Tiny bursts of action are separated by wide expanses of conversation — veritable kingdoms of explication during which medieval spreadsheets of plot, history, geography and family lineage are explained in the mellow tones of stage-trained European actors.
True enough, Mr. Shannon played a deeply disturbed Iraq war veteran; but years later he filled the space at the Barrow with the gentle tones of the stage manager in "Our Town," a folksy role that has belonged to actors like Henry Fonda.
He praised essays showcasing "what a first-rate artistic mind can make of particular fact-sets" — whether those involve cellphone ring tones, the meaning of stage fright or the "near-infinity of ways to experience and describe an earthquake".
The illustrator James McMullan is the master of the dramatic image that captures the emotional tone of a stage work.
Finally, in "I Married You for Happiness" (2011), Tuck's most recent novel, a woman reminisces at her husband's deathbed, and here, again, the hushed tones of the prose seem staged, indicating grief without conveying its individual character.
In the sonorous tones of one used to the stage, Mr. Ballinger offered samples to a visitor from a passage called "Leaving": "I heard my Aunt Edith's car come to a stop on the long and narrow driveway.
For lighter skin tones, choose a foundation a few shades darker than your natural tone as this will help combat the bleaching effect of stage lights.
In terms of patterns, arresting images, varied use of stage space, constant changes of tone and musical attentiveness, this — using 20 dancers — is remarkably skilled dance-making.
It's this duet that defines the tone of the entire stage, and establishes the audience's relationship with it.
In 1909, one of the most remarkable theaters in the history of the city went up on the jai-alai lot: the high-minded, high-cost New Theater, established by a dozen or more millionaires who wanted to improve the cultural tone of the New York City stage.
