Recent Essays

Matt McGeachy writes about Modern Times Stage Company's Forgiveness: A Theatrical Poem, an intense movement piece exploring the dialetic between forgiveness and forgetting. 

But this particular day I was walking uphill in ninety-five degrees heat wearing hosiery, a corset, a silk slip, a long sleeved collared shirt, a wool skirt and a wool coat. Oh, and a pretty doofy hat. "Boardwalk Empire" followed the unfortunate schedule of filming its winter scenes in summer and summer scenes in winter. At some point I muttered to myself, "I hate this."

The Weekly Howl is a peer produced, open access discussion about theater culture and contemporary performance that happens in real-time on Twitter using the hashtag #newplay.* This week's conversation topic is "The New Play Development Process of Incubation" and will be moderated by @garliacornelia and @thecelltheatre—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 3 on hashtag #newplay at 9am PDT (Vancouver) / 11am CDT (Austin) / 12pm EDT (New York) / 16:00 GMT / 5pm 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!

 Jennifer Lane shares her thoughts on how to remain optimistic among the dismal realities of theatre-making. 

foolsFURY is a theater ensemble from San Francisco that sees advantages in working with playwrights and devisors, and seizes opportunities to become a touring company. As they come up on their fifteenth year, artistic director Ben Yalom sheds some light on their transitions, and lets me in on how they are working toward what is next artistically and financially.

In the last couple of seasons I’ve become aware of a ticket scheme already practiced by some of our larger regional theaters, and currently under consideration at some where my plays are produced. And this practice goes by a very catchy and newfangled name. It’s being called “dynamic pricing.” But it’s not a new practice. It’s actually quite old, and has a more familiar name. It’s called "scalping".

Alice Stanley Jr. discusses her experience at a workshop of Ariel Luckey's solo performance Amnesia, and the talkback which followed.

A dialogue between Paula Vogel and Blanka Zizka regarding their play Don Juan Come Home from Iraq. 

Dani Snyder-Young reviews the (now closed) Next Theatre Company production of Kirsten Greenidge’s Luck of the Irish in the context of Evanston, Illinois