Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2025 i American Theatre

One reason people turn to religion, it is often thought, is for comfort in tough times. There’s certainly ample truth in that, as many who have lived through grief or recovery can attest. That’s not primarily why I personally attend church and maintain a connection to organized religion, despite—or perhaps because of—regular fluctuations in the status of my faith. The attraction for me is the chance to regularly contemplate, even be challenged by, the most fundamental questions we all face about the purpose and meaning of our lives. Who are we and why are we here? What do we owe each other? Whence does true value derive? The last five years have confronted us daily with existential questions, both in our theatrical corner of the world and in the wider…

Emotions are running high backstage at an off-brand bilingual tour of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic Oklahoma! In Christin Eve Cato’s wild, frank new play O.K.! (at New York City’s INTAR Theatre May 10-June 8), Melinda, an actor, finds out she’s pregnant and has doubts about going through with it. Her castmates—young, salty Elena and soulful, jaded Jolie—have plenty of opinions to share, as do a few supernatural visitors. The stakes-raising catch: This production of Oklahoma! is on a tour stop in its title state, which has just enacted the nation’s strictest abortion ban. In the summer of 2022, the Dobbs decision struck down Roe v. Wade, but Oklahoma lawmakers had actually beaten it to the punch, fully outlawing abortion in the state a month before. As Cato recalled, “I’m…

“It came out in a torrent,” Emily Kaczmarek said of the 2018 first draft of her play Soft Target. “Sometimes plays feel like that to me—sort of like a primal scream I just had to get out.” Early in 2018, the U.S. was rocked by the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, during what would become, at the time, the worst year for school shootings in the country. An educator herself, Kaczmarek recalled struggling to stomach the news, haunted by what the shooting’s survivors were going through. She knew she needed to write about it but was wary of creating something that came across as preachy or as fodder for an after-school special. Instead she created Soft Target, now set for its world premiere at Detroit Public Theatre (April 30-June…

WHAT’S THE ELEVATOR PITCH FOR HYMN? It’s about two Black men who meet at a funeral and realize they have more in common than they ever imagined. They get to know each other and fall in love—familial, platonic love—and then tragedy strikes. THE PLAY DEBUTED IN LONDON IN 2021. HOW MUCH HAS IT CHANGED FOR CHICAGO? The basic story is the same, but there is much more changed than I imagined. I spent a week in Chicago, where CST set me up with a middle-aged Black community in Chicago. I met people, I went to church, to museums; I walked certain neighborhoods and looked at housing and parks. It transposed really well to that city. DID YOU NOTICE ANY WAYS THAT RACE IS LIVED AND PERCEIVED DIFFERENTLY IN EACH CULTURE?…

We can’t always claim that articles in American Theatredirectly make change in the field we cover. But in August 2022, after reading and discussing an AT op-ed by Michael J. Bobbitt titled “Boards Are Broken, So Let’s Break and Remake Them,” the entire board of directors at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in Seattle announced that they would resign (with the exception of three leadership positions required by law). John Langs, who was ACT’s artistic director at the time, said that the board’s decision was the result of months of “deliberation and difficult conversations.” They discussed two key elements from Bobbitt’s article: that most boards no longer represent the communities they serve, and that most had not resolved the tension between creative vision and fiduciary responsibility. Bobbitt’s article came on the…

ALASKA CYRANO’S THEATRE COMPANY, ANCHORAGE Dial M for Murder, Frederick Knott, adapt. by Jeffrey Hatcher; dir.: Gregg Brevoort, May 9-Jun 1 Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare; dir.: J. David Dahl, Aug 15-Sep 7 Outside Mullingar, John Patrick Shanley; dir.: Michael Hood, Oct 3-26 ARIZONA ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY, TEMPE & TUCSON Bob & Jean: A Love Story, Robert Schenkkan; dir.: Matt August, Mar 23-Apr 12 (Tucson), Apr 19-May 4 (Tempe) Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B, Kate Hamill; dir.: Marcia Milgrom Dodge, May 18-Jun 7 (Tucson), Jun 14-29 (Tempe) THE INVISIBLE THEATRE, TUCSON The Garbologists, Lindsay Joelle; dir.: Betsy Kruse Craig, Apr 22-May 4 Going It Alone, various playwrights; dir.: Betsy Kruse Craig, May 28-Jun 8 Hopscotch to Infinity, Alejandro Canelos; dir.: Betsy Kruse Craig, May 28-Jun 8 ARKANSAS…

NETWORKING AND KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING TCG’s Research programs include long-standing studies such as the Salary Survey and Fiscal Survey, as well as responsive snapshot surveys. The National Conference is a biennial gathering of theatre professionals to forge connections, address field-wide issues, and celebrate the theatre of the host community. Theatre for Activism is a series of gatherings to strengthen care, share practices, and forge connections between activists and theatre practitioners. GRANTMAKING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS THRIVE! Uplifting Theatres of Color provides unrestricted funds for those who have all too often been outside the grantmaking sector’s funding opportunities: Black theatres, Indigenous theatres and Theatres of Color which are closely connected to and have positive impact on their chosen communities. The Rising Leaders of Color Program forms cohorts of exceptionally talented early-career leaders of…

The world as we know it is shifting dramatically, like the movement of a river carving a new path through the landscape. The tendency is to long for the days of the past, and certainly, there are practices from our history that remain valuable and should be upheld. However, nostalgia can be a double-edged sword. What one individual remembers as a golden age, another may recall as a time of discrimination, inequity, and silencing. What do we do in these ever-changing times? We hold tightly to the values that center our humanity, honor our shared experiences, and heighten our care for one another. As our foundation shifts, we should consider seeking out the stories that help us make sense of these transformations—narratives that remind us of our shared humanity and…

Sarah Clare Corporandy’s chest clenched with anxiety as thefirst lockdown orders were issued in her home state of Michigan in March 2020. As a co-founder of Detroit Public Theatre, she wondered how her fledgling theatrical troupe would survive past its fifth birthday without the support of conventional in-person audiences. As the pandemic dragged on, Corporandy and her team poured their passion and artistic devotion into renovating their own theatrical space, a bold stewardship strategy in a shuttered industry. The gamble to invest heavily in their brick-and-mortar venue more than paid off, Corporandy said. By the start of the 2022-23 season, when the majority of lockdown orders had ended and vaccination rates were climbing, DPT unveiled their new home in downtown Detroit, giving audiences an extra incentive to return. It doesn’t…

K-I-S-S-I-N-G follows a young painter, Lala, in her relationships with Dani, a romantic aesthete, and his brother Albert, a passionate dancer, and with her parents, Jack and Dot. Playwright Lenelle Moïse talked with actor April Matthis (Toni Stone, Primary Trust) about the play’s inspirations and resonances. APRIL: I read this play for the Blackburn Prize, and just fell in love with these characters. Then I watched the production at the Huntington and fell in love all over again. It feels like what you wrote on the page got translated. It’s hard for all kinds of reasons for playwrights to get the thing that they imagined onto the stage. But when I saw the art, the drawings but also the references to Klimt, the Orientalists, Jean-Léon Gérôme—and is Magritte in there?—I was…

Calendar year 2020 will be remembered in history books forthe death and disruption wrought by the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. But perhaps that year’s most lasting cultural impact stems from the terrible moment when the world watched a police officer in Minneapolis, unimpeded by fellow cops, kneel on the neck of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd for eight minutes and 46 seconds, killing him. It was an incident that capped seven years of similar killings of unarmed Black people all over the U.S., which spawned the powerful Black Lives Matter movement. Being stuck at home with plenty of time to look inward, people around the world examined how and why our society continues to create fertile conditions for deadly prejudice to thrive. Many industries saw new diversity statements and…