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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
theatrical research: counting women and baselines for advocacy
Coverage of efforts to track the status of and advocate for the parity for women in theater, film and television continues unabated this fall. I summarized a few efforts and […]
theatrical research: women count 2015
Over the past two years, I have collaborated with colleague Judith Binus at the League of Professional Theatre Women on a data project that joins a family of similar projects […]
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 […]
2014: excavation review
1951 session with Florence Vandamm (far right) and on stage (L-R) John Emery + Katharine Cornell + Brian Aherne in “The Constant Wife” — part of the 2013-2014 NYPL exhibit […]
mercedes ruehl: “all these things ride into town on your voice”
NYPL-PA + League of Professional Theatre Women: Mercedes Ruehl + Andrea Chapin New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Avenue Monday […]
urban excavations 