U.S. by State

Commons Producer Jonathon Norton talks to playwright Will Power, the playwright in residence at Dallas Theater Center, about being on staff at a regional theatre and being a member of a community.

In her latest installment, Catherine Trieschmann explores turning forty, leaky roofs, advice for parents on how to save money on childcare, and what to do when you’re working from home with your child.

Though set in 1988, the play’s insistence on the power of words, creativity, and voice as a means of self-assertion, growth, and transformation is of timeless importance and is especially relevant now.

Director Lisa DiFranza employs Living Newspapers—an 80-year-old theatrical form that combines theatre and journalism—to share compelling narratives about twenty-first century homelessness in Chicago. 

Based on interviews with local teachers and students about the current educational climate, Forgotten Futures creates space for discussion of the dysfunction plaguing Chicago Public Schools.

A. Zell Williams talks about how a resident playwright and a theater can affect dialogue together, and how the trouble when residencies happen without enough commitment.

Carol Kearns writes about Zoetrope: Part 1, a drama set in 1951 Puerto Rico, looking at its multimedia aesthetic, bilingual presentation, and political themes.

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig answers questions in about her residency at Manhattan Theatre Club through the Tow Foundation. She talks of her artistic home as collaborators, as well as her hopes for the future.

In his essay, Director Evan Caccioppoli explores the future of sex in American theatre.

What are two essential elements to creating a transformational experience for an up-and-coming playwright? 1) A full time salary and health insurance. 2) The guarantee of having a work produced by a major off-Broadway non-profit theater.

Amy Merrill writes about Sweet Dreams, Mr. Heroin and the value of presenting this piece at a substance abuse recovery center in Lewiston, Maine.

Cory Hinkle writes about Western Society from the British-German collective Gob Squad, and its multi-media, audience-involving production that investiages wish fulfillment, starting with the recreation of "one of the least watched videos on the Internet".

As a Black woman, millennial, playwright, and producer who is not Latina, I felt acutely aware of the gestures of absolute inclusivity, both small and large, that comprised my Encuentro experience.

Our process is open-source, inquiry-based and ever-evolving. We love hyphens. We flirt at the intersection of playmaking and script writing. We believe that theater requires the whole performer—mind, body, and voice. Often we draw strong, immediate connections that open up a dialogue between past and present, and play on themes of history, science, mathematics, and social justice.

Beau Jest in Boston is thirty years old. Over that time we have seen several transformations, but the impulse that brought us together has never changed. We are actor-driven. We only do projects we are personally invested in pursuing as a group. We like work that is physically inventive and imaginatively staged. We like to take our time developing a piece, and will spend anywhere from two months to two years on it. We use Beau Jest as a laboratory to explore new ways of combining gesture, text, and physicality.

Vickie Vértiz writes about Teatro Luna's production of Your Problem with Men

We’ve found most artists we come in contact with in Detroit aren’t bound to a single discipline—printmakers curate community food-based events, and trained painters build large-scale public installations. This inherent openness to working cross-disciplinarily has helped us to expand our ideas about the work of our company and the nature of our ensemble.