Political Theatre

Jonathan Mandell talks with Producer Tom Kirdahy about celebrating a marriage three times and how theatre can make a difference.

Jennifer Wintzer shares SHAKE 38’s Measure4Measure Project connecting youth in St. Louis with youth in New York City around the conflict in Ferguson.

Jamie Gahlon interviews Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza, now marking their thirtieth year as ensemble Culture Clash.

Jonathan Mandell asks artists at the Drama Desk Awards if theatre can change the world, and compiles their answers into a video.

Jonathan Mandell on Belarus Free Theatre's Trash Cuisine, playing through May 17 at La Mama ETC in New York City.

Illana Stein reports on the perceived and projected possible ramifications of burning the Quran on stage during a production of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great.

Members of the Brown Bag Theatre Company share their experience making Contra La Corriente/Against the Current, a project created with service workers on the UC Irvine Campus.

The author reflects on the role of the performing arts in his own remarkable journey from Ugandan child soldier to performer and playwright.

Charlotte Meehan and Adara Meyers follow up “Snapshots from the Field” with a look at women theatre artists.

Torange discusses productions she saw in Tehran that premiered outside the Festival, and the impact of the political and economic climate on making theatre in Iran.

The 33rd Fadjr International Theater Festival, Iran’s most visible dramatic showcase, opened ran in Tehran  January 21-February 1, 2015. It featured eighty plays from Iran and eleven from Europe and the Middle East, and no representation from the United States.

Suzan Shown Harjo, a recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, discusses the prevalence of redface on American stages and how disrespect of Native identity extends to land and bodies.

Native voices week continues! August: Osage County’s Kimberly Guerrero explores her work on the show, and what lesson the American theatre can learn from it.

Playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle kicks off Native Voices Week, “Instead of Redface,” with a personal story about how she came to playwriting from law school and the imperative to tell Native stories.

Activist and artist Yvette Heyliger shares her petition for new legislation mandating women artists receive equitable funding from nonprofit arts organizations and institutions.

Some could argue that a play like Burq Off is not the right place to begin to understand the world of the Muslim Diaspora in Europe... But Manzoor herself provides some of that context, throwing statistics into her monologues almost as if her drama were a form of journalism.

Co-founders of St Lou Fringe Em Piro and Tara Daniels talk about how artists and institutions can continue the conversation started after #Ferguson, and how important it is to do so.