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
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.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented the The Written World with Martin Puchner livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 12 March at 6:00 p.m. EST (New York) / 5:00 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 3:00 p.m. PST (San Francisco). Follow @HowlRound on Twitter for updates, and use #howlround.
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.
Examining the Controversial History of the “Mummers Wench” with Dr. Christian DuComb
24 January 2018
Dr. Christian DuComb of Colgate University joins us to talk about Philadelphia's Mummers Parade and how the figure of the "Mummers wench" has its roots in the history of blackface minstrel shows.
Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart: Tracy Heather Strain Shows Us a Different Side of Lorraine Hansberry
17 January 2018
Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain talks about her new documentary Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, which explores the life and work of playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
Remembering Argentina’s Traumatic Past Through Theatre with Dr. Noe Montez
12 December 2017
Dr. Noe Montez of Tufts University joins us to talk about how Argentina's theatre have dealt with the legacy of the country's period of military dictatorship.
Amy Meyer joins us to talk about acrobatic accidents in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as what they tell us about our appetite for risky entertainment.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in New York City presentedMarvin Carlson: 10,000 Nights livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 15 November 2017 at 6:30 p.m. EST (New York) / 5:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 3:30 p.m. PST (Los Angeles).
Dr. Erin Mee on Modern and Contemporary Indian Theatre
7 November 2017
Dr. Erin Mee of New York University joins us for the second part of our series on Indian theatre. In this episode, she explains how modern Indian theatre developed in the decades before and after independence.
Dr. Erin Mee of New York University joins us to discuss kutiyattam, a style of theatre from southwestern India that brings ancient Sanskrit dramas to life.
Translating An Enemy of the People with Dr. Paul Walsh
23 October 2017
Dr. Paul Walsh of the Yale School of Drama joins us to discuss his work translating Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People for the opening production of the Yale Repertory Theatre's 52nd season.
Reimagining Shakespeare’s Legacy with Madeline Sayet
14 September 2017
Madeline Sayet joins us to talk about how she's producing Shakespeare's work with Native American artists to place them in a new, more diverse context.
Viviana Vargas compares West Side Story and La Carreta by looking at the history of Puerto Ricans migrating to New York to better understand an example of cultural appropriation in the arts, its effects, its telltale signs, and some lessons for the future.
Exploring the Performing Arts Collections at the Harry Ransom Center with Dr. Eric Colleary
21 August 2017
Dr. Eric Colleary, Cline Curator of Theater and Performing Arts at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, introduces us to the treasures in the center's performing arts collections.
Being Melodramatic with the Staging Napoleonic Theatre Project
14 August 2017
The Staging Napoleonic Theatre project is working to study and stage early examples of melodrama, a theatrical genre that was widely popular in the nineteenth century.
Following the controversy around the Public’s Shakespeare in the Park Julius Caesar production, Nora Williams provides a parallel story about a play that was censored and caused the Globe to be shut down in 1624 because it depicted living monarchs unfavorably.
