19.Oct.2009 Review Roundup: The Heavens Are Hung in Black
Here’s a collection of reviews for James Still’s THE HEAVENS ARE HUNG IN BLACK. NUVO Newsweekly Indianapolis Star Indy Theatre Habit Indianapolis Theatre Examiner Fun City Finder StageWrite
12.Oct.2009 Video Review Roundup: The Heavens Are Hung in Black
Now on YouTube: Audiences declare their admiration for James Still’s new play.
08.Oct.2009 From James Still: TORNADOES AND NUCLEAR FUSION
I’ve noticed a trend on the IRT blogs: whenever we get into tech and previews, the artists are eerily silent. It isn’t that we’ve lost interest in posting here, it isn’t that we’ve lost hope in the production — it’s that the transition from the rehearsal room to getting on stage and teching the show [...]
05.Oct.2009 From James Still: THE ROLE OF THE AUDIENCE
If you write a blog and nobody reads it, was it ever really a blog? It would be a disappointment, but something to shrug off at the most. If you write a play and no one comes, was it ever really a play? That would be harder (er, impossible) to shrug off. I’ll just put [...]
02.Oct.2009 Fiction Meets Fact: Characters in The Heavens Are Hung in Black
The world of The Heavens Are Hung in Black includes both figures who were part of Lincoln’s life in 1862 and others long dead or even fictional who appear in Lincoln’s dreams. John Hay (1838-1905) was one of two private secretaries working for the president, and it was said that Lincoln treated him as one [...]
The Cast of The Heavens Are Hung in Black
Nick Abeel Thomas Haley, ensemble Nick is a (young) old friend of the IRT, getting his start on this very stage in To Kill a Mockingbird twelve years ago, and later appearing in A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, The Red Badge of Courage, and more. Now he is thrilled to be returning to the IRT as an [...]
Program Notes/The Designers of The Heavens Are Hung in Black
Russell Metheny Scenic Designer This play is conceived of historical fact and fiction to reveal a most powerful parallel between the late nineteenth century America of Lincoln and the twenty-first century today. I love the idea of characters on stage from different eras: past, present, and future, living and dead. My challenge is to support [...]
Program Notes/James Still: My Own Private Abraham
While I’m not certain it can be verified, several sources claim Abraham Lincoln to be the most written about American of all time, and second only to Jesus as the most written about person throughout all of history. Having fallen (willingly) down into the rabbit hole of research in the pursuit of all things Lincoln, [...]
Director’s Notes: A New Look at an Old Friend
by Peter Amster, Director of The Heavens Are Hung in Black Eleven years ago I directed Abe Lincoln in Illinois here at the IRT. It was a deeply gratifying experience, spending that time with Lincoln: researching his life and words and politics, working with a gifted actor to create an honorable “personation” of him, telling [...]
Program Notes/Janet Allen: Living with Lincoln
There hasn’t been a better time in a hundred years to be a Lincoln enthusiast than in this year of the bicentennial celebration of his birth. History lovers, Civil War buffs, travelers to famous Lincoln sites, students of the presidency and of oratory, even our current president himself have joined in gatherings of people across [...]