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 […]
“The Camera is My Beloved”: Michelle Memran Creates Documentary Art with María Irene Fornés
[Original published in HowlRound, June 12, 2018.] The Rest I Make Up is a poetic rumination by filmmaker Michelle Memran about playwright María Irene Fornés, now in her late 80s and living with late-stage […]
Positation in Action: Director Erin Ortman’s Multi-Year Journey with the Arabian Nights
[Original published in HowlRound, May 2, 2018.] Several coincidences align to admit me to design meetings, workshop readings, and rehearsal rooms for One Thousand Nights and One Day[OTNAOD], a musical based […]
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 […]
An Experimental Argument: Ethan’s Lipton’s Outer Space Odyssey Toward a Sustainable Life
[Original published in HowlRound, September 8, 2017.] Ethan Lipton has assembled a creative family of musicians and designers who have worked with him on a series of projects in New York […]
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 […]
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 […]
Stretching the Canvas in Ethan Lipton’s Tumacho
[article originally published in HowlRound, September 6, 2016.] Playwright and lyricist Ethan Lipton creates fun theatrical worlds and lyric-driven music about socially-relevant topics. In Red Handed Otter, for example, produced by The […]
Shared Vocabulary and Puppetry in Ramesh Meyyappan’s Butterfly
[Original published in HowlRound, June 21, 2016.] Theatremaker Ramesh Meyyappan has opinions about the cultural position of “deaf” or “signed” theatre and its role in his own art including his […]
Barriers, Needs, and Next Steps: A Convening on the State of Deaf Theatre-Making
[article originally published at HowlRound April 6, 2016.] Several dozen artists, administrators, academics, funders, and advocates assembled on the afternoon of January 20, 2016 in the BareBones Studio of the […]
Subversively Smart and Turning the Tide: Lauren Gunderson’s Women Heroes
[article originally published in HowlRound March 15, 2016.] I and You, which recently closed a well-received co-production from Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) in Lowell, Massachusetts and Richard Winker at 59E59 in Manhattan, […]
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 […]
Theatre and Social Justice: Everything Has to Come Out of Session
[article originally published in HowlRound, January 16, 2016.] Theatre and Social Justice Crafted out of Session to Engage Audience The Actors Studio is known for creating socially relevant material but not […]
Theatrical Research: Percolating and Data
[article originally published in HowlRound, December 12, 2015.] I joined the first three hours of a December 3, 2015 all-day meeting on parity in theatre, involving some two dozen women, one […]
Will Eno’s Theatrical Rhythms
[article originally published in HowlRound, December 10, 2015.] Small Town-ish in a Really Good Way For a heady period of time in the spring of 2014, playwright Will Eno had two […]
urban excavations 