Recent Essays

Dani Snyder-Young writes about the intentional diversity she witnessed in five of the 2014 Humana Festival productions.

Deborah Stein and Suli Holum share their inspirations behind creating The Wholehearted.

Patricia Davis writes about The Freedom Theatre in Palestine, focusing on its controversial work with youth and its history, which includes the assassination of their founder.

But maybe the reason I obsess over sports is because of how very different they are from what I have chosen to do. In sports, there’s the illusion of fairness and opportunity. Not so much with theater—Chekhov isn’t fair. The biz doesn’t always offer opportunities. Whereas in every sporting event the outcome isn’t decided, it’s still up in the air, it’s still up to the players. I’d like that to be true of every play. Maybe Othello will change his mind, maybe the cherry orchard won’t be sold. But he always goes through it, the tree always falls, I know the end.

Isn’t boxing just like writing a play? First, you have to train (the muscles in the gym if a boxer, the mind facing the screen if a writer). Then you have to fight! (What we in the Arts call “advocate”). You go out into the world/ring and advocate for your play, and hopefully find other advocates who will advocate your “advocation.” Next, whether you win (get a production) or lose (a reading, and another reading, and another reading), you must nurse your wounds and finally, learn from the experience in hopes that you will come out next time a stronger, smarter, more creative. . .fighter.

This week's conversation topic is "Dramaturgical Collaborations in Devised Work" and will be moderated by @ArtsEmerson—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, April 17 on hashtag #newplay at 10am PDT (Vancouver) / 12pm CDT (Austin) / 1pm EDT (New York) / 17:00 GMT / 6pm 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!

A sampling of some of the major non-profits suggests that there are at least, on average, 8 to 10 unpaid interns working at any given time in the average mid to large sized non-profit theater. There are over 300 non-profit theaters of varying sizes in New York alone. Even with conservative estimates, there are at least a thousand interns, (probably more) working tens of thousands of unpaid hours for the non-profit sector. There are hundreds of PAs. We’ve created a system that’s built on the backs of unpaid young people who just want to be a part of things.

We did "Pippi", and we had American Sign Language interpretation every weekend. This is because Wendy Lement, the producer at Wheelock, directed the play herself, and wanted the interpreters to be integrated with the cast. They were signing performers, rather than interpreters. They were each assigned a character in the cast, had their own blocking, and dressed to blend in onstage. "Pippi" was unusual in that the interpreters/sign performers rehearsed with the cast from day one until the opening night. They started from scratch, not knowing who the characters are, and worked alongside the cast to develop them. (This interview was conducted in ASL, and was translated and edited by Ariel Baker-Gibbs.)