Recent Essays

Jonathan Mandell writes about the life of prolific costume designer Carrie Robbins, and her new ambitions as adaptor and playwright.

I was young, knew nothing and was impressionable. I remember being fond of Yuriko’s direction. She would say things like, “go forward from here” while pointing to her heart. No one had ever given me direction like that before. That first play was the beginning of my romance with Noh (performed in Japan since the thirteenth-century, it’s the world’s oldest, continually performed, masked lyric drama) and I fell hard.

The Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, prides itself on producing “bold new plays,” under artistic director Cynthia Levin. The 2013-2014 season has been somewhat of a “dream” season for the Unicorn staff—“full of the best contemporary theater in America,” said Levin. As the literary assistant and dramaturg, I have the joy and privilege of digging into the scripts selected for the season. Not only are the plays new plays, many that are fresh out of New York, and world premieres, but also several of them have something else in common: war. While war is not new, the new season of plays in Kansas eloquently captures our era of endless war both open and covert.

This week's conversation topic is "How To Sell a Play No One Has Heard of" and will be moderated by Alan Katz @dcdramaturg—who like all of our moderators, authors, and content producers—self-selected to peer-produce on this commons-based platform! This hour-long Howl will take place on Thursday, May 22 on hashtag #newplay at 11am PDT (Vancouver) / 1pm CDT (Austin) / 2pm EDT (Toronto) / 18:00 GMT / 7pm BST (London).

Lily Janiak and Artistic Director of Cal Shakes Jon Moscone talk about the impact of Janiak’s criticism of the play American Night at California Shakespeare Theater and the controversy it stirred.

The gnaw came on slowly. It started to bother me more when people asked if I thought I’d ever “go back to theater?” I started peeking at audition postings every once in a while. I started telling my husband boring stories about how I “got a laugh” during a workshop or a conference keynote. I always said it will have to be the right show at the right time for it to work, for it to be worth the additional upheaval to my life.

How many playwrights have been told to self-produce? It seems like the go-to response anytime someone expresses frustration with the current system of “Development.” It sounds enticing, and the idea definitely feeds the angsty rebellion residing within… But let’s be honest: very few playwrights have access to the resources necessary to mount a full production of their work.

Patricia Davis reviews the Constellation Theatre's production of The Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Eric Bass provides insight into the art of puppet theatre. 

For an American playwright today, where is Mecca? Where does it all come together: actors of high quality who give maximum effort to a new script; directors with a sense of humor to match their ability to move bodies in space and make moments that signify on stage; audiences who not only love going to theater but do so a lot and make it part of their daily lives; and great bars before and after the show? Mecca (for me anyway) is Chicago. And my most recent hajj was to Teatro Vista.