Recent Essays

Like farmers who rotate crops to ensure that the soil contains a variety of nutrients, if I only direct, then my only perspective will be the director’s perspective.

P. Carl on the decline of public discourse and the relationship between artists, institutions, and the percieved Haves and Have-Nots.

I am a director. I am a playwright. It has taken me many years of hard work to come to appreciate what each of those professions require and to experience them both independently and combined.

Richard Nelson, author of the Apple Family cycle, is interviwed by Aaron Malkin about the imputus and process behind the latest play in the cycle, Sweet and Sad.

As he becomes the President of the TCG Board of Directors, Philip Himberg shares his hopes for the impact and value new plays and playwrights can bring to America.

Mark Jackson, a theater maker in San Francisco, talks about the founding of Theater Salons, a series of informal talks about theater between differnet theatermakers in the area, and the lessons he has learned from them.

Deborah Cullinan and Jonathan Moscone discuss Ghost Light, a new play exploring his father — San Francisco Mayor George Moscone — and Supervisor Harvey Milk's assassination.

I started feeling the need to scare myself into doing something different. Not to simply feel something new, but to feel something deeper.

The Workhaus Playwrights Collective — which disbanded in 2016 — came from a desire to create a playwright-driven theatre company, where no administrative infrastructure chooses the plays or plans the seasons.

P.Carl meditates on the power of saying Yes instead of No to new ideas.