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 video from Paradise Square, which promises to be the first “new” musical to arrive to Broadway in the 2021/22 season…
With apologies for last week’s absence, here is some what’s been clicking since my last newsletter…
at BrooklynRail, musicians/advocates Gordon Beeferman and David Friend dive deep into what Covid has revealed (and underscored) about the particular modes of precarity experienced by artists within a gig economy • Complete Music Update reports on the drastic impact of Covid on song-royalty collection, especially for songwriters • at AmericanTheatre, Daniella Ignacio details the innovative “co-pro” strategy that is bringing Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick to the very different stages of three very different theatre companies across the country • at St. Louis Magazine, Nicholas Phillips talks to Hana Sharif, the pathbreaking artistic director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis • DCMetro’s John Stoltenberg talks to Matthew Gardiner — the new Artistic Director Washington DC’s Signature Theatre — about his goal of “building a culture of consent going forward” • and didja know that Michigan State Retirees “own” the rights to a whole lotta plays and musicals…
longtime dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer “mourns” the many changes in the profession of arts criticism over the last five decades • meanwhile, at Exeunt, Brendan MacDonald — in what might be one of my all-time favorite theatre reviews ever written — reflects with insight and erudition on Last Gasp: A Recalibration by Split Britches • at TeenVogue, Gianluca Russo asks “What will it take for Broadway to embrace size-inclusivity?” • The Buckeye Flame’s Ken Schneck reports on how a single play’s LGBTQ-themes caused it to be canceled by two Ohio high schools, albeit for very different reasons • Chicago Sun-Times’ Nader Issa reports on a the suspension of the teacher leading a top public high school theatre program • at SourceNM (via TheConversation), filmmaker Christopher Gist and showrunner/screenwriter Sarah Mayberry distill “what’s important in on-set gun safety” • and at ArtNews, Sarah Cascone details how the Art Institute of Chicago’s strategy for reimagining its volunteer educator (or “docent”) program stirred a right-wing media dustup…
in the Washington Post, noted scholar Soyica Colbert elegantly distills the complex backstory of Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind and its winding path to Broadway • at AmericanTheatre, Diep Tran evinces what Lloyd Suh’s play The Chinese Lady “can teach us about Asian America, then and now” NYTimes’ Alexis Soloski talks to performers well-rehearsed in all that goes into scaring audiences • for TheatreMania, arts advocate Howard Sherman reflects one of the all-time great theatre-themed horror films Theatre of Blood • Bistro Awards’ Gerry Geddes reviews the cabaret show Me and My Good Judys recently launched by Gilbert D. Sanchez • NYTimes’ Joshua Barone profiles the living legend John Epperson, aka Lypsinka • at AmericanTheatre, Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel talks to dramaturg and musical theatre scholar Madison Mae Williams about realizing a lifelong dream on Jeopardy • Lynne Rosenberg’s Famous Cast Words earned two nominations in the category of “Long Form Discussion or Interview Programming” for a New York Regional Emmy, once for the episode with Broadway's Amber Gray, and once for the episode with Sesame Street's Emilio Delgado • and Princeton’s #TellUsTigers series features Mariana Corichi Gómez (PU21) and her work launching Alegría, a new choir initative dedicated to performing works by Latinx composers and Latin American folk music arranged for full choir. (If clicking the image below doesn’t route you to the Instagram story, try this FB link.)
...and — lest I forget — this week in Fornésiana: brings word of this upcoming production of Fefu at Purdue…
Adventures in Theatre-going:
Wherein I highlight some of my personal priority destinations for the upcoming week.
Trouble in Mind — in-person performances at Roundabout/Broadway • Broadway premiere of 1955 Alice Childress play • $various/$19.57RUSH via TodayTix.
On the Beauty of Loss — streams at designated times through 11/11-21 • 9 • Jared Mezzochi’s “introspective, live, multimedia performance that explores how the emergence of social technology has shifted the ways humans collect memories and comprehend grief” • $75/$32/$22.
On This TheatreCliquer's Dance Card:
Wherein I shamelessly promote my own upcoming — or recently past — public events.
Profe Herrera’s Semi-Scholastic Bookmobile will continue to send out free books through early December…
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!