Recent Essays

Rebecca Salzhauer writes about Finish the Fight, a piece of online theatre that reminds viewers how theatre is a communion, a two-sided contract between storyteller and story-hearer, bound by the terms of being alive.

Amanda Spooner talks about launching Year of the Stage Manager 2020, a grassroots endeavor meant to make visible those who continually operate in the background, and how the movement shifted after the pandemic hit and with the murder of George Floyd.

Ali-Reza Mirsajadi talks about struggles for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) artists in the American theatre community and details some of the changes that are happening for inclusivity and equity.

Soyica Colbert sits down with playwright Natsu Onoda Power to talk about protesting against the United States military presence in Okinawa, Japan; in-person audiences versus virtual ones, Natsu’s new piece Okiniawa Demo Reel, and more.

Carla Della Gatta offers strategies and considerations for theatremakers who are looking to create bilingual or semi-bilingual renditions of the canonized classics.

Esther Fernández talks about closing the gap that separates classical and contemporary theatre and discusses the piece En otro reino extraño, a polyphonic work composed of scenes from Lope de Vega’s plays; snippets of informal conversations between the actors in Zoom chats; poems transmogrified into electrocumbia, punk, and pop songs; and video montage.

Michelle Souza looks at how costume designers and educators can dismantle the status quo of Western-focused, chronological teaching of historical garments and move toward a pedagogy that acknowledges and honors diversity, intersectionality, and globalism.

Playwright Hallie Palladino chats with intimacy director Gaby Labotka about how intimacy directors approach scripts, the importance of a well-chosen adverb, and the necessity of innovation, now more than ever, to keep performers healthy and safe.

Madeline Sayet argues that promoting Shakespeare as the best writer of all time is a dangerous and white supremacist viewpoint, and she believes it’s time to interrogate the Bard’s placecent as the pinnacle of theatrical achievement.