#231203 - THEATRICAL IMAGINATION, CRITICAL COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING OTHERNESS
Brian Eugenio Herrera's #TheatreClique Newsletter for December 3, 2023
WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my irregular newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…
This Week's #TheatreCliquery:
So begins that peculiar time of year e seasonal pressures can easily become more than a little exhausting. But, to balance my twinklier and grinchier sides, I am delighted to discover a newly remastered/restored HD version of the holiday masterpiece Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (1988), which will be streaming at no-cost for the next few weeks. And in a season that inevitably stirs some measure of melancholy, I’m inclined to remember the incomparable Paul Ruebens (1952-2023) for the ways his generosity touched not only his collaborators but also his longtime fans (like Jason Adams at My New Plaid Pants). Nobody did the holidays quite like Pee-Wee and for that I will be forever grateful to (and for) Paul Reubens…
May you find yourself often well and frequently warm during the seasonal tumult that the year’s end inevitably brings and may your gratifying diversions be many… In that spirit, let’s get to some of what’s been clicking since my last top-of-the-month newsletter!
EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever I link to pieces posted behind a paywall, I aim to 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! please ChicagoTribune!— adopt similar technologies soon...
#NowClickThis…
In Case You Missed It…
at the Los Angeles Review of Books, playwright/poet Dan O’Brien reflects on his experience of cancer by considering the sustaining force of the theatrical imagination, writing “I suggest that we do not suspend our disbelief as the curtain rises—we resume our belief in our capacity for compassion and progress…”;
at The Crush Bar, freelance arts journalist Fergus Morgan considers possibility of “critical compassion” — or the option “to exercise compassion alongside candour, to be constructive not cruel, to be both honest and humane” in a poignant reflection on the life and work of actor/writer Matthew Perry (1969-2023);
at the New York Times, writer/critic Jesse Green tells the story of how Jewish theatrical artisry rehearsed the possibility of “creat[ing] liminal spaces that allow us to cross over into new understandings of otherness”;
at Medium, writer/advocate Matt Sterling reflects on his experiences of Walt Disney World and how “the freedom that came along with disabled access was liberating”;
at American Theatre, writer/advocate Todd London begins to tell the story of “how a Lakota playwright, seven Indigenous actors, and an L.A.-based ensemble survived a pandemic, crossed thousands of prairie miles, and confronted centuries of history to make a play”;
at The Wilma, scholar/writer Kinohi Nishikawa reflects on “how silence, vulnerability, loneliness, and a kind of middle-aged malaise form a through line” in his experience of the 2022-23 season at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater;
at TheatreIdeas, scholar/advocate Scott Walters releases a free-to-download how-to book on the topic of Building a Sustainable Theater: How to Remove Gatekeepers and Take Control of Your Artistic Career;
The New Yorker’s Helen Shaw remembers Robert Brustein as “critic, professor, producer, and author [and as] pugilistic champion of the stage”;
at ThreeViews, Long Wharf Theatre & Sol Project artistic director Jacob Padron invites theatre leaders to “let go, breathe new air, let the rain bring renewal, and center an abundance mentality without fear” in response to Annalisa Dias’s remarkable manifesto, “Decomposition Instead of Collapse: Dear Theater Leaders Be Like Soil” as originally published by Rescripted and Nothing for the Group;
San Francisco Chronicle’s Lily Janiak follows up with Sara Porkalob to discuss not only the actor/writer’s current projects but their perspective on what was arguably one of the most commented-upon theatre interviews of 2023;
at HowlRound, theatre designer/advocate Porsche McGovern offers the concluding installment in an eight-year study of Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun, 2012-2020;
and at IndieWire, director Raven Jackson and cinematographer Jomo Fray discuss their twelve point manifesto for “being present on set” or “staying open to moments, gestures, nature, and images that evoked emotion and ideas of their film” — All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023).
#NowFundThis:
Wherein I highlight notable current or ongoing crowdfunding campaigns…
Playwright C. Julian Jiménez — the instigator of The Outrage initative — writes that “The Outrage was born out of a need for a space where queer writers can be in community, write, and share with one another for intentional and honest feedback.” The campaign is over halfway to its goal and the five funded writers named thus far — C.A. Johnson, David Anzuelo, Laura Thoma Flower, Estefana Rios, and Phillip Christian Smith — represent a fascinating constellation of some of the most compelling voices currently emerging today. And in a climate where legacy play incubator programs are folding with alarming frequency, these kinds of independent initiatives like this one and Sean Abley’s Desert Playwrights Retreat are all the more essential…
I hereby issue a #TheatreClique challenge to all y’all : for every contribution made by a #TheatreCliquer to the OUTRAGE crowdfunding campaign between now and December 31, 2023, I will personally contribute an additional $5. Just take a screenshot of your GoFundMe confirmation receipt and send me the confirmation via email OR tag me in a tweet or whatever… just be sure to let me know you pledged somehow. Contribute ANY amount and I’ll add another $5 to the pot. And if you’ve already pledged, I betcha you can spare one more dollar… so pledge again!
#ReflectionsOfATheatregoer — Reader’s Choice
Wherein I highlight some of my recent personal theatregoing and invite #TheatreCliquers to pick which show I should reflect on for the midmonth edition of this newsletter.
Each midmonth edition of #TheatreClique is dedicated to my reflective commentary on a show (or shows) I’ve seen recently. These pieces aren’t reviews exactly (nor are they as casually ruminative as my moviegoing diary over at Letterboxd) but — rather — these midmonth missives are part of my ongoing exploration of how I might capture some of my general (and critically generous) thoughts on the shows I see. My #5ClickityThoughts about Annie Baker’s Infinite Life dropped a few weeks back but, to help select which of the above shows will be spotlighted this month, cast your VOTE via this handy-dandy poll.
#BePresentInTheMemory — This Month in Fornésiana…
Wherein I highlight noteworthy recent or upcoming engagements with the life, work and legacy of legendary playwright, director and teacher María Irene Fornés...
Imagine my surprise when, in one of my semi-regular research rambles in pursuit of this or that bit of Fornésiana, I stumbled upon a previously-unseen-by-me publication of Dr. Kheal in the Winter 1968 edition of Theater.
As I read through it, I marveled not only at the unusual accenting of Fornés’s name (the use or non-use of diacritics in spelling la maestra’s name has been a recent topic of some consternation/conversation in Fornésian circles) but also at the fact of Joan Pape’s performance in the second major presentation of the piece (underscoring the recurring reality of Fornés’s longstanding practice in what today might be called “open casting”). I had only ever seen the version of Dr. Kheal published in Promenade and Other Plays (PAJ, 1987), so the photos of Joan Pape — an early member of Yale Rep and a seriously working actor on the non-profit stage throughout the 1970s and 1980s — as Dr. Kheal kinda sorta totally blew my mind. And given that I’m in the very preliminary stages of re/launching my own performance/exploration of Dr. Kheal — currently scheduled to arrive to a something like a stage near me in Spring 2025 (?!?) — this was a particularly serendipitous way to #BePresentInTheMemory of María Irene Fornés…
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!