Criticism

Rachel Bykowski looks at Dana Lynn Formby’s American Beauty Shop and Kristiana Rae Colón’s good friday and asks: is it possible for women playwrights to tell truthful stories of the female experience and male oppression when men hold the majority of leadership positions in the American theatre?

Jonathan Mandell reviews Anna Deavere Smith’s latest solo performance piece, which presents seventeen real-life characters to establish a connection between school failure, the prison system, and police killings.

Yuko Kurahashi on Playwrights Local’s documentary show about the Tamir Rice shooting at the Creative Space at Waterloo Arts in Cleveland, Ohio.

Patricia Davis on Keegan Theatre’s production of What We’re Up Against by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Susan Marie Rhea.

Talya Kingston on These Rooms, devised and directed by David Bolger and Louise Lowe, at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Josh Platt on Double Edge Theatre’s Latin American Spectacle in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Cada Luna Azul / Once a Blue Moon in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and the Springfield Spectacle, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Playwright Karen Malpede reflects on shows from The 23rd Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre, back from a five-year hiatus.

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

Leigh Bienen on the Goodman Theatre production of 2666 which adapts Roberto Bolaño’s nine-hundred and something page novel for the stage.

Summer Banks talks with Jaclyn Backhaus about bringing the story of Men On Boats to life on stage without any men.

Jonathan Mandell looks at some recent plays that explore this wackiest of election seasons in novel ways, and asks: Is mockery proper...or even possible?

Shari Caplan on Love’s Labour's Lost as performed by The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston, Massachusetts.

Josh Platt on The Merchant of Venice directed by Tina Packer in Lenox, Massachusetts. 

Ricky Young-Howze writes about Neil Simon’s influence on pop culture comedic tropes.

David Dudley on Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, directed by David Cromer at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York City.

Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler reflects on his longstanding relationships with the theatre critics of the Twin Cities: Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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.

Ursula Walker on Jelisa Jay Robinson’s Stories of Us at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, Texas.

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

Anđela Vidović on the reception of Bella Figura by French Playwright Yasmina Reza in Zagreb, Croatia.

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.

Trevor Boffone on Josh Inocéncio’s solo show, Purple Eyes, presented in special collaboration with ProyectoTeatro in Austin, Texas. 

Andrew Bailes on the critical reception of The Bachelors, written by Caroline V. McGraw and directed by Erica Weiss in Chicago, Illinois. 

Renaissance scholar Nora J. Williams discusses the #Shakespeare400 celebrations, and the myth that Shakespeare is the “greatest playwright” in the English language.