Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2020 i American Theatre

THE MAGAZINE YOU’RE HOLDING IN YOUR HANDS MAY NOT feel lighter than usual, but it is glaringly missing one key element: several pages of listings of theatre productions in nearly every state of the U.S. that have appeared in the back of every issue of American Theatre for decades now. That is because, as you will hardly need to be reminded, there are no productions on stages in the U.S. now, nor in the foreseeable future. Thanks to the deadly spread of the novel coronavirus disease christened COVID-19, our lives as citizens, consumers, workers, and artists have been irrevocably overturned, and theatre is just one among many social practices abruptly halted by the mandate for social distancing. There is, at press time, no clear end in sight. Even if the curve…

TERRENCE McNALLY made no insistence on his significance. If there were only one thing to be gleaned from the litany of speeches, interviews, and works of his I have read since his passing, it seems to be that for Terrence the most significant thing was theatre itself, not the building but the institution, and the charge of his life’s work to be worthy of it. For a young playwright, there could be no greater lesson to learn. The question most young playwrights have asked me is, “How were you brave enough to write something like Slave Play? Were you scared?” It’s a question that I always shy away from, yet one I so desperately want to ask McNally myself now. “How were you brave enough to write something like And Things…

Pakistani playwright and head of the renowned Ajoka Theatre, Shahid Nadeem, was asked by ITI-Worldwide to offer his thoughts on the value of theatre in today’s world: “In our engagement with the challenges of the present, we deprive ourselves of the possibilities of a deeply moving spiritual experience which theatre can provide. In today’s world where bigotry, hate and violence is on the rise once again, nations seem to be pitted against nations, believers are fighting other believers and communities are spewing hatred against other communities… Theatre has a role, a noble role, in energizing and mobilizing humanity to lift itself from its descent into the abyss. It can uplift the stage, the performance space, into something sacred.”— International Message for World Theatre Day by Shahid Nadeem, Pakistan The Global Theater…

So let’s lead, California. Let’s look beyond our borders to find work and share work. Let’s look at aesthetics. Let’s think of big ideas to make our work at the center of our civil society —From Diane Rodriguez’s keynote at Theatre Bay Area’s April 2016 conference. I FIRST MET DIANE RODRIGUEZ AT A 2007 orientation session for TCG’s New Generations Future Leaders program, which paired emerging leaders with seasoned mentors in theatres across the U.S. Diane, whose long relationship with TCG included participation in the NEA Career Development Program for Directors and Designers, was mentoring Jesus A. Reyes at L.A.’s Center Theater Group. We were sitting in a conference room introducing ourselves and our relationship to TCG and the field. When it was Jesus’s turn, he talked about how important American…

■ Oregon Children’s Theatre has promoted associate artistic director Marcella Crowson to be artistic director, effective immediately. Crowson, who originally joined the company in 2006, succeeds Stan Foote, the company’s first artistic director. ■ The League of Resident Theatres has named Stephanie Grassi the organization’s new general counsel. Previously, Grassi was an associate with O’Melveny & Myers LLP since 2014 and, prior to that, she served as the LORT management associate. Grassi began on March 16, succeeding Harry H. Weintraub, who will stay on until Aug. 31 to ensure a smooth transition. Weintraubleaves the organization after serving as general counsel since 1981. ■ Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, Minn., has instated a cohort of artistic associates as a collective replacement for the position of artistic director. Rick Shiomi, Ellen…

IN 1978, JULIA MILES WAS Wynn Handman’s right hand at the American Place Theater, directly in the heart of the burgeoning Off-Broadway movement. She was producing premieres by Sam Shepard, Jules Feiffer, Steve Tesich, and more, and could have climbed the ladder to success wherever she chose. Instead, she took a hard look at the inequity in her own profession, noting that only eight of the 72 plays produced by the American Place were by women, and that the track record of the field overall was even worse. Never one to sit back when there was something to be done, Julia decided to take the matter into her own hands. Julia started Women’s Project in 1978 and spent the next 25 years never taking no for an answer and upending sexist…

TAYLOR MAC FIRST MET LORETTA GRECO A DECADE ago over breakfast. Greco, who became artistic director of San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in 2008, and departs the company in May, invited Mac to her place for a home-cooked breakfast. Mac remembers the meeting as “an epic hang,” and says that Greco later told judy (Mac’s gender pronoun) that she knew she’d produce judy’s play when judy ate all her food. In her third season with Magic, Greco did produce Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge: A Flowergory Manifold, a five-hour play with 36 cast members and plenty of glitter, about a lily’s fight against nostalgia, among other things.- “She was the first artistic director to produce me full-out without asking me to raise the money,” says Mac. “It was a brave choice, and she’s…

Theatre Communications Group acknowledges its engaged community of supporters* who believe in our mission to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional theatre in the U.S. and globally. We are proud to recognize the following individuals for generously supporting TCG’s vision of a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre. May Adrales Marellen Aherne Larry Alldredge and Dawn Moore Eve Alvord Jessica L. Andrews and Timothy W. Toothman Elizabeth Auman Penny Bank Roger J. Bass George Baughman Jr. Carol Becker Joseph P. Benincasa Anne L. Bernstein Leslie R. Bernstein Sandra Bertrand Robert Birkhauser Janet L. Bixler Naomi Bloom Raymond Bobgan Carmine D. Boccuzzi Gigi Bolt Tim Bond Lee Breuer Peter C. Brosius and Rosanna Staffa Arvin Brown Ralph and Gail Bryan Adrian Budhu James Bundy and Anne…

Kathryn M. Lipuma, Chair Larissa FastHorse, Vice Chair Meghan Pressman, Vice Chair Ellen Richard, Treasurer Eileen J. Morris, Secretary May Adrales, Associate Artistic Director; Milwaukee Repertory Theatre Joseph P. Benincasa, President and CEO; The Actors Fund Raymond Bobgan, Executive Artistic Director; Cleveland Public Theatre Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director; The Playwrights’ Center Joshua Dachs, President; Fisher Dachs Associates Theatre Planning and Design Will Davis, Director & Choreographer Snehal Desai, Producing Artistic Director; East West Players Kelvin Dinkins Jr., Assistant Dean/General Manager; Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre Teresa Eyring, Executive Director; Theatre Communications Group Larissa FastHorse, Playwright and Choreographer John Fontillas, Planner, Architect, Partner; H3 Nataki Garrett, Artistic Director; Oregon Shakespeare Festival Angela Gieras, Executive Director; Kansas City Repertory Theatre Derek Goldman, Co-Founding Director, Laboratory for Global Performance and…

Director André Gregory (The Designated Mourner, Uncle Vanya, The Master Builder) has lived a rich and peripatetic life onstage and off, much of it recounted in This Is Not My Memoir, written with Todd London, to be released by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in November. —Rob Weinert-Kendt At one point in the book you say the theatre belongs on some level to the actors. So why is there a director? What do you add to the process? Well, you know, in a lot of cases, I don’t think a director is really needed. I have found that in general actors seem to know a lot more than directors do. I do think I’m needed; they wouldn’t be able to do it without me. But I think in a lot of productions…

ONE OF TOM KEY’S EARLIEST MEMORIES OF VISITING Atlanta is of attending Georgia Tech football games with his father and brother. He recalls driving from the family home in Birmingham, Ala., and watching the Atlanta skyline expand as the car journeyed uphill. He dreamed of living in the bustling city to be part of its cultural scene, and because he saw the city’s response to the Civil Rights movement yielding a better result than Birmingham’s. Years later, he and his wife, Beverly, moved to the city for its budding film industry and scrappy theatre community. He appeared on the TV show In the Heat of the Night and performed in numerous plays at the Alliance Theatre, while he and his wife raised three children. Key eventually found an artistic home at…

■ American Blues Theater in Chicago has named Andrea Stolowitz the winner of the 2020 Blue Ink Playwriting Award. Stolowitz will receive a $1,250 cash prize and a staged reading of her winning play, Recent Unsettling Events, as part of the Blue Ink Playwriting Festival. Finalists, who will also have their work featured during the festival, are Football Football Football Football (or I Love Lave Dash) by Kristoffer Diaz, The Mermaids’ Parade by Gina Femia, and Crying on Television by R. Eric Thomas. ■ The United States Institute for Theatre Technology has announced their 2020 award winners. Alexandra Bonds will receive the Oscar G. Brockett Golden Pen Award for her book Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture. Caitlyn Garrity will receive the Herbert D. Greggs…

AYANNA BERKSHIRE Profession: Actor Hometown: San Juan Islands, Wash. Current home: Portland, Ore. KNOWN FOR: Berkshire is a resident artist at Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre, where she’s played Esther in Intimate Apparel, Shelley in Grand Concourse, and Robin in the world premiere of Wolf Play, written by Hansol Jung. At Portland Center Stage she played Judy in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Fans of the Twilight films may know her as Cora. WHAT SHE’S WORKING ON: With help from a 2020 TCG Fox Fellowship grant, Berkshire says she wants to make her next season at Artists Rep all about “pushing the boundaries of my work and abilities through acting intensive workshops, both in the states and abroad, and addressing the question of racial identity for theatre…

In Samuel D. Hunter’s Greater Clements, Maggie and Joe, a mother and son who run an Idaho mining museum, face its imminent closure as their small town goes through the process of unincorporating. When an old flame of Maggie’s turns up, her chance for a new start runs head on into punishing compromises and existential questions. Tony Kushner spoke to Hunter about the play last month. TONY KUSHNER: I want to start by talking about Idaho. Your work seems to involve a very strong sense of place. I have sort of an adjacent question, which is whether or not your plays are interconnected. Are they in some ways a cycle? SAM HUNTER: I think so? But in many ways I’m still figuring that out because I’m still building it. When…

on Facebook AT’s April 2020 issue included a special package called Care for Caregivers, featuring stories all about creating work/life balance for parent artists in the theatre. In response to “Theatre or Family: We Shouldn’t Have to Choose,” by Caroline Macon Fleischer, one reader commented: KYLE NUDO: A prime factor in this is the expectation that theatre artists are willing—or should be willing—to work for nothing, or work for sublegal wages, or accept illegal misclassification agreements that replace their status as employees with “independent contractor” or “volunteer” status. When we work for nothing, or next to nothing, life milestones are impossible to attain. Parenthood, home ownership, an MFA, a business—we are asked and expected to sacrifice these things by our employers and our colleagues in exchange for the love of…

* Judith O. Rubin, Council Chair; Playwrights Horizons * Eve Alvord, Seattle Children’s Theatre Ralph Bryan, La Jolla Playhouse James Chosy, Guthrie Theater Bunni Copaken, Kansas City Repertory Theatre Sophie Cripe, South Coast Repertory Brad Edgerton, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Mindy Ellmer, ZACH Theatre Reade Fahs, Alliance Theatre Wendy Gillespie, La Jolla Playhouse Kiki Ramos Gindler, Center Theatre Group Laura Hall, Coterie Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Ruth Hendel, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center Cynthia Huffman, ACT Theatre in Seattle Bruce E.H. Johnson, Seattle Repertory Theatre Carole Krumland, Roundabout Theatre Company Myla Lerner, Lean Ensemble Theater Gail Lopes, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Lynelle Lynch, La Jolla Playhouse Jennifer Melin Miller, Guthrie Theater Ruby H. Melton, Long Wharf Theatre Julie Morris, PlayMakers Repertory Company * Eleanor Nolan, Seattle Children’s Theatre Heather Randall, New York Theatre…