Criticism

January 2014 marks the three-year anniversary of the launch of HowlRound. For now, we leave 2013 by offering you an assortment of quotes from the HowlRound’s NewCrit this past year.

Holly L. Derr writes about The Antaeus Company and the evolution of their "partner casting" practice, where each role is cast with two actors.

New Carpa Theater Company’s The Mighty Vandals puts a spotlight on Latino and Arizona lore, two cultures underrepresented in theater, by delving deep into the grain of Arizona culture and history.

Allison Vanouse writes about the work of Shen Wei, and the modern semiotics of the lift in dance.

Lauren Gunderson offers advice on dealing with threatending situations at talkbacks, and how theaters can better protect their artists during audience engagement.

Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn, and Andrew Kushnir explore gay heritage while questioning whether such a thing can actually exist resulting in a living archive in a play structure.

This series presents perspectives on contemporary theater in Romania. It is curated by Iulia Popovici, who recently concluded a month long ArtsLink residency at HowlRound.

Jay Scheib's adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Platnov titled Platonov, or The Disinherited merges with grunge culture-drugs, sex, and alcohol to take a look at values and viewpoints. 

A Good Death examines how those who might be termed “professionals” of death matters (hospice care workers) strive to make the unthinkable into something good.

The day after the opening, I get an email from a lawyer friend who says: “Okay, Pearl, you’re the expert. Explain the second act of that play we saw last night.” I sigh and put on the coffee. My hands hover over the keys. I’m not sure what to say or how to say it. Not sure where to find the intersection of honest critique, institutional loyalty and sisterhood solidarity, I plunge in, hoping for the best.

Allison Vanouse writes about Pere Ubu, and how their experimental rock channels the ghost of Ubu Roi.

Matt McGeachy writes about To Russia with (Gay) Love, and how artists can find solidarity in the struggles of those from which they are isolated.

W.M. Akers reviews Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep. What is to be gained by following the notorious queen past her glamour and into the hour of her death?

Patrick Maley examines the 2013 readings of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, presented by The Greene Space at WNYC and WQXR in New York.

Ariel Baker-Gibbs reviews Tribes, and wonders who the play about deaf culture is speaking to: deaf audeinces, or the hearing audiences who are fascinated by them?

Dani Snyder-Young reviews Steven Simoncic’s Broken Fences at 16th Street Theater, and highlights the play's message... and how audiences have failed to recieve it.

Lily Janiak reviews Buried Child at the Magic Theater, and writes about the ways in which living in a world where the nuclear family has imploded sets new stakes for this play about familiar dysfunction.

Patricia Davis reviews Taffety Punks' production of the unproducable: a humorous interpretation of Titus Andronicus, presented by the all-female Riot Grrrls.

Holly L. Derr covers Radar L.A. 2013, an interdisciplinary and internationally focused theater festival in Los Angeles theater

Allison Vanouse writes about Disney Theatrical Enterprise's approach to theatermaking, and how high art and children's theater meet in their regional theater collaboration: The Jungle Book.

Outside of Phoenix, the reading of Harvey Girls at Arizaon’s Performing Arts Center tackles the question of what, who and where is Arizona’s culture other than a "wasteland." 

By 2003, Sophocles’ Antigone, a fifth century B.C. tragedy about a violent confrontation between a defiant young woman and an arrogant ruler, was one of the most widely adapted plays in Ireland.

According to the LA Stage Alliance, there are about 25 female artistic directors in the greater-Los Angeles area. Though I was initially cheered, that number, it turns out, represents only about 8 percent of Los Angeles' artistic directors.

The Donmar Warehouse's all-female production of Julius Caesar encloses the story into a women’s prison to bring to light contemporary commentary on freedom and betrayal.