Aesthetics

Jess Barbagallo and Chris Giarmo discuss design questions for Jess’s play My Old Man (and Other Stories) and the recently increased interest in trans artists.

Sound designer Victoria Deiorio reflects on her experience of Complicite’s The Encounter and its ingenious use of sound. 

Anchuli Felicia King discusses augmented reality technologies, one of the most radical technological advances affecting the theatre today and the unique dramaturgies and opportunities provided by AR in theatre.

Donald Sanborn talks with director John Doyle about the differences between musical theatre and opera, and the power of seeing actors play instruments on stage.

Charlotte Canning discusses gun violence in theatre, and film, taking a close look at safety policies and regulations for firearms on set.

Theatre practitioner Caridad Svich on art and activism and After Orlando.

Zachary Small calls for theatre to move beyond the living room play and explore the technological realm.

Kyna Hamill and Brianna Randolph discuss crafting Letters to Medford, a theatre performance by Two Roads Performance Projects in Massachusetts. 

Director Emily Mendelsohn shares her experience at the 2016 Theatre Without Borders Conference, and muses on an “ecological way of seeing” for her work.

Beatriz Afonso Santos describes her process of exploring theatre and theatremaking techniques that involve all the senses. Read it in English and in Spanish!

Paul Adolphsen on the 2016 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Ethan Lipton discusses making music, making theatre, and combining the two in his full-length play-with-music Tumacho at Clubbed Thumb.

Jonathan Mandell on the wealth of offerings of African-American theatre at the twentieth New York International Fringe Festival. 

David Bruin on the world premiere of Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed, futurist puppet plays by Fortunato Depero, translated, designed, and directed by Dan Hurlin at Bard SummerScape.

Sam Weisberg and Rob Onorato review Jordan Tannahill’s book Theatre of the Unimpressed, which discusses the well-made play and the idea of failing in theatre.

In this installment, Irene Loy discusses the Caregiver character, who genuinely wants what’s best for other (often the main) characters.

Matt DiCintio explores the orientalism in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Edward Einhorn describes his experiences as a director, adaptor, and translator, and the similarities and differences between them.

Researcher and lecturer Joris Weijdom of HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Netherlands on what the Internet of things, transmedia, and mixed reality might mean for theatremakers and theatremaking. 

Chicago-based theatre practitioner, Amber Robinson, reflects on the polyphonic nature of The Goodman Theatre’s adaption of Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 and other multi-narrative theatrical works.

Jonathan Mandell looks at the new production of Runaways, thirty-eight years after the first, and asks: Should a work of theatre allow us to escape from, or force us to engage in, the world?

Manuel Betancourt on the Young Vic’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Ramesh Meyyappan and Gavin Glover discuss their wordless adaptation of Madame Butterfly, replete with kites and puppets, and their hopes for hyphenate theatremakers.