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 this extraordinary bit from SNL’s Bowen Yang, which somehow spins arch critiques of startup capitalism, facile representational politics and routinely normalized labor inequities — all through the voice of a “Proud Gay Oompa Loompa” who was just outed on national tv…
And here is some what’s been clicking since my last newsletter…
DCist’s Elliot C. Williams talks to theatre-workers about the industry’s (slow) return in the greater DC area • San Francisco Chronicle’s Lily Janiak follows up with some “recent so-called whistle-blowers in Bay Area theater” to assess the impact of blowing said whistle upon their careers • The Theatre Times publishes an edited version of a June 2021 online roundtable discussion among five notable dramaturgs (facilitated by Catriona Craig) noting the launch of the d’n Dramaturgs’ Contract Package — a collection of documents designed to support the creation fairer and better-informed employment contracts for dramaturgs • in The Conversation, scholars David O’Brien and Mark Taylor detail the “class crisis” in the UK arts • Mustang News’ Grace Kitayama reports on how a failure “to find a diverse and representative cast” led to the cancellation of a CalPoly Theater and Dance Department production • The Scarlet & Black reports on a Grinnell college professor’s suspension subsequent an “alleged slapping incident during rehearsal” (see more on the reporting of the story from the S&B editors and student government leaders) • and The Hollywood Reporter confirms that IATSE representatives have reached a tentative agreement with producers, ostensibly averting a major strike, though the commenters at IATSE Stories don’t seem fully convinced…
in response to recent outcry around a failure of gender parity in their announced upcoming season/s, LA’s Center Theatre Group issues an “update” about changes being made • in the NYTimes, playwright Theresa Rebeck asks after American theatre’s “gender reckoning” • Halley Feiffer launches from Rebeck’s editorial to thread an urgent call for gender parity on production teams • SheNYC Arts tweets a preview of an open letter they plan to send this week to every regional theatre in the country • and in light of the complex recent controversy around comedian Dave Chappelle’s current Netflix special: critic Kyle Turner considers the “impossibility of corporate authenticity” on social media • poet Saeed Jones details Chappelle’s “betrayal” in GQ • writer Roxane Gay reflects on Chappelle’s “brittle ego” in the NYTimes • and filmmaker Jen Richards threads some context for Netflix’s “support” of the documentary Disclosure…
Ft. Worth Star Telegram’s Mariana Rivas profiles how DNA Works activates conversation and healing through the arts • in the NYTimes Style Magazine, Susan Dominus goes deep in a profile of playwright Lynn Nottage as one of the magazine’s 2021 Greats • The Reed College Quest’s Nina Gopaldas reports on a staged reading of The Inheritors, or The Privileged Students — Thalia S. Wolff and Kate Bredeson’s new English-language translation of a French play written and staged during the May 1968 student-led protests at the Sorbonne • actors Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose talk to Time’s Lola Ogunnaike about Latino representation in film • in PublicBooks, scholar Mary Rambaran-Olm reviews scholar/advocate Koritha Mitchell’s latest book From Slave Cabins to the White House, putting it in conversation with other recent titles evincing the histories of “how marginalized people built communities despite obstacles and anti-Blackness” • AmericanTheatre offers remembrances of the magazine’s founding editor Jim O’Quinn (1946-2021) from Rob Weinert-Kendt and Todd London • for TuftsNow, Monica Jimenez profiles dramaturg/scholar Noe Montez • Arts Next’s Alicia Dietrich profiles interdisciplinary scholar Ramón Rivera-Servera, the newly appointed Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin • and Billy Porter talks to CBS Sunday Morning’s Seth Doane in advance of his forthcoming book Unprotected and new single…
Definition Checks:
In which I offer resources in response to informational questions raised in the last (or in anticipation of the next) meeting of “Movements for Diversity in American Theater.”
Q1: what is a dramaturg?
Q2: who is August Wilson?
Did You Request YOUR FREE BOOK yet?!?
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!