Marks & Vincentelli
Marks & Vincentelli: A Theatre Podcast
Richard Nelson was in Kyiv directing one of his plays as bombs fell. The experience was life changing.
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Richard Nelson was in Kyiv directing one of his plays as bombs fell. The experience was life changing.

One of America's finest playwrights talked to us about the nine weeks he spent in the spring directing "Conversations at Tusculum" in the Ukraine capital

The author-director of such works as “The Apple Family Plays,” “The Gabriels” and even the book for the musical adaptation of James Joyce’s “The Dead,” Richard Nelson is one of America’s finest theatermakers.

He is also the modern American playwright whose work travels best, and he has been produced all over the world. No place has been as fraught as Kyiv, however, where Nelson went this past spring to direct a production of his play “Conversations in Tusculum”

He recounts that experience in the new book “A Diary of War & Theatre — Making Theatre in Kyiv, Spring 2024,” published by Wordville. As you might well imagine, working on a show in a country at war is no simple task.

He expanded on that subject and a lot more — like working at the famed Théâtre du Soleil in Paris, and why his style is not “realistic” — on the podcast, making for a pretty great conversation.


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