Recent Essays

And although I’m proud of the production and of the nearly-all Latina/o creative team that gave Mariela en el Desierto an authentic voice, an issue arose as the last weekend of performances approached: No critics from the periodicals in the Atlanta area had attended or reviewed the show.

Holly L. Derr gives an overview of new and professionally-tied graduate theatre programs in Los Angeles.

A couple of months ago, HowlRound hosted a discussion about parenting and theater on Twitter hashtag #newplay, and perhaps the most interesting question to emerge from the discussion was simply: "Should I bring my kid to rehearsal?"

Since the October 2013 Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC) National Convening in Boston, the LTC has been moving forward on a number of upcoming planned initiatives. As the momentum and enthusiasm for the LTC has grown, so to has the need for a full-time, dedicated producer. On behalf of the LTC Hiring Committee, I'm pleased to announce that we have hired Abigail Vega—she will begin working full-time in June as the dedicated Latina/o Theatre Commons Producer.

We produced "A Christmas Carol" and adapted our own versions of "Peter Pan" and "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe". The students reveled in the attention from their sold-out audiences. These children weren’t just spectators; they were the stars of the show. To a child who is constantly told, "You won’t be able to do that," by teachers or medical professionals, this was an unexpected feat.

A friend or peer might see a show and say that the relationships felt true to life or true to her experiences, which makes for a satisfying evening in their eyes. While I can certainly see the artistic merit in such work, I wonder if this kind of reflection is anything more than looking in a mirror if it does not somehow change the way we live and the way we approach the world. What is its purpose?

This week's conversation topic is Writing & Producing New Plays for the Indie, High School, College, and Community Theater Markets and will be moderated by Amy Rose Marsh @AmyRoseMarsh, literary manager @MrSamuelFrench—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 1 on hashtag #newplay at 11am PDT (San Francisco) / 1pm CDT (Austin) / 2pm EDT (Toronto) / 18:00 GMT / 7pm BST (London). On Thursday, get heard in the conversation by searching for #newplay in Twitter (sort by “all”) and by putting “#newplay” somewhere in your messages. Spread the word!

We usually consider a fight choreographer’s job to be staging the fights so that they are safe. Certainly safety is essential: actors should not be getting hurt in the exercise of their art. But a violence designer is far more than a mere “safety foreman.” Like any other artist working in the theater, the violence designer’s primary role is doing interpretive work: making choices that help tell the story. Not the story of Hamlet, but the story of this Hamlet: that is to say, the story that this production of Hamlet is telling.

Are you the next HowlRound Fellow? HowlRound is looking for editors/writers/producers/entrepreneurs who make things happen—who are ready and passionate to dive into working on ideas for advancing the theater commons.