Izolda Trakhtenberg, Storyteller

Playwright, Author, Director, Podcaster

about

Writer, speaker, singer, educator

Category: acting

  • You’d Better Look Me In The Eye When You Say That? Not Always.

    Welcome to today’s Physical Talks. Why do we sometimes look off into space during our conversations? Hint: It’s to improve those communication moments. See more below. Some people say that someone who won’t look you in the eye must be lying. That’s not necessarily true. There are a lot of other possibilities. Ever been caught…

  • Resistance Isn't Futile. It just wants you to think resisting it, is.

    I’m reading Steven Pressfield’s excellent book, “The War of Art.” If you have any desire to pursue your art, run towards this book with open arms. So far, it’s amazing, validating, and oh so frustrating. Pressfield points out all the hidden places we run to keep ourselves from working on our art/craft. I’ve winced more…

  • "And Then What Happened?" – What makes for compelling stories

    I won’t “James Michener” you and talk about how at the beginning of language, people were sitting around bonfires telling stories. Let’s all agree that they did. The oral tradition goes back as far as we do, certainly, and probably further back to the Neanderthals, Early Modern Humans. We tell stories for a variety of…

  • As You Like It by the National Theatre of London: What Were They Thinking?

    I did something tonight I have never done before. I walked out in the middle of a Shakespeare production. The only time I’ve ever been tempted to walk out of a Shakespeare production was a terrible Troilus and Cressida production I saw 28 years ago at Stratford, Ontario. But even that piece of dung was…

  • Review of "The Other Place" at the Manhattan Theatre Club

    Tonight, the fab Rich Potter took me to see “The Other Place,” as part of my Birthday present (that we celebrated on his Birthday). Here’s my mostly spoiler-free review: The writing is well done for the most part. I only had one “goink” where I wondered about the logic of what the playwright had set…