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Acting & Performance

This section contains content on the craft of acting, created by performers of all types.

The Latest

Essay
Presence Before Performance at ODIN HOME
by Melvin Ningyao Yen
3 March 2026
Essay
Creating in the Chaos
by Murielle Borst Tarrant
3 November 2025
Essay
Xhloe and Natasha on the Fringe
by Jonathan Mandell
23 September 2025
Essay
10 February 2016

Award-winning actor and monologuist Eric Bogosian discusses how a monologue is created: from conceptualization, to free-form vocal improv, to writing, and performance.

Essay
6 February 2016

Andrew Bailes describes the unlikely link between the Gainesville, Florida and Chicago, Illinois improv communities.

Essay

Louisville Championship Arm Wrestling

6 February 2016

In this installment, Eli Keel discusses Louisville Championship Arm Wrestling and its non-traditional approach to live theatre.

Video
Friday 29 January 2016
Austin, TX, United States

The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean—livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on at Friday 29 January at 6 p.m. PST (Vancouver) / 8 p.m. CST (Austin) / 9 p.m. EST (New York). Use Twitter hashtag #howlround and direct comments @VORTEXonManor.

Essay

Story to Song Twinterview

30 January 2016

Lauren Alexander interviews twins Shirley and Aaron Sertosky about their experience working together in Theater J’s production of Stars of David: Story to Song.

Podcast

Rachel Keller

22 January 2016

In this episode, Matthew Gray discusses the lack of diversity during awards season, and interviews Rachel Keller, co-star of Holidaysburg and Fargo: Season Two, about her journey.

Podcast

What Actors Mean to Us

14 January 2016

In this episode, Matt Gray reflects on what actors mean to us and whether the awards season is the best way to honor them.

Essay
8 January 2016

Actor Isabel Dieppa writes about her experiences as an actor of color being cast in a variety of roles.

Essay
21 December 2015

In this second installment, Matthew Minnicino discusses legendary women characters in ancient Greek theatre. 

Podcast

PigPen Theatre Co., Part 2 of 2

17 December 2015

In the second part of Matt's interview with Pig Pen Theatre Co., he speaks with Matt, Curtis, and Ben. They discuss how to avoid cynicism for the business, speaking a common language with your collaborators, and Jerome Bettis.

Podcast

Ali Stroker

11 December 2015

Ali Stroker is currently starring in Deaf West’s acclaimed Broadway production of Spring Awakening. She is the first leading actor in a wheelchair on Broadway. She’s part-trailblazer, part-advocate, part-instigator and all artist.

Essay
8 December 2015

In this fourth installment, Director Damon Krometis discusses the implications of spatial relationships between performers and audiences.

Essay
4 December 2015

Actor and teaching artist Valerie Weak discusses her experience freelancing and shares her strategies for promoting women theatre artists.

group of musicians posing with their instruments
Podcast

PigPen Theatre Co., Part 1 of 2

3 December 2015

Today is the first part of a two part interview with three members of the PigPen Theatre Co. (Ryan Melia, Arya Shahi and Dan Weschler). We discuss actual Rat Kings, the ‘tiering’ of Drama Schools and finding your own identity in the actor training process.

Essay

Why Taking Risks is Still Essential

2 December 2015

Eli Keel discusses his experience performing in Phillip Dawkins’ play Failure: A Love Story and shares the timely lesson he learned.

Podcast

Kristolyn Lloyd

19 November 2015

Matthew Gray interviews performer Kristolyn Lloyd about choosing ethics and principles over panic when building your career, the importance of shaping your own education, and developing new work.

Essay

Combatting Censorship as a Christian Theatre Artist

9 November 2015

Playwright Joseph D’Ambrosi advocates the need for Christian theatre artists to reevaluate censoring plays for the sake of faith-based themes.

Essay

Tourette Syndrome in the Theatre

8 November 2015

Actor Gardiner Comfort discusses his experiences as a performer and audience member with Tourette Syndrome, and how it has inspired aspects of his solo show The Elephant in Every Room I Enter.

Essay

Finding Humanity in Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man’s Blues

7 November 2015

Emerson College student Andrew Siañez-De La O writes about RareWork’s Theatre Company’s production of Caridad Svich’s Alchemy of Desire/Dead Mans Blues.

Podcast

Kara Lindsay

5 November 2015

Today I talk with Kara Lindsay, currently playing Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. We talk Broadway dreams, audition nightmares and coming to terms with the ebbs and flow of the business.

Essay
31 October 2015

Actor Jerine Watson writes about instances in her career where something went wrong, and how the performers managed the moment.

Podcast

Gretchen Egolf

29 October 2015

Gretchen Egolf and I talk about the cultural differences between the business in the USA and the UK, the difference between acting for cameras and acting onstage and nursing an ongoing displeasure of auditioning…

Essay

HerSelf Rises (And We Are Lifted)

27 October 2015

Steele Campbell on HerSelf Rising by Girls on Trapeze at Sideshow Fringe Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

Essay
23 October 2015

Producer Sean Williams talks with the four lead actors in The Honeycomb Trilogy.

Podcast

Tasso Feldman

22 October 2015

This week I’m speaking to actor Tasso Feldman. We talk about acting books and their traps, the difference between stage and screen acting.

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