WELCOME to the #TheatreClique Round Up — my (mostly) weekly newsletter dedicated to clicking on some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…
This Week's #TheatreClique-ing:
For this week’s opener, I lift the full version of NYCNext’s “New York State of Mind,” in which a fascinating assortment of performers celebrate the city’s long-hoped-for "reopening”…
And here is some what’s been clicking since my last newsletter…
for the NYTimes, Elizabeth Vincentelli considers the uncertainties faced by digital performance makers as producers and audiences “return” to in-person venues • J. Clara Chan highlights how this week’s OnlyFans announcement underscores the particular structural vulnerability of “content creators” in the monetization economy for The Hollywood Reporter • NYTimes’ Jesse Green profiles how Joshua William Gelb — one of the most productive and innovative artists of the “remote theatre” era — is engaging “post-pandemic” audiences • at Theatrly, Joey Sims makes a case for economic transparency during Broadway’s return • Asbury Park Press’s Ilana Keller explores “how streaming shows could change Broadway forever” • Victoria Cairl distills five ways for theatre-goers to stay positive and support theatre during this period of renewed uncertainty • and Helen Shaw ponders what is certain to be a defining question for this new era of theatre-going, even as Jared Mezzocchi offers this admonition…
TimeOut’s Adam Feldman listens to actor/writer Danny Burstein’s reflections on his year of extraordinary loss, grief and survival • playwright Sarah Mantell insists upon the necessity of “expert support for putting trauma onstage [as being] as crucial to our field as safety cables and fight choreography” • Cynthia Erivo and Michaela Coel ask each other “the questions nobody else ever does” in Vanity Fair • Wicked appoints “Director of Social Responsibility” to “to create and support a more inclusive and respectful environment for companies and audiences of the hit musical in its Broadway, London and National Touring productions • Gawker’s Tarpley Hitt talks to the “canceled artists” staging Oklahoma! in Virginia • at the NYTimes, Rebecca Ritzel goes deep into how one theatre leader “embellished” (aka lied, misrepresented and faked) his way to a top executive position at a major regional theatre • AmericanTheatre publishes the full resignation letter • Lauren Halvorsen has some thoughts about the “chaotic churn of employee turnover” as possibly the “greatest destabilizing force in the American theatre” • Pasadena Playhouse announces plans to reopen with Sam Pinkleton’s “reimagining” of Head over Heels • Manuel Betancourt interviews “Los Javis” — the creators of my favorite limited series (perhaps ever) Veneno • at Theatremania, Harry Haun details how Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age was completed three years after filmmaker Rick McKay’s untimely death • at Vulture, Frank Rich talks to Stephen Sondheim and Jonathan Tunick about the making of the Company cast album • Lia Chang publishes a rich collection of remembrances of Alvin Ing (1932-2021) • and National Black Theatre remembers Micki Grant (1941-2021) with an excerpt from her 2016 conversation with Charlayne Woodard (see also StageBuddy’s summary of Micki Grant’s November 2020 conversation with Richarda Abrams)…
...and — lest I forget — this week in Fornésiana: brings the much-anticipated arrival of scholar-artist Anne García-Romero’s essay, “Replicating Irene’s Room: Sustaining Fornesian Playwriting in the Twenty-first Century” in the latest issue of Theatre Topics (July 2021). The essay offers a rich, thick description not only of the legendarily transformative pedagogical approach devised by Fornés but also of the creative (and herculean) efforts to sustain the artistry and the craft of that “Fornesian” method today…
Adventures in (Not-So-Remote) Theatre-going:
Wherein I highlight some of my personal priority destinations for the upcoming week.
Ni Mi Madre —presented in-person and livestreaming through 9/19• Arturo Luís Soria’s acclaimed solo show in a production presented by NYC’s Rattlestick Theatre • $40/$25 (Pay What You Can presentations on 8/22, 9/1 & 9/12).
On This TheatreCliquer's Dance Card:
Wherein I shamelessly promote my own upcoming public events.
Together Apart: 10 Mini-Musicals about One Life Changing Year — HAS BEEN EXTENDED “BY POPULAR DEMAND” through 8/29 • “written, composed, produced, directed and performed by Brown University alumni from different eras — who reconnected virtually during the pandemic and decided to create something together” • FREE; donations benefiting the Actors Fund.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Both of these recently published books have felt rigorously and surprisingly “on-point” for me this week — with Matthew Fuller & Eyal Weizman’s Investigative Aesthetics helping me to puzzle through the snarl of our contemporary epistemic crises around the very idea of “truth” (while also helping me to understand the ways I am approaching “evidence” in the book I’m writing right now); and with Lorna Bracewell’s Why We Lost the Sex Wars offering some clarifying historical, legal and political context not only for this week’s news about OnlyFans but also for this week’s theatre gossip/discourse around grooming, power and harm. I can’t say I’ve figured anything out but both books have proven to be challenging but clarifying “interlocutors” if you will, especially as I grapple with the question that seems to be defining the second half of my 2021: how in the everloving f*ck did we get here?
Profe Herrera’s Semi-Scholastic Bookmobile is OPEN…
DEFINITION CHECK: what’s a scholastic book fair? what’s a bookmobile?
For more on why I want to give YOU a free book — click HERE (or on the image above) to be routed to the bookmobile-page…
Until next time, dear #TheatreClique, please share this newsletter with those friends, colleagues and students who might appreciate the opportunity to encounter the many voices gathered in each week’s edition. Errors and oversights published in the newsletter will be corrected in the archival versions. And, in the meantime, keep clicking those links — good writing needs good readers and our theatre clicks count!