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Religion and Spirituality

This section contains content that grapples with the connection between theatre and religion/spirituality. Some pieces address this theme in an overall sense, like the essay “The Religious Nature of Theatre, the Theatrical Nature of Religion,” while other content focuses on theatre with a religious theme, like the conversation between Caridad Svich and Will Arbery “Keeping the Faith” or the panel Public Perceptions of Islam in Post-9/11 America featuring playwright Ayad Akhtar.

The Latest

Essay
Exploring Theatre, Nigerian Culture, and the Catholic Church at a Seminary Festival
by Israel Wekpe, Eseovwe Emakunu
21 January 2026
Podcast
Iraqi Theatre History
by Marina Johnson, Nabra Nelson, Amir Al-Azraki
30 July 2024
Essay
The Moor I Want to Love
by Abdul-Rehman Malik
15 July 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Amir Al-Azraki
Podcast
30 July 2024

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson learn from Dr. Amir Al-Azraki about Iraqi theatrical traditions, the birth of modern Iraqi theatre springing from church drama in Mosul in the late nineteenth century, Iraqi plays in translation, and Afro-Iraqi theatre. 

Two people stand on stage looking at one another in front of colorful lighting.
Essay
15 July 2024

How would our view of Othello change if we knew he were a Muslim? Abdul-Rehman Malik reflects on this question, which became a central point of exploration for his work on the English Touring Theatre production of Othello.

A woman leans her head against a figure wrapped in a colorful blanket
Essay
11 July 2024

Ifrah Mansour creates performance art that explores joy and healing while connecting communities. In this essay, she illuminates the connections between her work and her experiences as a Somali American, a refugee, and a Muslim woman.

Three young woman sit in chairs reading scripts as a part of a workshop.
Essay
10 July 2024

Nasima Bee discusses the creation of take back my body, which was informed by a series of workshops in which groups of Muslim women connect and share experiences on the topics of belonging, identity, and home.

Pages from the oldest known Qur'an, written in Arabic.
Essay
8 July 2024

Asif Majid introduces the Transatlantic Muslim Voices series with an essay that traces histories of oral performance and migration away from oppression that continue to inform experiences of Muslimness in today’s world and theatre landscape.

A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring ancient architecture.
Podcast
18 June 2024

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson talk about Egyptian playwright Tawfiq al-Hakim and his “unstageable” classic play People of the Cave. They provide historical context of the play, al-Hakim’s career, and the Christian and Islamic stories that served as al-Hakim’s inspiration.

Three smiling performers wearing feathered halo headbands dance and clap.
Essay
10 July 2023

Genevieve Schroder-Arce discusses her experience attending—and co-creating—Teatro Vivo’s Las Pastorela 2022, which invited audience members to construct the piece and perform it for one another as a way of modeling collaboration among community members.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image with guest headshot.
Podcast
22 March 2023

In the season finale of the Building Our Own Tables podcast, Yura Sapi invites Gabriel Barrera to share about creating Scenic G, a visual art and design company providing services in art and design, workshops, consultation, facilitation, and mentorship infused with social justice. After spending twenty years as a scenic designer, Gabriel shares about his decision to leave and build his own table as an independent artist providing opportunities for others along the way. Topics in this episode include decolonizing ideas of who a teacher can be, addressing toxic behaviors, and facilitation skills.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image with guest headshot.
Podcast
15 March 2023

Theatremaker Mica Rose joins Yura Sapi this week and shares about co-creating Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston. Topics for this episode include moving from morning routine to waking ritual, the power of circles and cycles, and a grounding meditation.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Podcast

A Conversation with Roselyn Madalo Dzanja

2 November 2022

As a scholar, educator, and practitioner of theatre, Roselyn Madalo Dzanja knows Malawi’s theatrical landscape well. In this interview, she discusses challenges Malawian women face when pursuing an acting career, the need for artistic independence from international donors, possibilities for Chichewa-language drama, and more.

Two actors in their underwear caressing one another.
Essay

A Conversation with Cha Ramos

2 September 2022

Ann James interviews Cha Ramos about her approach to intimacy direction, which pulls from Cha’s multidisciplinary theatrical career, her Cuban American upbringing, and—perhaps most crucially—her intentional rediscovery of spirituality as an essential part of artistic practice.

event poster for freedom talk with buddha nights.
Video

The Absence of Hazara People in Public Discourse

Tuesday 26 April 2022
Afghanistan, Sweden

Safe Havens Freedom Talks presented a conversation Unjust Narratives: The Absence of Hazara People in Public Discourse livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 26 April 2022 at 8:30 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -7) / 12:30 p.m. UTC / 2:30 p.m. CEST (Stockholm, UTC +2) / 5 p.m. AFT (Kabul, UTC +4:30).

Four people kneeling around bowls of water.
Essay
21 April 2022

Onisajé shares the creative process of Teatro Preto do Candomblé, which trains actors using the rituals and liturgy of Candomblé as a method of actor training. Through immersion in this African diasporic religion, Teatro Preto do Candomblé’s methods center reciprocal relationships with the environment and activate individuals’ connection to their Blackness.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Podcast

With siri gurudev

9 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with siri gurudev to talk about their devising practice which blends queer of color theory and performance techniques, popular music, and spirituality and to chat about their dissertation research on ritual, trauma, and healing in QTPOC performance.

The Future is Now
Podcast
9 November 2021

In these episodes of The Future Is Now, CEC Artslink invites three of their Future Fellows—Amirah Sackett, an independent artist and activist, and Malika Umarova and Marat Raiymkulov of Art Group 705—to share their vision for how they see the future of arts practice.

Podcast

Dr. Megan Sanborn Jones on Pageants and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

13 October 2021

In this week’s Theatre History Podcast, Dr. Megan Sanborn Jones discusses the history of Mormons in theatre and the pageant tradition in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through her deep research on these pageants, Dr. Jones explores the unique fusion of faith, history, and performance in Mormon pageantry.

five actors onstage
Essay

A Conversation with Will Arbery

24 November 2019

Caridad Svich shares a correspondence she had with playwright and theatremaker Will Arbery, touching on topics of writing about bleakness and despair, a play’s relationship to breath, faith and faithlessness, and more.

a group of performers dancing onstage with an audience watching
Essay
14 March 2019

Miguel Ángel Vargas unfolds the history of Gitano (Romani) theatre in Spain, from the eighteenth century to today.

 

a landscape
Essay
13 June 2018

Playwright Renée Darline Roden talks about her travels to Israel and Palestine to gain inspiration for a new play and encountering what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls “the danger of a single story.”

Essay
20 March 2018

Peterson Toscano describes his solo show Everything is Connected, which tackles religion, LGBTQ issues, privilege, and climate change.

Essay
8 January 2018

An Interview with Werewere Liking founder of the Theatre Company Village Ki-Yi M'Bock in Côte d’Ivoire. / Une interview avec Werewere Liking, la fondatrice du Village Ki-Yi M'Bock en Côte d’Ivoire. 

Essay

Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya’s Becoming Pentalogy

20 October 2017

Multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer Ivan Talijancic interviews New York based duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya about LEIMAY ensemble, their recent production Frantic Beauty, and the creation process for their five-part Becoming series.

Essay

The Conference of the Birds

28 July 2017

In this installment, Tom Block explores the work of Sufi poet Farid un-Din Attar.

Essay

The Cost of Discipleship

20 July 2017

In his latest installment, Tom Block explores how Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work could impact theatre. 

Essay

A Conversation between Director June Guralnick and Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer

18 June 2017

Conversation between director June Guralnick and playwright Suzanne Bradbeer about The God Game, plays about faith post-election, and the division of church and state.

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