Recent Essays

The keynote address delivered by Todd London at the Mellon Playwright Residency Convening on September 7, 2014.

It was instructive to watch the same comedy handled by different casts and directors, each offering different rhythms and approaches to the same comic beats. It is startling how fragile comic material is. It was a tutorial for me in that regard, watching that unfold. Drama is not quite as fragile as comedy is. Something as delicate and important as rhythm/pacing can radically alter everything. Drama can take that change more easily than comedy can.

While I was reaping the benefits of working internationally, my Belarusian friends were living as a theater company in exile. What could I do to help make a difference? What tools could I use, as a theater artist, to break down this silence, censorship, and oppressive regime?

Derek Goldman offers an overview of the production of Syria: The Trojan Women.

Jonathan Mandell writes about the second Theater: Village Festival in NYC.

Anne Towns shares an overview of the Alliance Theatre Collision Project. 

Talya Kingston continues her look at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival and diologue on the Scottish independence referendum, here she writes about Rona Munro's triology of James plays.

Whether it is race, place, ethnicity, or personhood, Cuban and Cuban diasporic performances push the boundaries of linear logics of the body towards a tapestry of experiential becoming. Here, I would like to offer my experiences and reflections of this kind of world-making practice from my fieldwork with Cuban spirit mediums, or espiritistas.

This week's Twitter conversation topic is "Ferguson and What Can Artists Effectively Do In the Context of Social Justice Issues, Crises, & Conflicts?" and will be co-moderated/prompted in open collaboration with anyone participating by Claudia Alick @claudiaalick and Danny Bryck @DannyBryck. This hour-long Howl will take place on Thursday, September 18 on hashtag #newplay at 11am PDT (Vancouver) / 1pm CDT (Ferguson) / 2pm EDT (New York) / 18:00 GMT / 7pm BST (London).

Since 1984, Steppenwolf Theatre Company has offered internships to students, graduates, and others to experience the inner workings of a professional theater from every angle. The company has developed a collection of programs purposed to identify, train and mentor a diverse group of students, graduates and early-career professionals in arts administration, stage management and production.