In 2021 — our year of continued recovery from a viral pandemic, from a devastating presidential term, from professional and social recalibrations — theater professionals including dramaturgs and critics have […]
In 2021 — our year of continued recovery from a viral pandemic, from a devastating presidential term, from professional and social recalibrations — theater professionals including dramaturgs and critics have adapted in style and form and content. What do we count among our activities? What do we see, how can we see it, how do we conduct our work, where is our work?
This is the eleventh annual “what Martha has seen” marathon lists of theater and film adventuring (prior years can be found 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018,2019, and 2020). My 2020 Excavation Review assessment was posted nine months after the March 2020 shut down of, well, all the things. The 2019-2020 season cover in that year-end assessment was clipped of its final hyper-busy six weeks of openings and rush-to-awards scheduled shows, and even with the abrupt shut down (and the cancellation of 40-odd scheduled performances between March 12 and April 19), I saw about 200 shows. Our 2021 calendar year just concluding is a vastly different story. What is captured here from my personal experience reflects what we all have lived through: loads of virtual activity for the first half of the year and an active live in person range of productions for the second half of the year. The theater industry remains at the mercy of a virus, modified but not resolved with vaccines and scientific discoveries. From April 3, 2021 (when I attended my first in person piece of theater since March 2020) through December 17, 2021 (when I attended Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center), I saw approximately 80 live productions, when in a normal year I see over four times that number in an equal number of months.
The 2021 calendar year rough tallies reflect a kind of mirror image of the pandemic-pocked 2020, a story like 2020 written by a virus. In this year’s listings, public in-person performances along with a few additional essential events (impeachments and inoculations and similar life changing adventures) are bolded. Additional items are also included including streamed live performances and many filmed presentations. What a year.
I find that what I count and how I count remains fuzzy during these new times of zoom and modified content delivery. Since April 2021, after a slow beginning of one or two live shows a month became a tsunami of live shows in November — the tally of 28 shows parallels a typical pre-pandemic November. And yet, new cancellations and production pauses caused by Covid in later December suggest we won’t be back to consistent pre-pandemic performance schedules for some time.
I continue as an active member of the American Theatre Critics Association, after stepping down in June 2021 from a six-year stint on the ATCA executive committee, the last three years as co-chair then chair. ATCA weathered some dramatic organizational transitions in those past six years (and during my ten years as an organizational member) as the field of theater criticism in general surfs ongoing professional reshuffling of writing outlets and media available for criticism. During my time as vice chair and chair I spent hours each week planning and leading multiple meetings a month, working on and releasing an significant upgrade to the organization’s website (with public and member-only functionality), providing support for expanded digital seminar and conference programming, and conducting work on several prize granting committees (note the “ATCA Seminar” and “ATCA Connects” events listed below). I continue to serve as ATCA webmaster for the new website contributing and editing content and facilitating functionality, happy to find new ways to serve the organization that has meant much to me for a decade of my professional life.
Drama Desk nominating committee chair duties continue during this 2021-2022 theatrical season — the work that mandates and subsidizes my theater gluttony. We phased in work on this awards program after the long industry pause from March 2020 through April 2021, spending May and June to reimagine and rebuild our 2021-2022 team (holding many zoom conversations with possible candidates in those months after a year of virtual theater) for a theater future we could just begin to see. The 2021-2022 nominating committee meets as regularly as we can, scheduling and rescheduling in person meeting as necessary. Even with production pauses and our meetings on hold until the new near, we’ve discussed 35 Broadway and Off Broadway shows, have at least 40 additional shows lined up for discussion, and a full four-five months of shows yet to attend this season.
As I step down from volunteer organizational leadership in theater critic organizations, I step up my involvement with the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas in the second half of 2021 on two particular projects. I joined the steering and planning committees: the American Theatre Archive Project in which dramaturgs and archivists have spent over a decade developing strategies and materials for theaters to archive their work, and the Dramaturging the Phoenix project that plans and executes regular seminars to explore the evolving professional lives of dramaturgs in the US. Canada, Mexico, and Britain and collects and publishes reflections by dramaturgs on their experiences surviving the pandemic.
The pause in performances for critics and awards adjudicators in early 2021 allowed me time for research projects: my report series Women’s Count which looks at whose plays are put on Off Broadway and the designers and backstage professionals who work on them; the new Counting Together initiative comprised of a consortium of theater data projects from around the U.S. sharing their work and the stories in the the data; and ongoing dramaturgical projects ranging from script reading to new play development with particular playwrights to deep discussions with a neighbor with a stories to tell from his long history in national politics we hope to develop into an article or dramatic piece.
We take nothing for granted in life in general and theater in particular. Zoom and some terrific television and streamed film content kept storytelling in my life for much of the past two years, but nothing replaces live theater. When we mask, when we allow the frontline heroes to protect us; when we do our part with masks and vaccines and boosters, we can keep the wonder of the live arts alive. We need to nurture the embers and support one another — viewing, writing, considering futures.
January
(1/6) Under The Radar (UTR): Capsule (stream)
(1/8) UTR: Disclaimer (stream)
(1/9) Pretend It’s a City (netflix, limited series, Fran Liebowitz, stream)
(1/9) UTR: The Motown Project (stream)
(1/9) Swingin’ the Dream (Theatre for a New Audience + Royal Shakespeare Company + The Young Vic, stream)
(1/9) UTR: Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehren (stream)
(1/11) Free Talk: Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on Mank (Film Society of Lincoln Center, zoom)
(1/13) ATCA Seminar: ¡No pare, sigue, sigue! – Latinx Theatre in the United States (ATCA EDI committee seminar series, zoom)
(1/15) Play-PerView: Blue Ridge (Live-Stream)
(1/17) New Federal Theatre 50th Anniversary Gala (stream)
(1/20) Gloria (reunion reading, Vineyard, zoom)
(1/23) The Approach (Landmark Productions, live broadcast, Temple Bar, Dublin Ireland)
(1/23) Rabbit Hole [reading] (The Reading Series, Actors Fund fundraiser, zoom)
(1/25) Live Talk: On Broadway (New York Jewish Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center Talks, zoom)
(1/26) Three Hotels [reading] (benefit for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, produced by Tectonic Theater Project, youtube)
(1/27) Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski (NYPL-PA, eventbrite, zoom)
(1/27) Homebound Project 6 (benefit for No Kid Hungry, vimeo)
(1/28) Looking Back at THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (Bartlett Sher, Victoria Clark, Matthew Morrison, Kelli O’Hara, zoom)
(2/9) Little Wars (Union Theatre, Southwark South London, fundraiser for Women for Refugee Women, Broadway on Demand)
(2/10) ATCA Seminar: Staging Culturally Conscious Theatre: These Educators Can Teach You A Thing, Or Two (ATCA EDI committee seminar series, zoom)
(2/10-13) Presidential Impeachment II
(2/11) CSC Classic Conversations: John Turturro (CSC youtube channel)
(2/17) Today is My Birthday (Theater Mu, Video on Demand)
(2/19) Nomadland (hulu)
(2/23) Steppenwolf’s Building on Excellence Virtual Tour (zoom visit with architect renderings and building under construction)
(2/23) The Harry Belafonte Black Liberation Speaker Series: Charles Blow with Hilton Als (zoom)
(2/25) African American Theatre Dramaturgy and Accessing African American History and Culture (SLA NY, NYPL Schomburg Center, Umbria Search University of Minnesota, zoom)
(2/26) The Cherry Orchard: A New Media Experiment (Baryshnikov Arts Center + Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation, zoom)
(2/27) The Catastrophist (Marin Theatre Company, stream)
(2/27) The Secretaries — A Future Labs Virtual Reading (Goodman, Chicago, zoom)
(2/28) First Love (Samuel Beckett, TFANA, stream on demand, Vimeo)
(2/28) The Typists (Play-Per-View, Vimeo)
March
(3/1) RemarkaBULL Podversation: Robert Cuccioli and Laila Robins (Red Bull Podversation, livestream)
(3/3) Simply Sondheim (Signature Tehatre Arlington VA, stream)
(3/4) The Comeback Project | Reopening Theaters: Lessons from Countries Who’ve Done It (BroadwayPodcastNetwork)
(3/8) Studio Tenn Talks: Conversations with Patrick Cassidy (Assassins original cast + Sondheim + Weidman + Jerry Zaks)
(3/11) Crowdcast: Mark My Words: MIKE NICHOLS–A LIFE: Mark Harris in conversation with Frank Rizzo (hosted by the Mark Twain House, crowdcast stream)
(3/11) 2021 MTC Curtain Call Series: Three Days of Rain (MTC original cast, limited streaming)
(3/12) A Love Letter to Liza Minnelli – 75th Birthday All-Star Tribute (live performances, Stellar tickets, live stream)
(3/13) Coffeehouse Chronicles #159: Lola And Linda Secrets From Their First 40 Years (La MaMa, Lola Pashalinski, Linda Chapman, Anne Bogart, live stream)
(3/13) Year of Magical Thinking (Keen Company, benefit broadcast, stream)
(3/16) Playbill Experiences: Untold Stories of Broadway (Jennifer Ashley Tepper, live stream)
(3/17) The Way Forward: Part 1 of 3: Past — We Have Been Here Before (92Y + Town and Country + Public Theater, Oskar Eustis + Patrick Gaspard, stream)
(3/18) The Show Goes On: Casa Valentina Reunion (MTC youtube channel)
(3/18) ROMEO Y JULIETA (Public Theater, WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit, WNYC Studios, podcast production livestream)
(3/18) VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (LCT production, archive recording, live stream on BroadwayOnDemand)
(3/19) SPOILED: The Film Project + conversation on gender-based violence (La MaMa, livestream event)
(3/23) ATCA seminar: How to Review Online Theater (Alexis Soloski, Sheri Flanders, David Chavez, zoom)
(3/24) Keen Company Audio Theater Digging in the Dark (Pearl Cleage, live stream)
(3/25) LCT Spotlight Series: Looking Back at CONTACT (LCT 2000 musical, Stroman + Weidman + original stars, zoom stream)
(3/25) Wooster Group: Fran & Kate’s Drama Club (hosts Frances McDormand and Kate Valk, episodes of “The Archivists”, zoom)
(3/30) Broadway Backwards (fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and LGBT Community Center, streamed)
April
(4/1) Trouble in Mind (ACT, document of “four-day exploration of Alice Childress’s remarkable play, virtualact stream)
(4/1) COVID Theatre Think Tank: National Town Hall on COVID & Theatre (Blythe Adamson, Bruce Lee, Andy Slavitt, Teresa Y Smith, Helen Shaw, Eventbrite stream)
(4/1) CSC Classic Conversations: John Kander (CSC youtube)
(4/3) BLINDNESS [first in-person show since March 2020] (Daryl Roth Theatre)
(4/7) Quiara Alegría Hudes | My Broken Language, in conversation with Paula Vogel (Free Library of Philadelphia, zoom)
(4/8) COVID-19 vaccine dose 2 (Moderna)
(4/8) John Cullum: An Accidental Star (Vineyard, live show viewed as stream)
(4/12) From Follies to Flower Drum Song and Beyond (NYPL-PA, Ted Chapin and Richard Ridge, Eventbrite stream)
(4/12) Period Piece I (visceral entertainment, benefit I Support the Girls, stream)
(4/13) Shadow/land (Public, world premiere audio play, stream)
(4/14) Heidi Schreck and Paula Vogel: What the Constitution Means to Me (The Center for Fiction and TCM, zoom)
(4/15) The Bengsons: The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs From OHIO (piece by piece + St. Ann’s Warehouse, streamed)
(4/15) Tell the Story: Celebrating Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman’s Assassins (CSC, stream)
(4/16) Tadashi Suzuki, Thalia Prize and International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) (zoom)
(4/16) Rick Pender, The Sondheim Encyclopedia author with David Armstrong (Eventbrite, stream)
(4/19) Period Piece II (visceral entertainment, benefit I Support the Girls, stream)
(4/22) The New Busking Project [2nd 2021 in-person show] (Bill Irwin, Union Square Park North Plaza)
(4/23) LCT Archive: The Royale (Broadway on Demand, stream)
(4/26) The Way Forward: Part 2 of 3: Present — Culture and Crisis (92Y + Town and Country + Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, Nataki Garrett, Maria Manuela Goyanes, and Kwame Anthony Appiah with Stellene Volandes, stream)
(4/26) Period Piece III (visceral entertainment, benefit I Support the Girls, stream)
(4/27) ATCA Connects | The Future of Nonprofit Arts Journalism (zoom)
(4/28) ‘Extra! Extra! The Inside Scoop of New York’s Newspaper Legacy’ (New York Adventure Club, Webinar)
(4/29) Wooster Group: Fran & Kate’s Drama Club (hosts Frances McDormand and Kate Valk, zoom)
May
(5/2) On the Roof: A Look Inside Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (NYTF at Museum of Jewish Heritage, streamed)
(6/11-6/12) National New Play Network Annual Conference |Growing Forward: Transcending the Transactional (stream)
(6/12) Coffeehouse Chronicles #160 Morgan Jenness: Makers of a Yenta Kitchen Dog (La MaMa, performances by Taylor Mac, David Cale, Lisa Ramirez, Daniel Alexander Jones, Luis Alfaro, and others, zoom)
(6/14) POP Master Class with Sarah Lunnie and Abigail Bengson (Playwrights Horizons, zoom)
(6/15) ATCA Connects | A Little Night Musings: Writing About Sondheim (Rick Pender, Ted Chapin, Mark Eden Horowitz, Stacy Wolf, zoom)
(6/17) Dear Elizabeth (Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, live stream)
(6/29) ATCA Connects | Harnessing the Power of Facebook (zoom)
July
(7/7) TDF CONVERSATIONS • Jose Solís, Alicia Ramírez, Juan Michael Porter II (theater critics of color, Facebook stream)
(7/7) Roundtable discussion: Lanford Wilson’s Lemon Sky with Marshall Mason, Jan Egleston, Lindsay Crouse, Welker White (zoom)
(7/9) Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) (the cell theatre)
(7/11) Charmed Life (Urban Stages)
(7/11) Theatre World Awards (BroadwayWorld.com, streamed)
(7/13) Inside New York Magazine — Reporting on Rudin With the Team at Vulture (stream)
(7/14) Restart Stages: You Are Here (live installation)
(7/15) Seven Deadly Sins (outdoor, multiple performance locations, Meatpacking District)
(7/17) I Hate It Here (virtual play series, Goodman Chicago, live stream)
(7/20) Sound Off!: An Interactive Panel on the Future and Sustainability of Criticism (Helen Shaw and Diep Tran, ATHE, zoom)
(7/22) Seize the King (Classic Theatre of Harlem, Richard Rodgers Amphitheater, Marcus Garvey Park)
(7/24) Restart Stages: You Are Here (Lincoln Center Plaza, performances)
(7/28) Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker | I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year (Washington Post event, zoom)
(7/31) Memories of Overdevelopment (Caridad Svich, directed by Lavina Jadhwani,live virtual reading)
August
(8/1) King Lear (NY Classical Theatre | Castle Clinton National Monument)
(8/3) Putting It Together: An Evening with James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim (Town Hall, presented by Strand, live stream)
(8/5) Merry Wives (Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park, Delacorte)
(8/8) Semblance (New York Theatre Workshop) [live in theater attendance but basically a filmed presentation]
(8/10) James Lapine | Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created “Sunday in the Park with George” (Free Library of Philadelphia author events, zoom)
(8/12) Concord Theatricals Presents: The 46th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival Celebration Party (zoom)
(8/18) TDF A Pass Over Conversation with Jon Michael Hill, Namir Smallwood and Gabriel Ebert (youtube)
(8/20) Book of Moron (SoHo Playhouse)
September
(9/5) Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
(9/8) What Happened?: The Michaels Abroad (Frederick Loewe Theater at Hunter College)
(9/9) Pass Over (August Wilson)
(9/10) The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater Company Linda Gross)
(9/12) Artist Chat Panel with Latinx Academics: Ni Mi Madre (zoom)
(9/17) Sanctuary City (NYTW at the Lucille Lortel)
(9/18) Yeah, But Not Right Now (SoHo Playhouse)
(9/19) Polylogues (SubletSeries@HERE)
(9/23) Lackawanna Blues (MTC Samuel J. Friedman)
(9/25) A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet (Daryl Roth Theatre)
(9/26) Persuasion (Bedlam at the Connelly Theater)
(9/26) American Theatre Wing’s 74th Annual Tony Awards® broadcast and concert (awards for the truncated 2020/2021 theatre season)
(9/29) Hindsight (Fault Line Theatre at Paradise Factory)
(9/30) Six (Brook Atkinson)
October
(10/7) Worlds Fair In (Axis Company)
(10/10) Letters of Surresh (Second Stage Tony Kiser)
(10/13) Chicken & Biscuits (Circle in the Square)
(10/13) Neil Brennan: Unacceptable (Cherry Lane)
(10/14) Autumn Royal (Irish Repertory Theatre)
(10/15) Edward Medina memorial (Theaterlab)
(10/15) Thoughts of a Colored Man (Golden)
(10/16) The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlander)
(10/18) p.s. (Ars Nova)
(10/21) The Mother (Wooster Group)
(10/22) Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Gingold Theatrical Group at Theater Row)
(10/23) Caroline, or Change (Roundabout | Studio 54)
(10/24) Brecht on Brecht (Theater Breaking Through Barriers | A.R.T./New York Theatres)
(10/28) Fairycakes (Greenwich House)
(10/29) Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Signature Theatre Company)
(10/30) Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation (Theatre Row)
(10/30) Juilliard Jazz Orchestra (Lincoln Center | Alice Tully Hall)
November
(11/1) Henry Hewes Design Awards (57th annual, live stream)
(11/3) Caroline, or Change (Roundabout | Studio 54)
(11/3) Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord (New York Theatre Workshop)
(11/4) Morning Sun (MTC | New York City Center)
(11/5) Tammany Hall (SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street)
(11/7) Gnit (Theatre for a New Audience)
(11/9) Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater)
(11/10) Is This A Room (Lyceum)
(11/10) Dana H. (Lyceum)
(11/11) The Antelope Party (Dutch Kills Theater | The Wild Project)
(11/12) A Turtle on a Fence Post (Theater 555)
(11/13-14) ATCA 2021 | From Where We Sit (zoom)
(11/13) Assassins (Classic Stage Company)
(11/14) Medicine (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
(11/15) tick, tick…BOOM! (on line pre-release screening)
(11/16) Odd Man Out (Pitchblack Immersive Experiences | Flea)
(11/17) A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Irish Repertory Theatre)
(11/17) Trevor (Stage 42)
(11/18) The Alchemist (Red Bull Theater | New World Stages)
(11/19) Diana (Longacre)
(11/20) A Sherlock Carol (New World Stages)
(11/20) Cullud Wattah (Public | Martinson)
(11/21) Trouble in Mind (Roundabout | American Airlines)
(11/22) Clyde’s (Hayes)
(11/23) Morning’s at Seven (Theatre at St Clements)
(11/24) COVID-19 vaccine BOOSTER 1 (Moderna)
(11/24) Baby (Out of the Box Theatrics | Theatrelab)
(11/26) Preparedness (Bushwick Starr | HERE)
(11/27) In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
(11/28) Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood (York Theatre | Theatre at St. Jean’s)
(11/28) The Visitor (Public | Newman)
(11/29) Candlelight (Nylon Fusion Theater Company | New Ohio)
December
(12/2) Kimberly Akimbo (Atlantic Theater Company | Linda Gross)
(12/3) Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes (Radio City Music Hall)
(12/3) Mrs. Doubtfire (Stephen Sondheim)
(12/4) Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons)
(12/4) while you were partying (soho rep)
(12/5) Approval Junkie (Minetta Lane)
(12/7) Camille O’Sullivan: Where Are We Now? (Irish Arts Center)
(12/8) Caridad Svich new play Chelsea and Ivanka (zoom)
(12/12) The Streets of New York (Irish Repertory Theatre)
(12/14) Becoming Dr. Ruth (Museum of Jewish Heritage)
(12/15) Company (Bernard B. Jacobs)
(12/16) Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (New Victory)
(12/17) Flying Over Sunset (LCT | Vivian Beaumont)
(12/18) MASS (online pre-release screening)
(12/30) Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures (New York Public Library Schwarzman Building)
urban excavations 