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 capture of Sam Gravitte’s performance of “The Coin Toss” — an original mini-musical by Jake Landau — that I found so captivating at Sam’s recent solo cabaret debut…
And here is some what’s been clicking since my last newsletter…
LATimes’ Ashley Lee profiles the “lost generation” theatre artists who have “pivoted away” from the precarity of their pre-pandemic stage careers • SMU DataArts releases Pandemic Priorities — a study authored by Daniel Fonner and Rebecca Roscoe — documenting how pandemic unemployment in the arts doubled the national rate, disproportionately impacting for BIPOC and disabled arts workers, and detailing how male arts workers are seeing faster job recovery than other genders • the ACPSA — or Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis — releases its 2020 report on the economic impact of arts and culture in the United States • in a forceful editorial, the staff of DC Metro Arts contends that COVID safety policies is crucial to local theaters’ economic health and survival • and Hyperallergic’s Hakim Bishara reports on NYC Mayor Eric Adams proposal for drastic/devastating cuts to the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs…
The Adrienne Kennedy Project, an “open-ended exploration” of the work of visionary writer Adrienne Kennedy — is launched by the contributors to the Fall 2021 Fordham University undergraduate course Adrienne Kennedy: Text and Performance, as led by celebrated artist/scholars Daniel Alexander Jones and Shonni Enelow • NYTimes’ Amanda Hess profiles “the brilliance of Charo” (be sure to read to the end to see a name you might just recognize from your inbox) • Theatrely’s Amanda Marie Miller offers a comprehensive “oral history” of the fan-driven phenomenon that is/was Newsies • and for the New York Times, scholar/artist Soyica Diggs Colbert evinces the historical and cultural contexts that led to the original 1976 Broadway production of for colored girls...
RollingStone’s Kory Grow reports on the memorials for beloved vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern (1935-2022) and gathers the voices of her many acclaimed students in a powerful obituary • and the case against Gustern’s accused murderer is pondered in VanityFair, NYPost & New York…
at A&U Magazine, writer/journalist Chael Needle talks to playwright/advocate Yilong Liu about the importance of queer history as his PrEP Play, or Blue Parachute readies for its premiere at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center • at Chicago’s NewCityStage, critic/writer Amanda Finn’s review (of the recent Writers Theatre production of Wife of a Salesman by Eleanor Burgess) stirs compelling questions about audience (and critical) disinterest in stories centering women • 3Views takes on Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady as produced by Ma-Yi Theater in partnernershipThe Public Theater • BroadwayWorld’s Stephen Mosher documents the Kayla Capone Kasper's one-woman musical cabaret Becoming Benanti: The Role of a Lifetime as an exemplar of the best of cabaret in 2022 for its centering “the idea that artists should make the most of the times in which they live” • at HowlRound, producing artist Annie G. Levy gives an insider’s glimpse into how one producing organization plans its season • and filmmaker Michelle Memran makes her acclaimed documentary The Rest I Make Up freely available to all…
...and — lest I forget — this week in Fornésiana also brings two profiles of two productions of Fefu and Her Friends produced on two coasts:
American University’s Elizabeth Cowgill profiles the “curious, playful, and compassionate” process that guided director-in-residence Nadia Guevara’s recent production at AU’s Department of Performing Arts;
for the San Francisco Examiner, veteran arts journalist Robert Sokol talks to the remarkable cast currently appearing in the American Conservatory Theatre production…
and Profe Herrera’s Virtual Bookmobile remains open — through May 15!
Wherein I release books from my bookshelf to yours— a little free virtual bookmobile if you will… HOW DOES IT WORK? You pick a title from this list of mostly new and mostly notable books; then you fill out this simple form; and then I send your chosen book to you via USPS for you to keep. That’s it!
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!