2022 was a continued return to viewing on line and in person theater, collaborating on theater, counting theater productions, and coalition-building on behalf of theater. The exhaustive (and exhausting) list […]
2022 was a continued return to viewing on line and in person theater, collaborating on theater, counting theater productions, and coalition-building on behalf of theater.
The exhaustive (and exhausting) list below is my twelfth annual “what Martha has seen” marathon record of theater and event and film adventuring. Prior years can be found in annual postings 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018,2019, 2020, and 2021. Before we get to the list, I’ll muse about summary details and other activities of the year.
Theater by the Numbers. This year’s number of productions (not readings, not screenings, not conference sessions) tells me that our pandemic recovery is still in process. In calendar year 2022 I saw 209 shows — and we continue to be surprised by abrupt performance cancellations on and off Broadway, including the actual opening night for “The Collaboration” on December 20. As reported last year during our “still at the mercy of the virus and partially open” 2021 calendar year, I saw approximately 80 productions. The 2020 calendar year included 59 productions over 3 months (until my last show of that season, the last preview of “Six” on March 11, 2020) and nine months of shows and readings on line. During calendar year 2019 as reported that December, I saw 300 ticketed and staged theatrical productions, 20 or so cabaret performances or panel discussions (smaller scale adventures), and too few film screenings. As we’re living it, the numbers of shows opening is returning to something that feels familiar from the Before Times, but the trajectory of shows — what inspires closings and the Covid-replacements and pauses mid run — is still to be analyzed. No, we’re not back to where we were in 2019 but we’re on our way to someplace new.
Travel. My travels this year remained covid-limited. Work for myself and husband remains largely online, and just a few scattered short-term travel adventures by plane, train, and automobile were notched. In late March, we visited Winston-Salem, North Carolina for a few days filled with long walks through a compact and re-invigorated downtown (Winston) and historic village layouts ala Colonial Williamsburg (Salem) and I experienced air travel for the first time since pre-pandemic 2019. Based on this relatively calm but delayed TSA experience, I began the experience of signing up for the DHS Global Entry certification. In September we traveled by train to DC for a few days. And in early November we rented a car and drove through early snow flurries in the Allegheny Mountains, through PA and OH to MI, for visits to our hometowns and siblings and extended family in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Springfield, Ohio and other smaller areas nearby.
Board and Committee Service. I continued my service to the American Theatre Critics Association by as webmaster and content developer — managing and adapting and crafting content for the website redesigned in 2020 and activated in early 2021 — and as member of committees that manage the Helbing Mentorship Program and the Steinberg-ATCA and Osborn playwrighting awards. I also worked with a stalwart team of eight to plan the November 2022 New York City convening, at which I moderated public conversations with Jesse Green and Helen Shaw. I continued as a member of the Henry Hewes Design Awards committee, and as chair of the Drama Desk nominating committee for the 2022-2023 season (the work that subsidizes the theater-going gluttony documented in the month-by-month listing below).
Women Count. In May 2022 I released the sixth edition in the Women Count report series that looks at whose plays are put on Off Broadway and the designers and backstage professionals who work on them. This report series that has always been authored by me with colleague Judith Binus, has had two publishers since 2014 — the first four reports were published by the League of Professional Theatre Women (but never conducted FOR that organization), and the most recent two along with all prior reports are published here. In 2022 I joined Luis Castro as co-facilitator of the 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. In December 2022 the duo expanded to a trio of co-convenors: Luis Castro, Pun Bandhu, and I will lead the consortium in 2023 and onward, with initiative founder Todd London remaining as a member of the group.
New Play Development. Ongoing new play development projects and judging for ATCA’s Steinberg-ATCA and Osborn Awards and as a member of the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Artistic Council kept me busy, along with ongoing dramaturgical projects ranging from script reading to new play development with particular playwrights.
Poll Worker. I continued serving as poll worker in Manhattan for the primary and general elections this calendar year, continuing a job I initially started through a response to a national call for poll workers for the 2020 Presidential election. It has been an exhausting three years serving in that role, and I don’t think I’ll return to the task, but it has been an honor to serve my fellow Manhattan citizens in this way.
Political Theater. Assembling the final listing of shows seen and events that transpired reminds me how many of my days in the second half of 2022 were spent watching the multiple chapters of the January 6th hearings held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — and our democracy thanks the committee members and their staff. Politics kept so many of us in an constant, energized, vigilant state. With the politics of theater, and the theater of politics, may we all look forward to a 2023 where wrongdoing is outed and we come together in community.
January
(1/6) The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (The Shed)
(1/8) BIPOC Reading Series: Memories of Overdevelopment by Caridad Svitch (zoom)
(3/3) This Space Between Us (Keen | Theatre Row 5)
(3/7) JANE ANGER or The Lamentable Comedie of JANE ANGER, that Cunning Woman, and also of Willy Shakefpeare and his Peasant Companion, Francis, Yes and Also of Anne Hathaway (also a Woman) Who Tried Very Hard (Play-Per-View | New Ohio Theater)
(3/9) Notes From Now: Songs of Resilience & Renewal (Prospect | 59E59)
(3/9) A Touch of the Poet (Irish Rep | Mainstage)
(3/10) Hart Island (Mason Holdings | Gym at Judson)
(3/11) Coal Country (Audible | Cherry Lane)
(3/12) Bruise & Thorn (Pipeline | A.R.T. / New York Theatres Mezzanine)
(3/12) The Chinese Lady (Public + Barrington Stage + Ma-Yi | Shiva)
(3/13) what you are now (The Civilians | Ensemble Studio Theatre)
urban excavations 