Recent Essays

The following is a conversation with playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury for the Boston production of "We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915" which is a current co-production between Company One and ArtsEmerson.

Most of the shoppers at Stop & Shop and Marketbasket and Kroger’s and even Whole Foods don’t know any farmers and have never been to a farmer’s market and never will. My tiny organic farm can’t compete with the price and distribution of the big guys. Or influence—the farm bill doesn’t really take me into account. Small organic vegetable farmers don’t get much more crumbs thrown at them than individual artists get from the NEA or big charitable institutions.

In this essay, playwright David Kranes reflects and expresses gratitude to the directors who have brought his plays to life onstage.

Lydia Stryk asks us to change the game and align the industry closer to the human right to make a living wage.

Speaking of centralized authority figures: we are also so accustomed to having the “initial creative impulse” of a play come from a playwright .... But given the core task of the role—establishing the high-level vision for a production—is there any reason why, say, a designer or actor couldn’t serve as a product owner? I mean… why should playwrights be the only theater artists who get to sit in the “big vision” chair? In an agile theater world, they wouldn’t.

Patricia Davis reviews Ambassador Theater's production of Protest, written by the Czech Republic's first president Vaclav Havel, directed by Gail Humphries Mardirosian.

When an actor asks a question in rehearsal, the director responds, “What does the play want?” Then they have a conversation trying to figure out what the illusive play must want. But the play is not out there floating around for them to discover. I believe that theater must never serve the mystical play more than the people in the room.

Bethany Lynn Corey offers a reflection and insight on the benefits of visual theatre.

Utilizing the theatrical convention of the Jester, Daria Wilke explores the suppresion of homeosexuality in reflection of the jester’s inner freedom.

Nobokov’s thinking about absolute freedom included the notion that there could be no play without competition. It is critical to think about the lack of play induced by Putin’s “traditional Russian values.”