In this section, dive into conversations focused on beauty, taste, and the artistic choices made while creating performance. Check out Brendan McCall’s Beyond Ibsen series, which features contemporary Norwegian theatremakers, and Jonathan Mandell’s essay “Pandemic Theatre Aesthetic,” which discusses the immediate artistic responses of theatremakers in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
The Latest
Essay
Shanty Theatre Takes on the Ijele Masquerade Performance
by Eseovwe Emakunu, Angela Okolo
11 June 2025
Essay
On Becoming Bird
by Evan Silver
25 April 2025
Essay
Pleasurable and Perilous Rebellions in ProyectoTEATRO’s Cabarex 2: RevoLUZiones
Jonathan Mandell examines the new theatrical landscape brought on by COVID-19 and discusses the emerging aesthetic—one that is low-tech, low-key, one-on-one, close-up.
Rebecca Benzie Fraser uses Her Naked Skin as an example in the exploration of the different decisions made when it comes to staging violence by women and staging violence against women.
Amanda L. Andrei reflects on Warsaw’s Generation After 3 festival, which had the theme of “risky projects,” and discusses four pieces she saw on risk as it relates to the body and the world.
Emily Garside discusses Y Brain/Kargalar, in which the playwright, Turkish refugee Meltem Arikan, who settled in Wales, explores her conflicting identities.
Erin B. Mee examines how using the Sanskrit aesthetic theory of rasa—rather than the aesthetic theory of catharsis—is a necessary step when it comes to creating sustainable theatre.
Mark Valdez and Todd London created a two-person, livestreaming theatre conference that took place on Valentine’s Day to talk about the love of theatre, the art of the ensemble, the art of the playwright, the art of civic engagement, and the ways we carry artistic lineage and legacy into the future.
This was a way to explore questions they’ve been posing to each other over the years as colleagues and friends, questions not about survival or problems in the theatre, but questions about the art itself. This “conference,” then, is meant as a call to conversation, theirs and, we hope, yours, about the artform we love.
Mark and Todd issued a challenge to all listeners to hold artistic conversations of their own, large or small, public or private, before 1 May 2019. Please let us know if you’re taking the challenge and let us know when you’ve had your conversation. Write us as [email protected].
Edward Einhorn looks at the innovation inherent to neuro-theatre and how various artists have creatively presented the neurological conditions their plays explore.
Cassidy Dawn Graves writes about the anti-capitalist narrative present in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the significance of producing the musical in 2018.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented A Day with Meredith Monk livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 2 April at 5:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 4:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 2:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco). Follow @HowlRound on Twitter for updates, and use #howlround.
Kaite O’Reilly considers how Richard III has been portrayed on stage, the alignment of atypical embodiment with evil and suffering, and her inspiration with The Llanarth Group to create a new staging of Richard III.
Zach Donovan addresses the shortcomings of nonprofit theatre, the glut of self production, and considers Pop Theatre as an alternative theatrical vehicle.
Jonathan Mandell looks at six theatre pieces in January that used words in unorthodox ways—as gibberish, or out-of-sync with the action; some didn’t use words at all.
