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 performance from the incomparable Irene Cara (1959-2022). And be sure to click through to writer/advocate Maya S. Cade tribute at Black Film Archive for the many ways “Irene Cara’s legacy will live forever”
And here is some what’s been clicking since my last newsletter…
EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever I link to pieces posted behind a paywall, I do so using the “gift” function that certain publications now afford subscribers. So clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your monthly allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! — adopt similar technologies soon...
at The Denver Gazette, in light of the recent tragedy at ClubQ in Colorado Springs, playwright/journalist John Moore posits that “the question is not, 'What is it about Colorado?' but 'What is it about America?’” • WashingtonPost’s Peter Marks reports on how the board of DC’s Woolly Mammoth has issued a national call to other boards/organizations/companies to “publicly reaffirm their commitment to their artists”• TheGuardian’s Harriet Sherwood reports on reaction to the decision to rescind playwright Caryl Churchill’s 2022 European Drama Award (presented in recognition of her life’s work) because of her support for Palestinian rights • Andscape’s Soraya Nadia McDonald details how two new films “connect the dots between Jim Crow and fascism”• and NPR’s education correspondent Cory Turner reports on an innovative school program that uses puppets to help schoolkids “manage in a world that, even to grown-ups, can sometimes feel so unmanageable”…
San Francisco Chronicle’s theatre and music critics (Lily Janiak and Joshua Kosman, respectively) team up to consider the artistic implications of an innovative new keyboard technology that promises to “make it possible for a single synthesizer player to replicate the sound of many orchestral instruments with unprecedented flexibility” • AmericanTheatre editor-in-chief Rob Weinert-Kendt talks to writer/editor Diep Tran about her decision to take on the job as editor-in-chief of Playbill • Brown Daily Herald’s Sofia Barnett profiles Elmo Terry-Morgan — the guiding force of Providence’s Rites and Reason for the past three decades — upon the announcement of his retirement • NYMag’s Brock Colyar reflects on the experience of sitting in someone else’s apartment as Kathleen Chalfant becomes Joan Didion for an hour or so as part of Keen Theatre’s roaming production of the Year of Magical Thinking • at TheWrap, freelance arts writer Michele Willens considers why solo theater shows are having a moment • and …
actor/advocate Sav Souza threads the story of how the cast of Broadway’s 1776 worked to get “an educational insert in every program at every performance about non-binary and trans identities” • American Theatre’s Alexandra Pierson profiles the work being done at Rhode Island’s Reverie Theatre Group to create a way to make theatre that is “safe, fulfilling, and uplifting, sans the usual exhaustion and exploitation that is too often considered just a part of the process” • scholar (and veteran theatre blogger) Scott Walters reactivates Theatre Ideas with a rumination on “the revolt of the empowered artist” • Playbill’s Logan Curwell-Block reports on the release of the “Tabloid Culture”-inspired EP from actor Laura Osnes • meanwhile, OnStageBlog’s Chris Peterson confesses “I listened to Laura Osnes' new album, so you don't have to” • The Harvard Crimson’s Paton D. Roberts and Eric Yan report on artist/advocate Esperanza Spalding’s decision to not renew her appointment as Professor of the Practice due to Harvard’s disinterest in Spalding’s proposed “Black Artist-Educators Decolonizing and Placemaking” initiative • and at AmericanTheatre, director/playwright Gabriel Vega Weissman offers “not a eulogy, but a celebration” of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab…
Vogue’s Chloe Schama assesses the “risks and rewards of staging Some Like It Hot” in 2022 • at BroadwayDirect, freelance arts writer Felicia Fitzpatrick talks to writers Amber Ruffin & Matthew López about bringing a “fresh perspective” to the Broadway musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot • Huffington Post’s Curtis M. Wong profiles actor/playwright Raúl Castillo and his work in New York Theatre Workshop’s recent production of Victor I. Cazares' American (Tele)visions • at Vogue, writer/critic Brittani Samuel talks to K-Pop composer Helen Park about bringing the history-making musical to the Broadway stage • in AmericanTheatre, music director/dramaturg Amanda Morton reflects on how her work on KPOP brings together her love for the Broadway musical and Korean/American culture • TheFilmStage’s Nick Newman goes deep with playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner about his long and intimate collaboration with filmmaker Steven Spielberg • TexasMonthly’s Katy Vine profiles playwright/director/actor Doug McGrath’s latest show shortly before his untimely passing…
Listen Up!:
Wherein I highlight a handful of noteworthy recent theatrically-inclined podcasts and playlists…
At AmericanTheatre’s Offscript, directore/dramaturg Gabrielle Hoyt moderates a conversation among an impressive roster of theatermakers “about portrayals of Jewishness and anti-semitism on New York Stages”…
at OnTap: The Theatre & Performance Studies Podcast, the full roster of current co-hosts convenes in New Orleans for a robust conversation about changing production pressures/protocols in both non-profit and educational theatre, while also reporting out from the 2022 convening of the American Society for Theatre Research…
And a Brief Aside…
As I continue to figure out how to build each installment of this newsletter with less reliance on Twitter, I’ve begun to explore posting on Post, as I continue to sit on the waitlist for Mushroom — each an intriguing upstart platform. We shall see. And, of course, I’ll continue to be here on Substack, posting this newsletter every week or so for the foreseeable. SO…
Until next time, dear #TheatreClique, please share this newsletter with those friends, colleagues, students and lookyloos 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!