Theatre History

Playwright Matthew Minnicino kick starts his series by addressing the tradition and implications of male playwrights writing female characters. 

In his second installment, Michael Lueger interviews Dr. Beth Kattleman about her journey in theatre and academia.

In the third installment of his series, Jake Rosenberg explores the history of Science fiction in literature, film, and theatre.

Michael Lueger on Gordon Edelstein’s production of A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.

Edward Einhorn, artistic director of Untitled Theater #61, reflects on the Czech playwright and president Václav Havel’s contribution to theatre.

Mackenzie Ward considers a more hopeful interpretation of the hopeless landscapes of Samuel Beckett.

Playwright and actor Natalie Osborne distinguishes spectacle from special effects and advocates for spectacle with minimalist staging.

Educator and author Max Alvarez discusses the unlikely alliance of film director Alfred Hitchcock and playwright Thornton Wilder and Wilder’s contribution to one of Hitchcock’s greatest films Shadow of a Doubt.

In the second installment of his series, Jake Rosenberg traces elements of the Fantasy genre throughout theatre history and proposes more content for adults.

A brief history of the American musical through America’a racial history, from blackface and minstrel shows, to vaudeville and the Golden Age.

In the first installment of his series, Jake Rosenberg calls for a genre theatre that embraces the fantastic and counters Realism.

In the first installment of his series “Strange Eventful History,” Michael Lueger traces the history of theatre revivals in relation to revivals of film franchises.

Scholar Cole Matson explores the influence of the Reduta Theatre in Poland on Jerzy Grotowski and the Polish experimental theatre tradition.

In the first installment of his series on media design, Daniel Fine defines media design and traces the history of design and technology in theatre.

Seth Rozin says let large theatres do what they do best—be large—and encourage playwrights to cultivate relationships with mid-size and small theatres.

Jonathan Mandell writes about the NYC-based ReGroup Theater, and their exploration of the Group Theatre, founded by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg

In her essay, Annah Feinberg investigates infrastructural ephemerality in America's nonprofit theatre.

Kyna Hamill investigates the implications of addressing war on stage and shares a brief overview of Theatre of War.

Theatre should stop serving the function of making money, for which it has never been and never will be suited, and start serving the revelation and shaping of the process of living, for which it is uniquely suited, for which it, indeed, exists.

Marshall Botvinick traces the history of theatre’s connection to community and advocates that theatre artists and companies to go local.

Lisa Peschel considers her experience adapting a comedic play written by survivors of the Holocaust and the way in which its humor translates to audiences today.