Tommy Trull - Writer and Musician

Captain America is retired – long live Captain America. As a lifelong fan of the character (I’m old enough to remember the ridiculous 70s TV movies and to have tied a star-spangled Frisbee to my bicycle) I love to see Cap shirts on people everywhere I go. What thrills me less is to see so much un-Cap-like behavior in public, whether it be out in the street or on the roads, in the political sphere, or even online. I’ve thrown together a few things that have been on my mind recently – tips on what it means to be like Steve Rogers in everyday life. Let’s get the bodybuilding part out of the way first, because it’s less important than you think. Be physically strong. A quick Google search on ‘how to be Captain America’ leads to page after page of workout plans. Captain America was designed to be a literal super-soldier, which requires incredible strength. Most of us don’t have those kinds of jobs . Building up those levels of muscle is, for most people, a matter of aesthe...

A GUIDE TO WORKSHOP CRITIQUE             This is intended to give workshop participants guidance in offering critique of a play. The underlying idea is that a play can be judged on its quality – how well it uses the formal elements of playwriting – rather than simply on whether or not the workshop participant liked the piece, which is simply a matter of taste . Though this initial section is too lengthy to use in a workshop setting, a simple rubric follows that should make any evaluation much easier.              Note: the term play is used throughout, but is meant to refer to the workshop selection, whether it be a complete play, a short scene, or a discrete selection. OVERALL QUESTIONS ·          Is the play primarily comic or dramatic ? Most comic plays have dramatic elements, and most dramatic plays have comic elements. Every play, however...