2022: excavation review
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 […]
2021: excavation review
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 […]
2020: excavation review
This theatrical season will always have an asterisk. The COVID-19 pandemic closed down Broadway theaters as of March 12, 2020, with an uncertain re-opening date, and Off and Off Off […]
2019: excavation review themes
My travels this year were limited compared to travel in prior years: several days in Washington DC (where i lived in the late ’90s and early 2000s), ATCA-related trips to […]
2019: excavation review
I lived thousands of hours in roving artistic communities that move from theater to reading room to cabaret venue in the course of 2019. By my rough count, during 2019 […]
Calm and Coiled: Musings on the Lolling styles of Hepburn and Garland
Back in 2010 and 2011 I played with a theme, a meme, of “lolling” through two of my favorite film divas Lolling served as a way for me to select among […]
2018: excavation review themes
I squeezed adventures in Norway, Sweden, the wilds of central Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island into 2018, a year of paring, sifting and sorting of involvement on professional boards […]
2018: excavation review
Live and filmed performances, as well as readings of works in progress, filled my days in calendar year 2018. I usually attend solo, and yet often host my spouse or […]
Film Review: A Problematic Stage ‘Funny Girl’ To Appear on Screens World Wide
Funny Girl is a late 20th-century show built on the bones of the singular performer Barbra Streisand. This musical with a grand set list that has moved into the […]
2017: excavation review themes
Simplifying, complicating, simplifying again. This has been a year of expanding and paring involvement on professional boards and projects, resuming old roles and assuming new ones. I continue into 2018 […]
2017: excavation review
Public performances in calendar year 2017, live or filmed, were many and thrilling, with new talents and old familiars, in large venues and intimate spaces. By my rough count, during […]
2016: excavation review themes
After six annual marathons captured in “what Martha has seen” lists of theater and film adventuring (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016), I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned that […]
2016: excavation review
[featured image caption: Times Square. Screen capture from opening sequence of Babes on Broadway (1941).] Public performances in calendar year 2016, live or filmed, were many and thrilling. I viewed new […]
History, Legacy, and Light: The Consciously-Embodied Art of Erica Fae
[article originally published in HowlRound March 12, 2016.] Erica Fae, barely into her forties, has been making theatre for over three decades. You can see her on television as a nude psychiatric […]
2015: excavation review
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 […]
2014: excavation review themes
Chance Magazine issue 3 subscriber cover title line. Issues 3 and 4 of Chance were completed, printed, and delivered to subscribers and newsstands in 2014. I have now accumulated four […]
urban excavations 