There’s so much to be learned from history, and theatre is no exception. If you’re looking to dive into theatre’s past, the Theatre History Podcast is the perfect place to start.
The Latest
Video
We Begin With Classics: How To Radically Impact the Theater Landscape
Monday 30 March 2026
New York City
Video
A Book Celebration of Late Stage
Theatre, Aging, and the Legacy of Elinor Fuchs
Thursday 19 March 2026
New York City
Video
A Book Celebration of Marc Robinson's American Performance in 1976
Celebrating the Legacy of Groundbreaking Artists who Invoke Elements of Jazz as Theatrical Language
Friday 14 June 2024
Minnesota
Pillsbury House and Theatre (PH+T) presented The Theatrical Jazz Concert at The University of Minnesota that celebrates and extends the legacy of groundbreaking artists Laurie Carlos, Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange, and numerous others who revolutionized the American theatre by invoking elements of classic jazz—such as call-and-response, polyphony, syncopation, and improvisation—as theatrical language.
Audiences pack houses to see stories about forbidden love. Romeo and Juliet is a famous Western example of this phenomenon, but the trope goes back much further, to a poem that likely inspired even inadvertently Shakespeare's famous play. In this episode, we look at the timeless tale of Layla and Majnun made famous by Nizami Ganjavi as a poem and later adopted for the stage and the screen countless times.
In this episode, hosts Nabra Nelson and Marina Johnson discuss the oldest surviving play, The Triumph of Horus. The play is an Ancient Egyptian script from the thirteenth century BCE that tells the story of the triumph of the god Horus over Set. Nabra and Marina go through the plot of the play, its history and significance, and give an overview of other forms of Ancient Egyptian theatre.
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.
An Evening Celebrating the Life and Work of the Late Playwright and Director
Thursday 30 May 2024
New York City
New York theatre artist Matt Gasda and his ensemble from the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research will be joined by David Levine for readings of two Pollesch plays Heidi Hoh, translated by Rose Riggs, and Insourcing ..., translated by David Tushingham.
Segal Center celebrates the history of legendary CLUB 57. In 1978, a Polish emigré Stanley Strychacki rented a basement space of the Holy Cross Polish National Church at 57 St. Marks’ Place with an intention "to create an environment for artists so they could meet, collaborate, and create.”
Iraisa Ann Reilly recounts the introductions, histories, and memories shared throughout the first day of the Latinx Theatre Commons Tenth Anniversary Convening.
As conversations about the diversity and decolonization of syllabi continue, many theatre programs reconsider the texts they teach. In this episode, host Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder talks with Nathan Alan Davis from Boston University and Yizhou Huang from St. Louis University about reinventing the canon. They question who controls the narrative, discuss what qualifies as canon, and offer up some suggestions for course redesign.
A talk with Dr. Julius Fleming on his latest book, followed by a discussion with Hillary Miller
Monday 11 March 2024
Dr. Julius Fleming visits the Segal Center to discuss his recent book, Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation. This talk will be followed by a conversation with Hillary Miller.
Masi Asare is an assistant professor of theater and performance studies at Northwestern University. She is a songwriter and dramatist and also works as a performance scholar specializing in the study of race and vocal sound and musicals. On this episode, hosts Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley interview Masi on her experiences as a Black woman working in musical theatre and why Black women’s vocal training is so important.
Scott Walters, author of Building a Sustainable Theater: How to Remove Gatekeepers and Take Control of Your Artistic Career, sits down with Munroe Shearer to discuss the ways artist-owned theatres can succeed and best serve their communities.
Latinx theatremakers Jorge Piña and Christin Eve Cato sit down for a conversation about their paths through the theatre field and their advice for future generations looking to sustain this work while caring for themselves and each other.
Hosts Leticia Ridley and Jordan Ealey discuss Woodie King, Jr.’s 1978 documentary, Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement. They explore the documentary’s different themes, its impact on Black theatre history, and what it means for our present and future.
Hosts Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley discuss the contributions made by Alice Childress and the historical and contemporary significance of her play, Trouble in Mind, including the filmed 2021 production at the National Theatre in London.
Theatre professor John Michael DiResta reflects on teaching queer theatre history to students who have had very different lived queer experiences than he had growing up. By investigating queer theatrical history from a contemporary lens and with an invitation to engage and make something new, his students were able to find the joy in history where they previously only saw trauma.
This episode focuses on the iconic Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). Hosts Leticia Ridley and Jordan Ealey delve into the NEC’s founding and history, its track record of producing successful Black plays, and its legacy within Black theatre and performance.
With Guests David Silvernail, Janet Werther, Victoria Lafave, Jordan Ealey, and Kelli Crump
6 September 2023
What role does white supremacy play in the creation of the queer theatre canon? What power and what responsibility do we—as queer theatremakers, historians, and educators—have to challenge canons and archives that define “queer” almost exclusively as white and cisgender? Artist-scholars Janet Werther, Victoria LaFave, Jordan Ealey, David Silvernail, and Kelli Crump join host Nicolas Shannon Savard to tackle these questions and to queer the archive.
Jaan Whitehead examines the history of boards in the theatre sector and argues for a better way to approach governance, including through changes to a board’s membership, structure, and values.
Jacqueline Flores and Abel López, co-curators of the Latinx Leaders at the Forefront series, discuss their careers, their sense of cultural identity as Latinx theatremakers, and importance of intergenerational dialogue.
Playwright and director Karen Malpede joins Jeffrey Mosser to talk about her career and connections from the Open Theater to Theater Three Collaborative, as well as her partner George Bartenieff, an actor and champion for the avant-garde.
Nidia Medina, associate artistic director of INTAR Theatre, interviews José Luis Valenzuela, artistic director of the Latino Theater Company, about his path into artistic direction, his mentors, and the legacy he has cultivated.
Latinx Theatre Commons producer Jacqueline Flores introduces the Latinx Leaders at the Forefront Series, which amplifies the history and work of Latinx teatros through conversations between established theatremakers with future leaders of the field.
Joined by Jean Passanante and Patricia McGregor and moderated by Frank Hentschker
Thursday 27 April 2023
New York
Join us for an evening celebrating the work of Linda Chapman and James C. Nicola at the legendary New York Theatre Workshop. In their thirty-four-year run, Linda and James, at the 199-seat East Village theatre, gave birth to hundreds of important theatre works including Tony-winning best musicals Rent, Once, and Hadestown,as well as What the Constitution Means to Me and Slave Play.
Julia Hune-Brown and Keira Loughran discuss crafting Then Is Now, a concept album/video playlist they created through conversations with Chinese Canadian women who grew up in Toronto’s Chinatown during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Theatre researcher and journalist Eduardo Campos Lima discusses Grupo Tapa’s production of Papa Highirte and explores the history of the powerful play.
