I squeezed adventures in Norway, Sweden, the wilds of central Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island into 2019, a year of paring, sifting and sorting of involvement on professional boards and continuing projects. I served on the executive committee of the American Theatre Critics Association, as a judge for the Henry Hewes Design Awards and the
Category: theater (dramaturgy)
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 theater-obsessed friends and colleagues. By my rough count, during 2018 in New York City and elsewhere, I saw 300 theatrical performances (ticketed, cast, full productions),
[Selection from November 2018 report, published November 14, 2018 and updated November 26, 2018 on League of Professional Theatre Women’s Women Count project page.] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: WOMEN COUNT IV, 2013-14 THROUGH 2017-18 Since 2014, the Women Count report series collects and publishes analyses of production credits to assess gender parity in theater hiring decisions. We ask: whose plays
[Full article published in The Theatre Times, May 12, 2018.] GOODMAN’S RESIDENT DRAMATURG ON HOW HER WORK GIVES TEXTURE AND SPECIFICITY TO A PRODUCTION. Consider the riddle of Neena Arndt’s work at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. She conducts research that informs designs but doesn’t design sets or costumes or soundscapes. She often appears on Goodman stages but is
[Selection from February 2018 report, published May 4, 2018 on League of Professional Theatre Women’s Women Count project page.] Women Count: Women Hired Off-Broadway 2010-2017 by Martha Wade Steketee with Judith Binus February 2018 Third in a report series published by League of Professional Theatre Women I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: WOMEN COUNT 2010-2017 Whose plays are being
[Full article published in TDF Stages, January 11, 2018.] How director Daniel Sullivan is helping the actor honor his father Tony-winning director Daniel Sullivan is known for helming complex, multicharacter plays on Broadway, from sumptuous period pieces like last season’s revival of The Little Foxes, to new works by the likes of David Auburn, Donald Margulies, and
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 on the boards or executive committee of the American Theatre Critics Association and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and in a new
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 2017 I saw 290 theatrical productions (including a few staged readings) and 24 cabaret performances (basically a singer and musicians in a club setting, singing
I am one voice among two dozen signatories to this piece that addresses selected critical response to several New York shows in the 2016-2017 season, and raises some questions about the range of critical voices addressing contemporary American theater. The essay, authored by 24 academics, researchers, and yes a few critics, does not reflect the
[article as originally published in The Brooklyn Rail, June 2017, posted May 28, 2017.] This June, the Women in Theatre Festival (with its creatively capitalized WiTFESTNYC tag) will unfurl its second year of programming, helmed by Project Y Theatre Company artistic director Michole Biancosino. Project Y, which Biancosino co-founded nearly 20 years ago in Washington,
