urban excavations

The Sound of Music on film is 50 this year. Maria’s confidence is contagious.

Writing and research and presentations filled this calendar year on a range of topics including the Yale Repertory Theatre, production photography and theater history, gender parity in theater, and arts programming interventions with young people involved in the criminal justice system. The year started out with a travel bang that continued apace for the first half of the year. January in London for a research and theater-going visit that left me breathless, West Hollywood and Santa Monica in March for research and sunshine, New Orleans in March for the ATCA annual conference and a heavy dose of Tennessee Williams, Boston in April to touch base with my HowlRound comrades and to visit some new developments in Cambridge, June in Czechoslovakia for the Prague Quadrennial and multiple Chance Magazine presentations. Later in the year I tagged along to Chicago and DC with husband and found some more culture on the way. And all along there was, of course, the theater — in London, in New Orleans, in Prague, in Chicago, in New York. Quite a year.

January

• (1/6) Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project (Dixon Place)
• (1/7) I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard (Atlantic Theater Company ATC2)
• (1/8) The Scarlet Ibis (HERE Arts Center)
• (1/9) Baby Universe (Theatre Row | Beckett Theatre)
• (1/10) Cynthia Hopkins: A Living Documentary (Abrons Arts Center Underground)
• (1/12) Behind the Beautiful Forevers (National Theatre, London)
• (1/13) The Merchant of Venice (Almeida, London)
• (1/14) Tiger Country (Hampstead Theatre, London)
• (1/15) Treasure Island (National Theatre, London)
• (1/16) Upper Cut (Southwark Playhouse,London)
• (1/24) Gray (workshop, Susan Batson’s Studio)

February

• (2/3) LMDA Event: The Players
• (2/6) Cabaret (Roundabout | Studio 54)
• (2/7) Rasheeda Speaking (Signature)
• (2/10) Familiar (Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven)
• (2/12) Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance (presentation, NYU Fales Library)
• (2/17) The Iceman Cometh (BAM Harvey)
• (2/20) John & Jen (Theatre Row | Clurman)
• (2/21) The Nether (Lucille Lortel)
• (2/22) An Octoroon (Theater for a New Audience)
• (2/22) The Liquid Plain (Signature)
• (2/24) Carmen de Lavallade: As I Remember It (Baryshnikov Arts Center)
• (2/26) Abundance (Theatre Row | Beckett)
• (2/27) The Heidi Chronicles (Music Box)
• (2/28) Bright Half Life (New York City Center Stage II)

March

• (3/7) The Other Mozart (Players Theater)
• (3/9) Kilroys Reading Series | The Comparables by Laura Schelhart (Duke on 42nd)
• (3/10) Bright Half Life (WP | New York City Center Stage II)
• (3/11) I of the Storm (Playroom)
• (3/21) Irreversible (Theater at the 14th Street Y)
• (3/23) Dark Meadows (dress rehearsal, Juilliard School, Martha Graham dance recreation)
• (3/24) Posterity (Atlantic Theatre Company | Linda Gross)
• (3/25) When Ya’ Smilin’ (Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts, New Orleans)
• (3/27) Tennessee Williams Tribute (Ursuline Convent, New Orleans)
• (3/28) Suddenly Last Summer (Southern Rep at Ashe Powerhouse Theater, New Orleans)
• (3/28) Don’t Get Dressed After Dark on Sundays (The Nola Project)
• (3/31) Music Hall (59E59)

April

• (4/1) Skylight (Golden)
• (4/2) The Undeniable Sound of Right Now (Rattlestick)
• (4/4) Floydada (Peculiar Works Project)
• (4/5) Buzzer (Public, Martinson)
• (4/7) Caucasian Chalk Circle (Yale Repertory, New Haven)
• (4/8) Underland (59E59 Theaters)
• (4/11) The Joy of Judy — Garland in the Movies (Musician’s Hall Local 802)
• (4/16) Airline Highway (Samuel J. Friedman)
• (4/19) Nirbhaya (Culture Project | Lynn Redgrave Theatre)
• (4/21) The Belle of Belfast (Irish Rep | DR2)
• (4/25) The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (Signature)
• (4/26) Old Flame (Theater for the New City)
• (4/27) Trash Cuisine (La MaMa)
• (4/28) Comfort Women (reading, The Players)
• (4/29) Forever (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (4/30) Hamilton (Public)

May

• (5/2) ToasT (Public)
• (5/3) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (TFANA)
• (5/10) Antigone (reading, Joe’s Pub)
• (5/11) Life Expectancy (Abingdon Theatre)
• (5/13) What Was Lost (Clarion Theatre)
• (5/15) Elevada (Yale Repertory, New Haven)
• (5/16) Tuesdays at Tesco’s (59E59)
• (5/17) The Flick (Barrow Street)
• (5/21) EST Marathon A (Ensemble Studio)
• (5/26) Preludes (Lincoln Center, Tow)
• (5/27) He Knew He Would Say It (But Could He Believe It Again) (Dixon Place)
• (5/29) What I Did Last Summer (Signature)
• (5/30) LPTW and Legendary Lives Present: Visionary Producers of the 20th Century (MTC rehearsal room)
• (5/30) Sound and the Fury (Public)
• (5/31) EST Marathon B (Ensemble Studio)

June

• (6/4) Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, America, Kuwait (Rattlestick Playwrights | Gym at Judson)
• (6/5) Marley (Center Stage, Baltimore)
• (6/11) The Old Masters (The Flea)
• (6/13) Gloria (Vineyard)
• (6/14) The Visit (Lyceum)
• (6/21) All Design is Chance: Reinventing Theater Photography and Journalism (PQ Talk, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, Prague) (presenter)
• (6/23) Everything is Chance: How Journalism and Photography Can Transform the Way We See Performance Design (PQ SpaceLab Workshop, Prague) (presenter)
• (6/24) La Traviata (Estates Theatre, Prague)
• (6/27) Design and Dramaturgy (LMDA annual conference, Columbia University) (presenter)

July

• (7/2) Wolf Hall Part One (Winter Garden)
• (7/5) The Qualms (Playwrights Horizons)
• (7/10) Awake and Sing! (NAATCO | Public)
• (7/12) Scenes from an Execution (PTP/NYC | ATC Stage 2)
• (7/13) Young Playwrights Design Panel (Urban Retreat, YPI) (presenter)
• (7/14) Judith + Vinegar Tom (PTP/NYC | ATC Stage 2)
• (7/16) 10 out of 12 (Soho Rep)
• (7/17) Charles Busch: That Girl/That Boy (54 Below)
• (7/22) I Know What Boys Want (Ego Actus | Lion Theatre Row)
• (7/23) John (Signature)
• (7/25) Three Days to See (Theatre 79)

August

• (8/12) Hamilton (Richard Rodgers)
• (8/22) Stargate Theatre Company Performance (New York City Center Center Stage II)

September

• (9/1) Necessary Exposure (Dixon Place)
• (9/8) Isolde (Theatre for a New Audience, Brooklyn)
• (9/10) Yale Drama Series Prize Event, Barbara Seyda’s Celia, A Slave: 26 Characters Testify (reading, Claire Tow)
• (9/11) There is a Happiness that Morning Is (The Tank)
• (9/14) Hamlet in Bed (Rattlestick)
• (9/18) Fulfillment (The Flea)
• (9/19) The New Morality (Mint)
• (9/21) Hollywood Arms (reading, Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center)
• (9/24) Fondly, Collette Richland (ERS | New York Theatre Workshop)
• (9/27) Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Underground)
• (9/28) LPTW Season Kick Off (The Players)

October

• (10/3) Barbecue (Public)
• (10/4) Letters to Sala (TBG)
• (10/5) Kill Floor (Tow)
• (10/6) Stargate Encore (New York City Center II)
• (10/10) The Gray Man (Walker Space)
• (10/11) Wives + The Academy (Theatre for the New City)
• (10/13) The Christians (Playwrights Horizons)
• (10/18) Disgraced (Goodman, Chicago)
• (10/18) East of Eden (Steppenwolf, Chicago)
• (10/21) Please Excuse my Dear Aunt Sally (59E59)
• (10/23) Rhapsody in Black (Theater and Social Justice Series | Actors Studio)
• (10/23) King Charles III (Music Box)
• (10/26) David Adjmi + 3C reading and discussion (New School Auditorium)
• (10/27) Songbird (59E59)
• (10/28) Gin Game (Golden)
• (10/29) Incident at Vichy (Signature)
• (10/30) Dear Elizabeth (Women’s Project)
• (10/31) First Daughters Suite (Public Theater)

November

• (11/2) Joan Copeland on Arthur Miller and Others (Harvardwood | The Lambs)
• (11/5) Allegiance (Longacre)
• (11/7) Mud (Theater and Social Justice Series | Actors Studio)
• (11/12) An American in Paris (Palace)
• (11/13) Fool For Love (Samuel J. Friedman)
• (11/14) Before Your Very Eyes (Gob Squad | Public)
• (11/14) Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (Flea)
• (11/15) Steve (New Group | Signature)
• (11/17) Spring Awakening (Brooks Atkinson)
• (11/18) Eclipsed (Public)
• (11/22) Nora (Cherry Lane)
• (11/25) Old Times (Roundabout American Airlines)
• (11/27) Rose (Clurman | Theatre Row)
• (11/28) Marjorie Prime (Playwrights Horizons)
• (11/29) Thérèse Raquin (Studio 54)

December

• (12/3) Conversations on Broadway: Annaleigh Ashford (New School University Center)
• (12/4) K [a new play with music about Kay Swift] (reading, Studio 150)
• (12/4) Mourning Sun (West End)
• (12/11) Sylvia (Cort)
• (12/13) 2 Across (St. Luke’s)
• (12/15) Annie (King’s, Brooklyn)
• (12/20) What Happened When (Rattlestick)
• (12/24) Carol (screening, Paris)
• (12/25) The Color Purple (Jacobs)
• (12/27) Hir (Peter J. Sharp)
• (12/27) A View from the Bridge (Lyceum)
• (12/30) Dada Woof Papa Hot (Mitzi E. Newhouse)

© Martha Wade Steketee (December 31, 2015)