U.S. by State

This long standing collaboration can be felt through and through the ensemble work on display. Premeditation is tantalizing with promise—a talented cast and inventive staging in a noir 1940’s-esque comedy about marriage, infidelity, and murder.

Jonathan Mandell takes a look at Broadway revivals about the theatre, contrasting them with a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Shakespearean Actor Samuel Taylor shares his insight on how to make Shakespeare theatre more attractive to a contemporary and millennial audience.

Sydney Chatman is the creator and director of The Tofu Chitlin’ Circuit, a community and youth ensemble training collective based in Chicago’s South Side. Before creating TCC, Chatman worked on productions from Chicago to Broadway, while also teaching at the University of Chicago Charter School. When students she once taught as kindergarteners came to her as teens and said, “Can you train and teach me?” she said, “Yes.”

This manifesto was delivered by José Luis Valenzuela as part of the opening session of the Latina/o Theatre Commons National Convening held at the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Encuentro 2014 on Thursday, November 6, 2014.

Richard Washer is a Washington fixture, having worked in the Washington, D.C. area for more than thirty years as a playwright, director, dramaturg, and educator. He is humble, unassuming, and quietly essential to many in the DC area who are developing new plays.

Emily Morse and Srila Nayak share insight on Full Stage USA's dedication to exploring new models of play creation and production. 

At this historic moment in which it is still quite dangerous to be a black man in the United States, Native Son offers an important provocation. For all the world has changed since 1939, the production asks us to take a good hard look at what has not.

Professor Jorge Huerta gives a short overview about the precedents that led to the historic and revolutionizing event, focusing on the growth of Chicano/a theatre festivals since 1970. 

The Carnaval endeavors to increase the visibility of work by Latina/o playwrights and to encourage the production of that work in the nation’s theaters. The event will include eight readings of new work representing the four geographical regions of the United States; three pieces by master Latina/o directors devised with DePaul Theatre School students; and conversations between producers and the Latina/o theatermaking community.

Emma Wiseman writes about the YOLO! Productions revival of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.

What we really needed—and received—was a place to develop an unfinished work in a professional touring locale with Chicago audiences, and to prototype a student chorus that would be trained to perform in the work. Simultaneously Columbia College had the Double Edge ensemble embedded in its department for nearly a month. Acting students had daily access to training. Directors, playwrights, and actors could observe rehearsal and process regularly.

Dr. Joan Lancourt reflects on collaborating with Boston-based theatre board chairs to discuss eye-opening ideas and shared frustrations.

Bertie Ferdman interviews Anne Hamburger about Basetrack Live, a multimedia theatre production inspired by Basetrack: One-Eight, a web project created in 2010 by photojournalists embedded with US Marines fighting in southern Afghanistan.

Chris Garza covers the Mu Performing Arts production Eric Sharp’s play, Middle Brother which tells the story of an adoptee searching for his roots in Korea.

The Theatre School at DePaul University has been around for a long time. It's no wonder, given that they offer degree programs in nearly every discipline one could hope for, from playwriting to directing, scenic design to arts management, costume design to dramaturgy, one can acquire a top-notch education at DePaul, where theory and practice are afforded equal emphasis. This round, I interview John Culbert, Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul.

Martha Steketee writes about the logistics and process of the OOB Festival, including quotes from an interview with the team behind it.