Recent Essays

I felt compelled to act, to do something, to speak up—but how? What could I, an expatriate American living in Scandinavia, do to break the zone of silence surrounding Belarus? While I was enjoying certain freedoms as a theater artist in this affluent Nordic country, my friends and colleagues elsewhere in Europe—writers, directors, journalists, and more—were being imprisoned and threatened.

Dani Snyder-Young writes about Conor McPherson’s new version of August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, at the Writers Theatre.

Jamie Gahlon interviews José Luis Valenzuela on the LATC and the upcoming Encuentro 2014: A National Latina/o Theatre Festival.

Brant Russell writes about The World's Fair Play Festival in 2014 at the Queens Theatre, which premiered 12 short plays about the 1964 and 1939 World's Fairs, where those fairs happened.

Making the decision to acquire an education is more often than not an easy one. To do most any job in America, one must acquire a bachelor's degree. For those who wish to pursue a career in the theater, this is no different: one must undertake a program of education or work-related training. If you have decided to pursue a career in the theater, and are in the process of gathering meaningful information to help determine which programs you ought to give serious consideration, this blog series is for you.

P. Carl reflects on the power of the brain and how it relates to creativity. 

“Paying your dues”—it’s a pervasive refrain, and one that clearly lives deeply within us; it has gotten under our skin and through our veins. I can’t help but think that it’s a lie. The concept of “paying dues” implies a sort of social contract that’s simply no longer present, if it ever was.

The Playwrights, Rewrites, Multiple Productions Series is a weekly series of interviews examining the process of developing a new play through a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere as a part of their Continued Life of New Plays Fund. The series is curated by Thea Rodgers and Emma Weisberg. Visualizations are from HowlRound's community-powered New Play Map.

The Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC) in downtown Los Angeles is looking for ten arts leaders of various backgrounds who represent the future leadership of the American theater to apply to our newly minted Artistic Leaders Fellowship. The Fellowship will take place from October 1 through November 21, 2014 at The LATC, and run concurrently with the 2014 LATC Encuentro—the largest National Latina/o theater festival in over twenty-five years. // El Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC), localizado en el centro de Los Ángeles, busca a 10 diversos líderes en las artes que representan el futuro liderato del Teatro Americano para que soliciten la nueva beca llamada Artistic Leaders Fellowship. Este programa se llevará a cabo del 1 de octubre al 21 de noviembre en el LATC en paralelo con el Encuentro LATC 2014—el festival nacional latino más grande en la nación en los pasados veinticinco años.

Consider Richmond's orations to his soldiers in Richard III, Act V, Scenes 3 and 5, and how they bear a striking resemblance to presidential speeches delivered over the last thirteen years. Both Shakespeare's Richmond and our presidents use language to dehumanize the adversary while reinforcing camaraderie among those who are listening.