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 2019, 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 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 […]
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 […]
Women Count: Women Hired Off-Broadway 2010-2017
[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 done, who is directing them, […]
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
[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 […]
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 […]
Chris Rawson, Theater Critic, On Honoring August Wilson
[article as originally published in The Clyde Fitch Report, March 12, 2017.] It is fashionable to debate the importance of cultural criticism. The debate questions what criticism is and who is […]
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. […]
Catherine Filloux and Poetic Political Theater
[article as originally published in The Clyde Fitch Report, February 28, 2017.] Poetry, design concepts, political themes and strong female characters distinguish the work of playwright and activist Catherine Filloux. […]
