We are left giddy with thought.
An opportunity to go behind the scenes—literally—at a groundbreaking, standard-setting theatrical institution.
As Rocco Landesman points out in his introduction, playwright, dramaturg, and fiction writer Magruder takes on the formidable challenge of writing “a history of something ephemeral, that exists for a moment then disappears into the ether”—that would be the roughly 200 productions at the Yale Repertory Theater, from Dynamite Tonite in 1966 to Scenes From Court Life; or the whipping boy and his prince in 2016, with a procession of dramatis personae including Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Tony Shalhoub, James Earl Jones, Frances McDormand, Dianne Wiest, and many more. Using breathtaking still photos from the productions (you could buy this book just for the pictures), plus 127 interviews, 40 linear feet of scrapbooks, and other archival odds and ends (some featured in entertaining sidebars of their own), Magruder (Yale MA ‘84, MFA 88, DFA ‘92) sets himself a Horatian goal, “to instruct and delight,” and does he ever. Bringing his encyclopedic knowledge, his delightful vocabulary, and his witty, exquisitely wrought prose style to bear, Magruder offers a wide-ranging class not just in Yale Rep, but in the history and culture of the theater. He ranges from the role of Luigi Pirandello as the granddaddy of fourth-wall-breaking metatheatrical flourishes to the importance of the American Family Play, branching from Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill through Sam Shepard to fascinating-sounding modern productions called War and Lydia. In an aside, he scorns British director Trevor Nunn as the man responsible for what Magruder terms “the global contagion of Cats and Les Misérables.” Often his sentences contain so many layers of information and analysis that how much you learn from them depends only on how much time you have to spend with them, e.g., “As with Stoppard or Kushner or Churchill, a well-done Shaw can leave an audience giddy with thought.”
We are left giddy with thought.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780300215007
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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