Claire Hart-Palumbo
When words really matter…
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Organizing My Life: Writing, Publishing, and Personal Resolutions
We are on the eve of New Year’s Eve. So, perhaps it’s not too early to be looking ahead. On New Year’s Day, I will kick off the year right, with black-eyed peas, cabbage, and a few friends. And lots of wine. Having retired for the second time, I am looking forward to focusing on…
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Casablanca turns 83
Eighty-three years ago today, the film Casablanca opened. The script had been plucked from the slush pile and greenlit the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The entire film was shot on a tight budget, on backlot locations quickly modified with a Moorish theme. It had name stars in Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman,…
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Latest News: “Cue the Murder” out Fall 2026
Great news! My cozy mystery series has been picked up by Sibylline Publishing. This innovative small press focuses on the writing of brilliant women over 50. Met the publisher Vicki DeArmon and Sibylline author Claudia H. Long at Bouchercon mystery writers conference New Orleans this last September. Gave Vicki my elevator pitch and she was…
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Opening Night, Private Lives
Houston Press – “….Hart-Palumbo skillfully leads the actors through this second act wind-up, ratcheting up the tension between the two characters through barely contained barbs, foot stomps, lid slams, newspaper openings until no word [catch prhase] can stop the surge of vitriol and violence. . . .”
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First Preview for MST’s “Private Lives”
Sunday, July 14, 2019 was our first preview for Private Lives. Sunday matinees are their own animal, and our loyal subscription base comes out in full force for previews. The lobby was abuzz with a sold out crowd. There are always familiar faces, and this time was no different. I talked to a couple of…
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Finishing Tech Rehearsals of Private Lives
Well, every fabulous experience must have a down side I suppose. The fly in the ointment here has been my costumer. I’d never worked with this woman before, but she had solid credentials in the fashion industry and had worked for the Alley Theatre off and on over the years. We started our tech/design meetings…
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10 of 12 rehearsal for Private Lives
If you are in the theater, you know what a “10 of 12” is. For those who are fans of theater, but not practitioners, it is one very long day allowed by Actors Equity and the other trades, when all the designers, cast, crew, and director try to work through adding the technical aspects of…
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From “Private Lives” rehearsal
What would it feel like to suddenly meet the love of your life again, years after a vicious and vindictive divorce? What kind of courage or Narcissism would it take to flee from a new relationship with your acknowledged soul mate?
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Notes on “Private Lives”
Private Lives is written in brilliantly caustic prose. . . Ironically, the play opened only weeks before the crash of 1929 which ended the world it documents.
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Revisiting “Private Lives”
This summer will mark an even dozen productions of Coward plays that I’ve been involved with over my career. Private Lives is perhaps my very favorite play of all. I played Sybil in my very first paid summer stock production, and again in my second show I appeared in here in Houston. I was lucky enough…
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Miss Bennet Reprise a Success!
I’ve just learned that the final weekend is sold out!
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Miss Bennet Thanksgiving!
As many of you know, I’ve been asked by Main Street Theater to remount Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson (our favorite playwright) and Margot Melcon. A huge success last year, we are offering this heart-warming play for the holiday season once again. With most of the same cast and the same brilliant…
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Miss Bennet Reprise
As many of you know, I directed Lauren Gunderson and Margot Mecon’s Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley last year at Main Street Theater. It was an unequivocal success, despite tepid enthusiasm from the new Houston Chronicle reviewer. We sold out the run and the extension. Such was the response, and the disappointment from some people…
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Mortification
I am seriously mortified, in every sense of the word at the moment.
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Time Flies
Meanwhile, I drift from project to project, semester to semester, production to production, and time disappears without my noticing or adequately preparing for it.
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Theater 2018
This past twelve months has been very exciting, theater-wise.
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No More Shakin’ Goin’ On
“At some point, I will work with many of these women again and we will pick up our friendships where we left them—still dear and with the measure of trust we have earned.”
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Sold Out Opening Night
I met dozens of Gwen’s friends who had traveled from Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and as far away as Delaware and Alaska for the event.
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Turning a Corner: Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo
When we came back for the second run-thru, everyone was more energized, pushing the envelope and working their objectives. And suddenly, it seemed like we might be on the brink of having the play I’ve envisioned in my head; the one Gwen Flager wrote and rewrote.
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RIP Blackie
He came back looking like a peg-leg pirate.
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Phase 3 – Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo
…a group of former sorority sisters as they sponsor and plan an LGBT prom for gay students at the local high school. In the process, old secrets, lies, attractions, and betrayals are revealed in often hilarious and alternately painful ways. An old love is rekindled, friendships are tested, and at least one relationship will be…
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“There You Are” Premiers at OutFest in LA
I was part of a wonderful short film project…accepted to premiere at Los Angeles’ OutFest in July.
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“Cleo” at Alley Theatre
Last Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Alley Theatre’s World Premiere of Cleo, by Austin writer Lawrence Wright. I’m a subscriber, but I don’t normally schedule my tickets for Saturday. So I was delightfully surprised to find I had been given me a seat dead center in the Hubbard Theatre. Standing to…
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Cindy Crawford and Christabel
My cats wake me up at 5:30 every morning. I suppose that’s partly my fault, but I don’t know how. They became my alarm clock some years ago. Unfortunately, I can’t turn them off on weekends or use their noses as a snooze button. It starts with Cindy Crawford, my white and black calico…