Gender

Mrichchakatikam (The Little Clay Cart) is known globally, but it had never been performed in Koodiyattam until this year. Shereen Saif reflects on G. Venu’s adaptation of the classic play, which radically condensed the original and took creative liberties with plot, casting, and tradition.

This is a call for diversity, equity, and inclusion in pit orchestra hiring. Joe LaRocca surfaces inequities embedded in the current contractor system of pit musician hiring, as well as some steps companies can take to remedy these issues.

How can a life be organized? What authority should an archive hold? Dani Lamorte explores questions like these that propel B Kleymeyer’s As Others Have Before, an account of a sculptor’s life and the claims the living have on the stories of the dead.

Is New York theatre backsliding into a less equitable industry? Emily Chackerian writes about the very real worry triggered by recent season announcements that seemed to elide female playwrights—and the solution-minded responses the community offered at a recent town hall.

Elizabeth Hess and Ludovica Villar-Hauser have both dedicated their theatrical careers to advocating for women and gender expansive theatre artists in different ways. The two got together to talk about why and how they have done so, and why that work has remained so necessary.

Theatre educators Tara Brooke Watkins and Allison Tucker talk about their experiences creating a space for children to freely explore gender identity via costuming.

Dramaturg Yejia Sun discusses the process of When I Look at Myself, a multimedia performance workshop documenting Chinese women’s relationships with their bodies. She shares how the experience provided a container for healing and a space for empowerment via exploring feminist narratives in China.

Sophie Sagan-Gutherz shares about Kat Mustatea’s ielele, a show that uses a unique instrument called the BodyMouth to sound out histories of the ielele, a genderless creature in Balkan folklore. Sophie highlights how this show’s use of technology illuminates connections between disability and transgression of binary gender.

Thomas Schmidt, author of Power and Structure in Theater, shares his research on the German theatre landscape. He illuminates toxic power structures, explains how the way theatre operates is a result of Germany’s neocolonial and Nazi history, and offers recommendations for how to improve in the future.

In Keiko Green’s The Bed Trick, a new adaptation of All’s Well That Ends Well, issues of consent in both the bedroom and the theatre classroom are explored in the modern context of college. Erin Murray explains how the show creates a theatrically slippery and inquisitive space which prompts audience members to examine their own role in a society that fosters rape culture. 

Amelia Parenteau explores the creation of The < 3 G E N Project: a documentary theatre project in which the creators, Beatriz Cabur and Giulia Cavallini, are using digital theatre to bridge the digital divide between generations of women, and invite these women into conversation on how to better connect. 

Designers Porsche McGovern and Sherrice Mojgani discuss the impact of Porsche’s multi-year study looking at designers and directors in LORT theatres by pronouns, and how theatre leaders can better support and learn from the freelance artists they hire.

​Lighting designer Porsche McGovern​ shares the results of the final year of her study on the pronouns of designers and directors working in LORT theatres, how the study came about, and what she hopes for the future.

Carl(os) Roa and Rula(s) A. Muñoz share a multi-vocal, non-linear account of their group’s work at the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) Designer and Director Colaboratorio. Through both text and images, they document their group’s explorations of non-hierarchical generative process, as well as the challenges they faced.

Giulianna Marchese discusses productions from the Ubumuntu Art Festival, which is held annually at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. Throughout this year’s festival, performances explored what it means to be a human post-tragedy—the highs and the lows.