Gender

Mya Kagan announces a new project: the Future Is Female Festival.

A new play takes cues from funk music to explore bisexuality, biphobia, and polyamory in 1990s Brooklyn.

Catherine Castellani continues her exploration of what it means for a play to be considered “feminist.”

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.

Chicago-based costume designer, textile designer, and wardrobe stylist Elsa Hiltner considers the division of labor and allocation of technical support within theatrical design.

One year into organizing, the Committee of the Jubilee reports out on progress, answers common questions, and re-extends an invitation to the American Theatre to join the year-long nationwide festival of 2020.

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?

Allison Raynor talks with playwright Melinda Lopez about women on stage: who she writes, how she writes them, and who she’d like to see.

Artistic Director Gideon Lester discusses Emma Rice leaving Shakespeare’s Globe, and ruminates on the tension between artistic and administrative priorities.

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

Deborah Randall, founder of Venus Theatre, writes about the need for theatrical spaces that support women's voices.

In this installment, Irene Loy discusses how characters receive desire versus defend themselves against unwanted desire, delving into the difference of consent and dissent.

Two more of “Max’s” plays receive different responses than Mya’s did, leading her to affirm her belief that bias is at work in the submission process.

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

Allison Raynor talks with other early-career theatre artists about how the narratives they grew up loving influenced their sense of self.

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

A prominent theatre figure in Lebanon and the Arab region, Hanane Hajj Ali reflects in this piece on the personal and professional encounters that have made her the free woman she is today.

Students at Ramapo College interview eight of the playwrights on the 2015 Kilroys list for a Contemporary Women Playwrights course.

Holly Derr contemplates how a director can foster a feminist production.

In this cultural moment of divisiveness, how is one of the true stories of abortion theatricalized? Holly Derr considers Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s co-production of Roe by Lisa Loomer. 

In this installment, Briandaniel Oglesby shares updates leading up to the performance of his students’ queer adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

Maegan Clearwood on the all-male production of Taming of the Shrew, directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC.