Recent Essays

The Dreary Coast is a site-specific immersive work that took place in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, and used elements of Greek and Roman mythology, Dante’s Inferno, black metal music, and the canal’s actual history to journey its audience through one of the most polluted waterways in the United States.

In this installation of the Polish Theater series, Agnieszka Jakimiak talks about the experimental work of Weronika Szczawińska: ever-changing, consistently challenging, and rewarding.

3Christs is an adaptation of a study about therapeutic experiments with three men who believed they were Jesus Christ at Ypsilanti State Hospital in the 1960s. Performed in Judson Memorial Church, 3Christs exemplifies the essence of Peculiar Works Project.

Iulia Popovici shares the work of Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski, a couple who make challenging and exciting work often based on political events happening in Poland.

Marta Keil presents an overview of the Polish theatre, tracing movements within a new political theatre, addressing the pressure of the market and the openness to artistic experimentation.

Joanna Wojciechowska explores the work of two theatre companies originally founded by students, now as leaders in Polish experimental theatre, making exciting work in Poland and abroad.

Keith Josef Adkins shares excerpts from Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments, ten-minute monologues commissioned in response to the recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island.

Keith Josef Adkins shares excerpts from Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments, ten-minute monologues commissioned in response to the recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island.

I found myself asking: Why can’t my works for the stage mix up forms like Butoh dance, spoken word, and projections of sepia-tinted people? Who says it’s not legit to create evening-length shows comprised of non-linear short-form vignettes?

Are we free to gawk again? That’s what Broadway audiences are doing during the revival of The Elephant Man, one of several stage shows and television series that are bringing attention back to the freak show.