Acting & Performance

Director Lavina Jadhwani ask three questions, addressing how color-conscious casting impacts the story being told.

Shakespearean Actor Samuel Taylor shares his insight on how to make Shakespeare theatre more attractive to a contemporary and millennial audience.

I was often cast in small roles or the chorus. I learned to watch and listen. Creating a point of view about everything that happens onstage—even when I didn’t have a single line—was invaluable experience. I could make up whatever backstory I wanted. The many pages and youths I played didn’t have strict binary restrictions, so in my heart I was the saucy kitchen wench.

1.) Never wait for permission to practice your art. You cannot wait to get a job to be an artist. 2.) Study your art. Never stop studying. 3.) Find a spiritual practice that works for you.

I offered to cut "Henry IV, Part One" down to ninety minutes, schedule two rehearsals and one performance, and find a part for anyone who wanted to participate. Eighteen actors jumped on board, and I was determined to not direct them in this play.

Truthfully, as a Los Angeles-based theater artist working almost entirely under the 99-seat agreement, at a certain point I just gave up on earning my Equity card, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) wasn’t popping up on my radar. While I may not currently carry a union card in my wallet, I do take great pride in how I am following in my grandfather’s footsteps. We both pursued our passion to craft and share stories, and simultaneously held careers working in the arts to pay the bills.

I could certainly choose not to work at a lot of small theaters. I could also try and negotiate higher rates. I have done both. But I like to work with good theater artists. It’s hard to say no to a good director or to a good script. As a Los Angeles theater artist, it is almost impossible to not work in 99-seat theater.

The kind of open, honest, rough-and-tumble way that we often approach our art-making seems to be inhibited, or even actively stifled, when it comes to addressing larger issues in the way we work and the ways we are part of the fabric of the country. Much of the time, it seems like we’re all living in a spirit of fear, instantly defensive whenever anyone questions the current status quo. And this despite the fact that, at least in principle, everyone seems to agree the status quo is far from ideal.

One of the stereotypes about the post-Grotowski Polish ensemble theaters is that their processes are rigidly closed and their rehearsal rooms are treated like devotional spaces. There is often a way through a more closed door, but you may have to put on your sweatpants.

Jonathan Mandell looks at the 2013-2014 Broadway season and the six productions which featured men cross-dressing

The gnaw came on slowly. It started to bother me more when people asked if I thought I’d ever “go back to theater?” I started peeking at audition postings every once in a while. I started telling my husband boring stories about how I “got a laugh” during a workshop or a conference keynote. I always said it will have to be the right show at the right time for it to work, for it to be worth the additional upheaval to my life.

Eric Bass provides insight into the art of puppet theatre. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was an actor’s actor; the best, many said, of his generation. And yet, in the aftermath of his death, you realize that he was just like the rest of us, full of insecurity. Bennett Miller, who directed Hoffman in "Capote", tells of his friend’s fears two weeks before the opening of "The Sea Gull" with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. Hoffman confided that he was nervous and would be found out to be a fraud. A fraud? The best actor of his generation? He told of the exhausting stress caused by the psychophysical commitment it takes to play a role.