Festivals

Xhloe and Natasha made Edinburgh Festival Fringe history with three consecutive award-winning shows, but even the most successful Fringe acts struggle to break even. Jonathan Mandell sits down with the clown duo to discuss the energy, strategy, and effort required to take the world’s largest arts festival by storm.

“Add Theater to Taste” was the recent theme of the annual Iloilo Theater Festival in the Philippines. Heritage language learner Amanda L. Andrei shares how the shows used food to explore deeper social issues and how her experience in the audience connected her more deeply to her roots.

Kamilah Forbes reflects on the inherent rebellion in the gathering of artists at the Under the Radar festival, and shares how this is a critical moment for theatremakers to offer their complicated visions to the world.

As the world continues to shift under the acts of the current United States presidential administration, the role that theatremakers play in shaping democracy is a hot topic in our industry. Tita Anntares recounts related learnings and conversations that took place at the Festival for Theatre and Democracy in 2024.

Ann Liv Young’s Marie Antoinette at Under the Radar sparked a lot of controversy, namely for its treatment of the performers. Carmi recounts the theatrical experience that was unlike any they’ve had before—which was also true for the performers.

The La MaMa Puppet Festival, which brought three weeks of puppet performances to New York City. The productions, writes Lucy Haskell, moved the material world to help us reconsider our own relationships to the worlds inside and around us.

Mei Ann Teo reflects on Ping Chong’s departure from Ping Chong and Company, how the artistic leadership team continues to move forward, and how the questions they asked themselves can apply to theatremakers widely.

Four productions at the Kosovo Albania Theatre Showcase 2024 used the relationship between audience and performance space to tell stories of betrayal, corruption, loss, and large-scale disregard for life. verity healey considers the impact of these spaces on audience reception.

Playwright Jennifer Barclay co-founded the Not Beckett International Rolling World Premiere Festival, inspired by National New Play Network (NNPN)’s Rolling World Premiere program. She sat down with NNPN executive director Nan Barnett to discuss the inception of the program and how it inspired the new festival.

In 2024, the Island Shakespeare Festival in Whidbey Island, Washington, set a goal of producing “zero-waste.” They partnered with local sustainability organizations to confront their waste issue and transform the front-of-house experience for theatregoers.

In the summertime, the city of Berlin is alight with artistic festivals of all kinds. German theatre scholar Thomas Schmidt reflects on some of the theatre festivals of this past summer and posits what makes the Berlin theatre scene so special.

J Emilio Bencosme-Zayas shares the experience of participating in the Festival del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba as part of Open Channels/Canales Abiertos. In reflecting on the festival, he discusses what Open Channels has achieved so far, and imagines what else could happen in the future.

Yaşam Özlem Gülseven interviews Davit Khorbaladze about his play UNLOVE: an experimental work based on his personal documentary material about the loss of love during a time of global crisis and the identity crisis that followed. The two explore how UNLOVE and the rest of the “UN-” trilogy highlights the shocking resemblance between intimate experiences and global events.

Kaneza Schaal shares the community practices she witnessed at her aunt’s home in Rwanda, and how theatremakers should embrace these practices when we create work together.

After being asked to share his thoughts on the future of international touring, Why Not Theatre founder Ravi Jain offers some of what he’s learned about engaging “new” audiences and building lasting relationships between artists and presenters.

Hana Sharif reflects on lessons learned during the dramatically shifting theatrical landscape in recent years, and the necessity of artistic leaders embracing abundance during this moment. 

Jacob Juntunen traces the collaborative network of theatres and theatremakers in St. Louis that share resources and make the city a rich environment for new play development. 

Kristin Idaszak reflects on experiencing Theatre Du Polet’s Be Water, My Friend at the Prague Quadrennial. This protest art about Hong Kong’s fight for democracy in 2019, performed in the Czech Republic, crosses cultures, political regimes, and time periods.