about this time last year, when the idea was in its initial stages. I've been watching the progression of the marketplace's offerings with interest, but my conversation with Laura and Jes really solidified in my mind that the entire concept behind their online presence is truly innovative and has the potential to shift the way theatrical collaborators find one other, particularly playwrights and producers and educators.

Last Saturday evening, the Program in Educational Theatre hosted a 50th anniversary alumni event featuring a conversation with John Patrick Shanley, the most distinguished alumnus of the program. Shanley is a decorated playwright and screenwriter,  best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning play Doubt and Moonstruck for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Last evening the students in one of my classes shared excerpts of their original ethnodramas, and I left the experience feeling so proud of their work and moved by their commitment to risk taking and experimentation.

I can trace many important moments of discovery in my life back to theatrical productions that I experienced as an audience member. One of those moments was when I saw Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moises Kaufman.