the week of february 28 - march 6, 2025

water signs, chimpanzees, passion jobs

Feb 28, 2025

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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim

Thank you to Lindsey and Bobby at Who? Weekly, my favorite podcast, for recommending this newsletter and John Proctor is the Villain on Sunday’s episode.

During the episode, they both acknowledged that they didn’t know the meaning of ‘nothing for the group’. (This is a frequently asked question!) Two years ago, I explained every theatre artist and technician’s four favorite words in a Bills, Bills, Bills footnote:

There are many non-theater professionals who subscribe to this newsletter (much to my surprise and delight!) who don’t know the inside-baseball context for its title. After a tech rehearsal or preview performance, every department (scenic, costumes, lighting, props, me, etc.) gathers for a production meeting with the director and production manager to collectively discuss any notes/issues/work for the next day. “Nothing for the group” is an oft-repeated (and golden) phrase to hear from your colleagues during these meetings.

This definition now lives on Nothing for the Group’s revamped About & FAQ page, which answers other common inquiries like “Are you a journalist?” (No.) I’ve also been fielding lots of emails lately about submission guidelines (e.g. “why didn’t you list the thing I sent you”), so I’ve updated them.

world premieres

Lauren M. Gunderson’s A Room in the Castle starts performances March 4th at The Folger Theatre in Washington, DC in a co-pro with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Focusing on the women of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Kaja Dunn directs the “universal thriller that explores how we help one another through harrowing times, what mothering a potential madman means, and what responsibilities generations have to each other.”
Michael Walek’s HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? runs March 5-30 at Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC. Linsay Firman directs the comic dramatization of twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall's first expedition to study chimpanzees in Tanzania, accompanied by a government-mandated chaperone. (Her mother.)
Drops in the Vase’s production of Kayla Eisenberg's Lilith in Pisces starts performances March 5th at The Flea in NYC. The new work about “two women discovering that a shared history and astrological sign might beget a bond they never knew they needed” is directed by Stephanie Cox-Connolly.
Lauren Yee’s Mother Russia runs March 6 - April 6 at Seattle Rep. Set after the fall of the Soviet Union, Nicholas C. Avila directs the “quirky and provocative comedy about what happens when old systems and strongmen fall away, and we let the free market decide—but freedom doesn’t taste as good as we thought it would.”

productions

Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter’s Nobody Loves You starts performances February 28th at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. The “madcap musical comedy about a wildly popular reality dating show in which eager contestants compete for love (and social media stardom)” is directed by Pam Mackinnon and choreographed by Steph Paul.
Darling Squire’s Theytriarch runs February 28 & March 1 as part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut performance series in Chicago. The part community ritual and sermon is a “historical fiction that explores the lives of queer people and their various roles in society over the centuries.”
Karen Zacarías’ adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence starts performances February 28th at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. The Gilded Age drama that “unveils a searing critique of high society's suffocating norms and presents a riveting tale of forbidden desires” is directed by Hana S. Sharif.
Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play runs February 28 - March 16 at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, AK. Frank Henry Kaash Katasse directs “the wacky story of wokeness centered on four well-meaning but culturally insensitive white theater artists attempting to create a politically correct elementary school play about the first Thanksgiving.”
Madhuri Shekar, Christian Magby, and Christian Albright’s The Incredible Book Eating Boy starts performances February 28th at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, CA. The musical adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ award-winning picture book about the joys of reading is directed by H. Adam Harris.
Lucy Prebble’s The Effect runs March 1-30 at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. Alison Ruth directs the razor-sharp dramedy about an “illicit romance during a clinical trial and the medicalization of depression for profit by the pharmaceutical industry.”
Sanaz Toossi’s English starts performances March 1st at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. The Pulitzer-winning drama set in a Tehran classroom as “four Iranian adults gather to learn English with the hopes of passing the TOEFL” is directed by Kimberly Senior.
The Primary Stages production of Chisa Hutchinson’s Amerikin runs March 1 - April 13 at 595E59 in New York. Jade King Carroll directs the “bitterly funny and deeply compassionate” drama about a young father’s thwarted attempt to join a local white supremacist group after some surprising ancestry test results.
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starts performances March 2nd at Portland Center Stage in Oregon. The dark comedy about “two couples learning that marriage isn’t all fun and games” is directed by Marissa Wolf.
The Goat Exchange’s Deadclass, Ohio runs March 4 - 23 at The Tank in NYC. Chloe Claudel and Mitchell Polonsky co-direct a “seance for the living and a love song for the dead assembled from original text (by Eliya Smith), recycled memories, family secrets, old photos, live violin score, and verbatim fragments of rediscovered memoirs and voicemails.”
Alison Carey’s modern verse translation of Twelfth Night starts performances March 5th at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR in a co-pro with NAATCO and Play On Shakespeare. Aneesha Kudtarkar directs the “timeless comedy where mistaken identities, passionate pursuits, and comedic chaos collide.”
Samuel D. Hunter’s A Case for the Existence of God runs March 5-22 at Boise Contemporary Theater. The intimate drama about the unlikely bond between “two men over the chokehold of financial insecurity and the precariousness of parenthood” is directed by Benjamin Burdick.

readings

Justice Hehir’s True Believer will have an EST Youngblood workshop reading on February 28th at Open Jar Studios in NYC. Joan Sergay directs.
The Playwrights Realm’s 2024-25 Native American Artist Lab will host readings on March 5 & 6. This year’s projects are Kira Apaachuaq Eckenweiler’s The Bird Blind (directed by Julia Rosa Sosa Chaparro) and Chris Hoshnic’s In The Badlands
(directed by Taylor Reynolds).

festivals

The Colorado New Play Summit runs March 1 & 2 at The Denver Center. This year’s featured readings are jose sebastian alberdi’s bogfriends, David Myers’ How to Conquer America: A Mostly True History of Yogurt, Carey Perloff’s If God Were Blue, and Bianca Sams’ Rust on Bone. The festival also includes the currently running world premiere productions of Jake Brasch’s The Reservoir (directed by Shelley Butler) and Sandy Rustin’s The Suffragette’s Murder (directed by Margot Bordelon).

2025-26 season updates

Round House Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Bethesda, MD theatre’s line-up includes Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance (directed by Tom Story), Sam Holcroft’s Rules for Living (directed by Ryan Rilette), Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom (directed by Timothy Douglas), and the world premiere of Aaron Posner & Dendy’s Nothing Up My Sleeve…Deceptions for Curious Humans.
TheatreSquared announced its 2025-26 season. The Fayetteville, AR theatre will produce Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers (directed by Rick Sordelet), Robert Ford’s adaptation of It’s A Wonderful Life (directed by Damon Kiely), Karen Zacarías’ The Book Club Play (directed by Rebecca Rivas), Lindsay Joelle’s The Garbologists (directed by Rebecca Rivas), the annual Arkansas New Play Festival, and three world premieres: Robert Ford and Amy Herzberg’s new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (directed by Herzberg), Jonathan Norton’s Malcolm X and Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem (directed by Dexter J. Singleton), and Sarah Gancher’s Eugene Onegin—A Bluegrass Musical (directed by Rachel Chavkin).
New York Theatre Workshop announced the first show in its 2025-26 season. The Off Broadway company will premiere Saturday Church, which features a book by Damon Cardasis & James Ijames, music from Sia & Honey Dijon, and choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie. Whitney White will direct the new musical “capturing the exhilaration of the ballroom scene and the profound power of faith.”
South Coast Rep announced the 2025 Pacific Playwrights Festival. The line-up is anchored by two world premiere productions — Keiko Green’s You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! (directed by Zi Alikhan) and Noa Gardner’s The Staircase (directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch) — and includes five staged readings: jose sebastian alberdi’s rachel, nevada (directed by Laura Dupper); JuCoby Johnson’s The Red Man (directed by H. Adam Harris); Talene Monahon’s Eat Me (directed by Josiah Davis); Kate Cortesi’s Ten Grand (directed by Rebecca Wear); and Jake Brasch’s Trip Around the Sun (directed by Shelley Butler).

the regional theatre game of thrones

Miriam Weisfeld is the new producing artistic director of Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, NY. She succeeds Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill, who is stepping down after 30 years. Weisfeld will also maintain her role as producing artistic director of the Adirondack Theatre Festival in Glen Falls, NY.

One person simultaneously holding leadership positions at two different organizations is a growing trend; other recent examples include Melia Bensussen (artistic director of Hartford Stage and The O’Neill Playwrights Conference) and Ken-Matt Martin (producing director at Baltimore Center Stage and Arkansas Rep).
James Bundy is retiring as Artistic Director of Yale Rep and Dean of the David Geffen School of Drama. Bundy, who has led the theatre and school since 2002, will step down in June 2026.
Joshua Kahan Brody and Garlia Cornelia Jones are the new artistic leaders of Playing on Air. Brody will serve as Artistic Director, while Jones will be the Associate Artistic Director & Creative Producer of the organization, which produces new and commissioned short audio plays.

welcome to the kennedy center kakistocracy

The new president of the Kennedy Center, Richard Grenell, started talking to the press this week and it will not surprise you that a man who has never run an arts non-profit has no idea how earned revenue works:

“The Kennedy Center has zero cash on hand and zero dollars in reserves - while taking tens of millions of dollars in public funds. We must have programs that sell tickets. We can’t afford to pay for content that doesn’t at least pay for itself right now. I wish we didn’t have to consider the costs of production, but we do. The good news is that there are plenty of shows that are very popular, and therefore the ticket sales will pay for themselves.”

An anonymous staff member told The Guardian’s David Smith that Grenell’s characterization of the Center’s finances is “an absolute fabrication” and “a manufactured crisis”.

Here’s your regular reminder that the Kennedy Center’s public funding comprises only 16% of the Center’s $268 million budget and that money is specifically designated to cover the site’s maintenance costs as a living memorial for JFK. It does not fund artistic programming; Grenell is manipulating information to justify turning a non-profit performing arts organization into a propaganda factory.

Earned revenue currently makes up 45% of the Kennedy Center’s annual budget. (Pre-2020, ticket sales and other income accounted for approximately one-half; philanthrophic contributions and aforementioned federal funds constituted the remainder.)

If you’re a devoted reader of Nothing for the Group, you know that arts organizations of all sizes are still recovering from the pandemic. Per SMU DataArts’ 2024 National Financial and Operating Trends Report, cultural institutions’ earned revenue rates are increasing, but they “have not caught up to inflation or fully rebounded in terms of the percentage of organizational expenses they cover.” But even in a robust economy, expecting ticket income alone to fully cover production and operating costs is absolutely demented.

When he wasn’t failing Non-Profits 101 and willfully misconstruing financial data, Grenell also addressed his hiring:

Asked why Mr. Trump chose him for the job, Mr. Grenell described himself as a culture aficionado who appreciates “a whole bunch of different styles of art.”

According to this metric, I, a person who appreciates breathing clean air, should be leading the EPA.

what i read this week

Anne Helen Petersen on the devaluation of public infrastructure and “the twilight of the American passion job” (Culture Study):

These jobs never had to be “passion” jobs. They become passion jobs through the belief that your passion, alone, should sustain you — and that doing something that inspires you and enlivens you and serves the public good somehow requires sacrificing a living wage and stability. I don’t hate this type of work; I hate how we’ve normalized a blood sacrifice to pursue this type of work.
So why have so many federal jobs remained tenable when journalism and the vast majority of the arts have not? Public funding and unions. Get rid of the public funding, defang the unions, and these jobs become the new journalism and career non-profit work: available only to a select few who can shoulder the costs, which means they’re usually privileged, usually partnered, and equipped with private personal safety nets.
When that sort of change occurs across an industry, you don’t just change who can do the work, but the character of the work itself. And when a civilization is limited to work that produces profit, we don’t just lose the artistry and texture of everyday life. We distance ourselves from the values of care and generosity — and the simple but profound belief that what happens to one of us affects all of us. We become further atomized, cruel, and careless with others, incapable of planning any further than our own lifetimes. We fall out of love with the world.

Nothing for the Group