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 […]
Chairs, Tables, and the American Theatre Critics Association
When I was 10 years old in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, I was in a class at Wealthy Street Elementary School comprised of kids selected for their smarts (maybe) and to […]
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 […]
Women Count IV: Women Hired Off-Broadway 2013-14 — 2017-18
[Selection from November 2018 report, published on the 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 […]
Unpacking the Role of Women in Ibsen’s ‘The Enemy of the People’
[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 […]
Women Count III: Women Hired Off-Broadway 2010-2017
[Selection from February 2018 report, published May 4, 2018 on the 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 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: WOMEN COUNT 2010-2017 Whose plays are being done, who is directing them, and how many women are being hired for theatrical off-stage roles […]
When John Lithgow Called, He Said Yes
[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 […]
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 […]
A Collective Call Against Critical Bias
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 […]
Parity, Politics, and Survival: WiTFESTNYC 2017
[Original 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 […]
Roundtable: Is Jesse Green the right choice for the New York Times?
[I am one voice among many in this article originally published by “Exeunt Staff” in Exeunt Magazine, April 10, 2017.] As yet another white man is hired to the most prestigious job in US theatre criticism, Exeunt’s New York writers ask when the conversation will really change. After theater critic Charles Isherwood was fired, the New York Times announced […]
Wrestling With the Legacy of a Real-Life Attorney
[article as originally published in TDF Stages, March 1, 2017.] A new play takes on William Kunstler — Playwright Jeffrey Sweet was inspired by a shock of hair and a lanky swagger. […]
A Most Visible Baby Mama on Multiple Births
[article as originally published in The Clyde Fitch Report, January 24, 2017.] [feature image caption: Mariah MacCarthy. Photo: Kacey Stamats.] Edgy and sweet, tenacious and joyous, raucous and calm, crude and […]
urban excavations 