Aesthetics

Thea Rodgers challenges us to feel more deeply – and to produce Shakespearean productions that embrace the full depth and breadth of human emotion.

Jonathan Mandell shares insight on how television is influencing theatre.

P. Carl's speech delivered at ArtsCrush in Seattle, Washington on September 10, 2013.

Chris Garza covers the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival and reports back on its selection lottery, aesthetics, and discusses some of the 42 performances he saw.

In this essay, Jonathon Mandell invesitgates theatre marathon and interviews Mike Daisy.

This Thursday's topic: "Marathon Theater" which is presented in the HowlRound Journal article Too Much Theater? The New Marathons by Jonathan Mandell.

The Weekly Howl is a peer-produced, open-access discussion about theater culture and contemporary performance that happens in real-time on Twitter using the hashtag #newplay.*

Join us Thursday, July 25 for the Weekly Howl on hashtag #newplay at 11am PDT – 12pm PDT (Los Angeles) / 1pm CDT – 2pm CDT (Austin) / 2pm EDT – 3pm EDT (New York) / 18:00 GMT – 19:00 GMT / 7pm BST - 8pm BST (London) / 8pm CEST - 9pm CEST (Berlin). Click here for an automatic conversion into your local time.

This week's topic: "Realism: Friend and Foe"

The tour of UK’s War Horse in the United States shows us that, even a ingenious play, assumed historical knowledge can make or break an audience’s experience.

In the land of film and technology, LA pushes theatre to innovate the theatrical definition of reality.

Marcus Youssef looks at the idea of reality and how, as the first generation in a globalized world, that informs the structure and the creating of storytelling.

Tradition has been the backdrop of contemporary theatre. Hawaii’s cultural diversity highlights tradition as a way of showing the richness of islands.

Matt McGeachy tallks about VideoCabaret’s The War of 1812, which attempts to understand the war and its consequences through comedy, tragedy, and Canadian history.

A call to designers to carefully consider the details of their work, no matter what budget size they have, as it is in the details that show deliberate care of the design.

Jody Christopherson interviews playwright Crystal Skillman about her recent work in geek theatre.

Brooke Christensen reflects on her encounters with Emma Rice and Kneehigh's work, and the power of belonging in the audience – whether for 90 minutes and an intermission, or for the rest of one's life.

Playwright Tammy Ryan talks about the role of guns in her older and more recent plays.

The playwright Caridad Svitch on five fruitful, uncomfortable pieces of playwritting.

P. Carl affirms our need to democratize the theatre field, in the battle to define what constitutes good art.

Ayad Akhtar responds to the train of thought he began in his previous essay Dialogue and the Age of Industrial Storytelling (Or, A Defense of the Theater) by critiquing the thought processes which go into creating the mass produced story.

Matthew Gushick explains the necessity of having a sense of play in creating any kind of theater, and how it is the vital key in creating ultimate captivation in an auidence.

Elissa Adams offers a roadmap to those first jumping into the field of Theater for Young Audiences.

Ayad Akhtar on why theater, and by extention, dialoge, still matter in our age of ever eveloving, constant story making.

Natsu Onoda Power writes about the role of coincidence and fate in her career, and how the "choices" we make in our artistic journeys are hardly a matter of choice at all.

David Chapman draws attention to the ways we can continue to learn and be inspired from the multi-facted legacy of Václav Havel, first post-Soviet President of Czechoslovakia.