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Exploring the Work and Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski with the Stories from the Eastern West Podcast, Part 1
Podcast

Exploring the Work and Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski with the Stories from the Eastern West Podcast, Part 1

Theatre History Podcast #71

by Michael Lueger
6 December 2018
A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited
Video

A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited

Performance and discussion of The Fall by Sister Sylvester

Monday 26 November 2018
New York City
Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio
Podcast

Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio

Theatre History Podcast #69

by Michael Lueger
22 October 2018
Black and white image of three people standing on their heads
Exploring the Work and Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski with the Stories from the Eastern West Podcast, Part 1
Podcast

Exploring the Work and Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski with the Stories from the Eastern West Podcast, Part 1

Theatre History Podcast #71

6 December 2018

The Theatre History Podcast is proud to partner with Stories from the Eastern West to present the first of a two-part episode on the life and work of revolutionary theatre director Jerzy Grotowski.

students crowding and surrounding the exterior of an university building
A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited
Segal_Centre_Logo
Segal
Center
Video

A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited

Performance and discussion of The Fall by Sister Sylvester

Monday 26 November 2018
New York City

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in New York City presented the forum A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited and a performance of The Fall by Sister Sylvester livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 26 November 2018 at 3:15 p.m. PST (Los Angeles) / 5:15 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 6:15 p.m. EST (New York). 

Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio
Podcast

Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio

Theatre History Podcast #69

22 October 2018

In this week's Theatre History Podcast, Matt DiCintio on the origins of the freak show and its lasting influence on our perceptions of disability, race, and physical difference. 

four actors in costume
A Revolt of the Beavers for Our Time
Essay

A Revolt of the Beavers for Our Time

10 October 2018

Theatre professor Robert Hubbard writes about Kit Bix’s recent adaptation of Louis Lantz and Oscar Saul’s 1937 play Revolt of the Beavers for the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Illustration of a woman in a brightly colored dress
Learning About Mary Ann Yates with Dr. Elaine McGirr
Podcast

Learning About Mary Ann Yates with Dr. Elaine McGirr

Theatre History Podcast #68

8 October 2018

Why is Mary Ann Yates the greatest actress you've never heard of? Dr. Elaine McGirr introduces us to this eighteenth-century star and recounts her fascinating career.

Dr. Derek Miller on the History of Performance and Copyright
Podcast

Dr. Derek Miller on the History of Performance and Copyright

24 September 2018

In this week's Theatre History Podcast, Dr. Derek Miller joins us to talk about the origins and development of theatrical copyright.

Dr. Sara BT Thiel on Pregnancy on the Stage in Early Modern English Drama
Podcast

Dr. Sara BT Thiel on Pregnancy on the Stage in Early Modern English Drama

4 September 2018

How do you depict pregnancy when you're working with an all-male cast? Dr. Sara BT Thiel joins us to discuss this and other issues connected to pregnancy on the Stuart stage.

Alaska Native Theatre Comes of Age
Essay

Alaska Native Theatre Comes of Age

19 August 2018

Vera Starbard (Tlingit/Dena’ina) introduces the series on Alaskan theatre through the lens of Alaska Native performance and storytelling.

Twenty-five Meditations on SITI Company’s Theater Piece No. 1
Essay

Twenty-five Meditations on SITI Company’s Theater Piece No. 1

29 July 2018

David Dudley explores the story behind John Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 and discuses SITI Company’s recent production of it, which was conceived and directed by Anne Bogart.

Playing Around with Nineteenth-Century Theatre in Dr. Robert Davis’s Broadway
Podcast

Playing Around with Nineteenth-Century Theatre in Dr. Robert Davis’s Broadway

1849

25 July 2018

Could you make it as the manager of a New York City theatre in the 1840s? That's the question that Dr. Robert Davis's game and app Broadway:1849 poses to players. Robert joins us to talk about the rough-and-tumble world of New York's antebellum theatre.

Playwright Edouard Elvis Bvouma on Cameroonian Theatre / Le dramaturge Edouard Elvis Bvouma discute du théâtre au Cameroun
Essay

Playwright Edouard Elvis Bvouma on Cameroonian Theatre / Le dramaturge Edouard Elvis Bvouma discute du théâtre au Cameroun

16 July 2018

Heather Jeanne Denyer interviews Cameroonian playwright Edouard Elvis Bvouma about the country’s theatrical landscape, touching on topics like the low number of companies that regularly produce work, female artists in the field, and building public interest in the art form. / Dans cet entretien, Heather Jeanne Denyer discute avec le dramaturge camerounais Edouard Elvis Bvouma de la scène théâtrale dans son pays, en abordant des sujets tels que le manque de compagnies, la création par les femmes, ainsi que le développement et l’intérêt du public pour cet art.

Learning About Modern Indonesian Theatre with Dr. Cobina Gillitt
Podcast

Learning About Modern Indonesian Theatre with Dr. Cobina Gillitt

10 July 2018

Dr. Cobina Gillitt joins the Theatre History Podcast to introduce us to the work of Putu Wijaya and his Teater Mandiri and to explain how modern Indonesian theatre has developed amid the turmoil of its recent history.

Looking for “Lesbians” in God of Vengeance and Indecent
Essay

Looking for “Lesbians” in God of Vengeance and Indecent

3 July 2018

Writer Warren Hoffman dives into the history of God of Vengeance, the Yiddish play from 1907 that inspired Paula Vogel's Indecent, and the questions around language and sexuality the play raised and continues to raise.

After the Big Top
Podcast

After the Big Top

CarlosAlexis Cruz on the Evolution of Modern Circus

27 June 2018

How has the circus changed from its earliest origins to today? CarlosAlexis Cruz joins us to explain how acrobatics and storytelling have come to replace the big top and the three-ring circus.

Theatre and Civil Rights
Podcast

Theatre and Civil Rights

Dr. Julie Burrell on the Importance of A Medal for Willie

5 June 2018

How did Black theatre connect with the Civil Rights Movement? Dr. Julie Burrell of Cleveland State University joins the Theatre History Podcast to talk about William B. Branch's one-act play A Medal for Willie and the underappreciated radicalism of theatre in the 1950s.

Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage
Podcast

Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage

7 May 2018

Playwright Chantal Bilodeau joins us to discuss her essay "Why I'm Breaking Up with Aristotle," and how we need to explore new forms of storytelling in order to create theatre that engages with issues like climate change.

Dance in the Extreme Southwest of Europe / Dançar no extremo sudoeste da Europa
Essay

Dance in the Extreme Southwest of Europe / Dançar no extremo sudoeste da Europa

18 April 2018

Luísa Roubaud reflects on the history of Portuguese dance. /  Luísa Roubaud reflete sobre a história da dança portuguesa.

Lost Worlds and “Pansexual Extravaganzas”
Podcast

Lost Worlds and “Pansexual Extravaganzas”

Rediscovering Weimar Operetta with Dr. Kevin Clarke

17 April 2018

Dr. Kevin Clarke of the Operetta Research Center introduces us to Weimar-era operetta, which pushed artistic and social boundaries and is finally enjoying an artistic and scholarly reappraisal after decades of neglect.

Working with Students to Reclaim the Revolutionary Roots of Czech Theatre
Essay

Working with Students to Reclaim the Revolutionary Roots of Czech Theatre

4 April 2018

Arts educator Hannah Sachs talks about how introducing Theatre of the Oppressed to her students in the Czech Republic helped address xenophobia in the classroom, and slowly began to change the culture of the school for the better.

Taking Shakespeare’s Measure in the Twenty-First Century
Podcast

Taking Shakespeare’s Measure in the Twenty-First Century

Dr. Nora Williams and Measure (Still) for Measure

3 April 2018

Dr. Nora Williams joins us to talk about Measure (Still) for Measure, a devised theatre project in the US that revises Shakespeare's infamous "problem play" in order to engage with issues such as sexual consent.

Coney Island’s Fantastical History
Essay

Coney Island’s Fantastical History

What Love Never Dies Leaves Out

1 April 2018

Kitty Drexel writes about the failure of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies to accurately represent the performers with disabilities that made New York City's Coney Island famous.

Theatre History Podcast #58
Podcast

Theatre History Podcast #58

What We Think About When We Think About Casting: Dr. Amy Cook’s Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting

6 March 2018

Dr. Amy Cook of Stony Brook University joins us to discuss her new book, Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting.

Writing Theatre into the Culture
Essay

Writing Theatre into the Culture

An Interview with Dan Kois

28 February 2018

Catherine Trieschmann interviews Dan Kois, the co-author of an oral history of Angels in America.

Theatre History Podcast #57
Podcast

Theatre History Podcast #57

Dr. Claudia Orenstein on the Evolving Art of Tolpavakoothu

20 February 2018

Dr. Claudia Orenstein of Hunter College introduces us to the art of tolpavakoothu, a shadow puppet tradition from Kerala, in southern India.

Resurgence in America’s Roots Region
Essay

Resurgence in America’s Roots Region

8 February 2018

Alex Ates looks at how the Free Southern Theater established a model of artmaking and activism in the South in the '60s and considers how the New South is primed for another generation of civic action artmaking.