Henrik Eger interviews Jen Silverman about her world premiere play THE DANGEROUS HOUSE OF PRETTY MBANE! and the issues it raises.
View More Pretty Mbane and “Corrective Rape”: Traveling around the world with playwright Jen Silverman
Author: Henrik Eger
HENRIK EGER, editor of Drama Around the Globe. Bilingual playwright, author of Metronome Ticking. Born and raised in Germany. Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois, Chicago. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s German Nobel Peace Prize mail translator. Producer-director: Multilingual Shakespeare, London. Conceptualized and co-wrote Handbook for Barrymore Judges and Nominators.
Longtime Philadelphia theatre correspondent for AAJT, the world’s largest Jewish theatre website. Articles, interviews, and reviews published by Broad Street Review, Classical Voice, The Forward, HowlRound, Indian Express, Kayhan International, New Jersey Stage, Philadelphia Gay News, Philadelphia Jewish Voice, Phindie, The Progressive, Talkin’ Broadway, The Theatre Times, etc. Professor of English and Communication who taught in six countries on three continents, including four universities and one college in the U.S. Author of several books, including four college text books. He died January 3, 2021, aged 79.
Debra Miller: An interview with Philadelphia’s most prolific theater reviewer
Debra Miller sees a LOT of theater. Indeed, she is the most prolific theater writer in town. Henrik Eger talked to Deb about her background and writing.
View More Debra Miller: An interview with Philadelphia’s most prolific theater reviewer
Get to know your favorite Phindie editor
Christopher Munden is the publisher and editor of Phindie. In these pages you’ve probably read what he thinks about local theater and arts. But what’s his deal?…
View More Get to know your favorite Phindie editor
Political choreographer: Interview with Rami Be’er, artistic director of Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
No dance company on earth has a history as moving as the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. KCDC’s story begins with Yehudit Arnon, an 18-year-old Jewish…
View More Political choreographer: Interview with Rami Be’er, artistic director of Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
To alter or not to alter, that is the question: Dan Hodge on directing HAMLET in unorthodox ways
Dan Hodge discusses his edited version of HAMLET, onstage through November 23 at Hedgerow Theatre.
View More To alter or not to alter, that is the question: Dan Hodge on directing HAMLET in unorthodox ways
“IT ONLY GETS HARDER”: Randy Swartz on the dance scene in economically strapped times
Henrik Eger talked to the founder of Dance Affiliates about the inner workings of the international dance scene in these more economically strapped times.
View More “IT ONLY GETS HARDER”: Randy Swartz on the dance scene in economically strapped times
“My busy, wacky, wonderful life”: Parents on stage and off stage, THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Media Theatre)
The wacky parents of THE ADDAMS FAMILY at the Media Theatre share the joys and difficulties of juggling two lead roles in their lives.
View More “My busy, wacky, wonderful life”: Parents on stage and off stage, THE ADDAMS FAMILY (Media Theatre)
One of the oldest taboos in history: Interview with Dan Hodge on The Rape of Lucrece
Philadelphia audiences are still buzzing about Dan Hodge’s performance of Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece. Henrik Eger interviews him about the play.
View More One of the oldest taboos in history: Interview with Dan Hodge on The Rape of Lucrece
Give the rhinos a chance: Interview with the actors of Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS
I asked cast members of the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (IRC), Philadelphia’s absurdist theatre (since 2006), founded by artistic director Tina Brock, what Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS brought up for them as actors and as people. The range of responses is as astounding as this production. A big thank you to everyone who participated in this Phindie interview.
View More Give the rhinos a chance: Interview with the actors of Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS
On becoming a RHINOCEROS: Interview with director Tina Brock
Tina Brock, writer, actor, founder and producing artistic director of the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (IRC) since 2006—Philadelphia’s only absurdist theatre company—holds degrees from the University of Maryland and West Chester University, works as a Standardized Patient Trainer at the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, and makes the impossible possible, year after year, with some of the most thought provoking and unusual productions.
View More On becoming a RHINOCEROS: Interview with director Tina Brock
The International Philly Fringe: A welcome to far-flung artists
Anyone who says that Philadelphia is provincial hasn’t attended the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Here’s the latest sampling of shows, performances, playwrights, and artists from…
View More The International Philly Fringe: A welcome to far-flung artists
Rhythm, race, and energy: Interview with Ozzie Jones on the first African American production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN in Philadelphia
The issue of diversity in theater (and in theater reviewing) is an ongoing subject of conversation. Kash Goins isn’t just talking about it. His GoKash…
View More Rhythm, race, and energy: Interview with Ozzie Jones on the first African American production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN in Philadelphia
From Mormon Boy to Rent Boy: Interview with solo performer Steven Fales
They have a name for former LDS in Utah: Jack Mormons. You can leave the Mormon church, but the Mormon upbringing will never leave you.…
View More From Mormon Boy to Rent Boy: Interview with solo performer Steven Fales
Robin Williams: A tribute
Phindie was saddened to hear about the passing of actor Robin Williams. Henrik Eger contributed this tribute to the comic:
View More Robin Williams: A tribute
“What doesn’t kill me makes a great story later”: Interview with Robert Patrick on the birth of Off-Off-Broadway and 50 years of gay theater in America
Robert Patrick, born into a migrant worker’s family in 1937, wrote many plays, songs, poems and stories. According to the Samuel French script company, he was the most produced playwright in New York City in the 1970s. His two most famous plays are Haunted Host and Kennedy’s Children. He currently lives in L.A. and earns a living writing porn reviews.
View More “What doesn’t kill me makes a great story later”: Interview with Robert Patrick on the birth of Off-Off-Broadway and 50 years of gay theater in America
The Second Annual One-Minute Play Festival (InterAct): Tipsy on Theater: Wine-tasting 90 plays and a night-out in Philly without a hangover
You step off the tour bus, the smell of exhaust replaced first with fresh air, then with the sugary smell of grapes. You sit around…
View More The Second Annual One-Minute Play Festival (InterAct): Tipsy on Theater: Wine-tasting 90 plays and a night-out in Philly without a hangover
Arrogantly profiling American history: An interview with Colin Quinn, starring at the Philadelphia Theatre Company
Let me say it up front: Unconstitutional, running through July 6th at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, is a tour de force stronger than the Tour de France.
The famous Quinn, familiar to Saturday Night Live fans, presents his observations on the quirks of life in the U.S. at such a neck-breaking pace that I thought I was participating as a bidder at an auction, where the auctioneer speaks at world record speed so that I, as one of his “bidders,” was unsure at times if I was buying or not. So as not to miss his many powerful insights, wrapped in highly addictive humor, I was forced to listen carefully. And listen I did.
View More Arrogantly profiling American history: An interview with Colin Quinn, starring at the Philadelphia Theatre Company
The Ups and Downs of Success: Theater artists between jobs
“There aren’t enough cocktails to help me understand why I continue to be an actor! This shit is for the birds!”
Thus begins the Facebook entry by Joey, a dancer-actor-singer who played many roles along the U.S. east coast, but recently did not get hired for a new musical.
View More The Ups and Downs of Success: Theater artists between jobs
Freezing one’s laughter mid-stream: THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON by James Ijames
“You will be broken and put back together again,” as one theatregoer commented on Facebook.
Given the explosive nature of this extraordinary play, I thought it important to talk to the playwright directly.
View More Freezing one’s laughter mid-stream: THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON by James Ijames
SUNSET BOULEVARD (Media Theatre): Ann Crumb as Norma Desmond, the delusional diva
Few singers can do what Ann Crumb can do, namely to transform herself in such versatile ways that people follow her wherever she goes, whether she performs on Broadway or in Media. Crumb, a depowered female King Lear, dominated every scene of SUNSET BOULEVARD in her own dream castle.
View More SUNSET BOULEVARD (Media Theatre): Ann Crumb as Norma Desmond, the delusional diva