David Mamet

Directed by Walter Kmiec

October 4 - 13, 2013

Florida State University School of Theatre

Photos: David J. Valdez

Click here for my program note

Click here for my glossary and explanatory notes

From my program note: "The immense power of the five largest film studios (Charlie calls them “The Five Major Food Groups”) is still consolidated, as it was when Mamet wrote Speed-the-Plow, within the hands of a tiny group of producers and power brokers. Speaking at the USC film school in June, Steven Speilberg lamented that “even proven talents find it difficult to get movies into theatres,” forced to curtail their ideas to appease a new generation of Bobby Goulds and Charlie Foxes. The dollar figures associated with a blockbuster film may have changed, but the inner workings of Hollywood that Mamet lambastes in Speed-the-Plow have stayed the same, making the play ripe for re-examination and study."