the week of april 11-15, 2022
A-B-C: always be caring less about David Mamet
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in-person theatre
The world premiere of Frank Galati, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens’ Knoxville is now playing at Asolo Rep. The new musical is based on James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Death in the Family and is directed by Galati.
The Merchant of Venice is now playing at Shakespeare Theatre Company through April 24th. Directed by Arin Arbus and co-produced with Theatre for a New Audience, the production stars John Douglas Thompson as Shylock.
Gethsemane Herron-Coward’s Kin runs April 21-23 at WP Theater as part of the 2022 Pipeline Festival. Chika Ike directs the first installment of a three-part work investigating “the ripple effects of sexual trauma, memory, and the temporality of violence.”
Eliana Pipes’ DREAM HOU$E starts performances April 21st at Baltimore Center Stage. The Kendeda Award-winning play about two Latina sisters on an HGTV-style reality show grappling with the cultural cost of progress is directed by Laurie Woolery and is a co-world premiere with Alliance Theatre and Long Wharf.
The Providence-based neurodiverse theatre company Spectrum Theatre Ensemble’s spring community tour begins April 22nd. The company will present two world premieres in rep: Dave Osmundsen’s Light Switch (directed by Allen MacLeod) and Jeremy J. Kamps’ The Importance of Being (A Play in Earnest) (directed by Clay Martin).
Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower plays April 21-24 at ArtsEmerson in Boston. Based on the classic sci-fi novel, “Parable of the Sower is a genre-defying, modern congregational opera that celebrates two centuries of Black music…fusing African-American spiritualism, deep insights into gender and race, and climate activism into a new musical experience that thrills and inspires.”
digital theatre
Ibsen’s Ghosts is now available to stream from Seattle Rep. Directed by Carey Perloff, the new Paul Walsh translation of Ibsen’s 1881 classic stars David Strathairn and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
2022-23 season updates
Shakespeare Theatre Company announced its 2022-23 season. The DC theatre’s line-up includes Mary Zimmerman’s The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci; Much Ado About Nothing (directed by Simon Godwin); King Lear (starring Patrick Page); Saheem Ali, Michael Thurber, and Jocelyn Bioh’s musical Goddess; and The Jungle, presented in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. (I saw The Jungle at St. Ann’s and it was one of the most devastating, riveting theatrical experiences of my life and I’m very excited to yell at everyone in DC to buy tickets.)
The Huntington announced its 2022-23 season. The Boston company’s line-up includes August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (directed by Lili-Anne Brown); Mike Lew, Rehana Lew Mirza, and Sam Willmott’s Bhangin' It: A Bhangin' New Musical (directed by Stafford Arima); Lynn Nottage's Clyde's; and three world premieres: Kate Snodgrass’ The Art of Burning (directed by Melia Bensussen), Lenelle Moïse's K-I-S-S-I-N-G (directed by Dawn M. Simmons), and Taylor Mac’s Joy and Pandemic (directed by new artistic director Loretta Greco).
The Alliance announced its 2022-23 season. The Atlanta theatre will present Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King (directed by Hall), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody, Steven Dietz's Lonely Planet (directed by Susan V. Booth), and four world premieres: Kendeda winner Stephen Brown's The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd; Idris Goodwin, Eugene H. Russell IV, Divinity Roxx’s Jimi Hendrix biomusical The Boy Who Kissed the Sky; Rick Elice and PigPen Theatre Co.’s musical adaptation of Water for Elephants (directed by Jessica Stone); and Madhuri Shekar, Christian Magby, Christian Albright’s musical adaptation of The Incredible Book Eating Boy (directed by Jamil Jude)
The Geffen Playhouse announced its 2022-23 season. The season includes Matthew López's The Inheritance (directed by Mike Donahue), Lee Edward Colston II’s The First Deep Breath (directed by Steve H. Broadnax III), Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop (directed by Patricia McGregor), and three world premieres: Ramiz Monsef’s The Ants (directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh), Vinny DePonto and Josh Koenigsberg’s Mindplay (directed by Andrew Neisler), and Zoe Sarnak and Rachel Bonds’ new musical The Lonely Few (directed by Tyne Rafaeli and produced in association with Fourth Wall Theatrical).
TheatreSquared in Arkansas announced its 2022-23 season. The line-up includes the world premiere of Joe Kinoisian and Kellen Blair’s It Came from Outer Space (co-pro with Chicago Shakes), Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ‘67, Qui Nguyen’s Poor Yella Rednecks, Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City, Douglas Lyons’ Chicken and Biscuits, Marie Jones’ Stones in His Pockets, Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori’s musical Violet, and the 2023 Arkansas New Play Festival.
American Shakespeare Center announced its summer 2022 season. The theatre will present Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing (directed by Stephanie Holladay Earl); Twelfth Night (directed by Jenny Bennett); L M Feldman’s Thrive, Or What You Will (directed by Larissa Lury); and Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over (directed by Christopher Burris).
Dobama Theatre in Cleveland announced its 2022-23 season. The season includes Lucas Hnath’s The Thin Place (directed by Colin Anderson), Zora Howard’s Stew (directed by Nina Domingue), Sharr White’s The Other Place (directed by Nathan Motta), B.J. Tindal’s What We Look Like (directed by Darius Stubbs), and the world premiere of George Brant and Nathan Motta’s musical The Land of Oz (directed by Motta).
Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt is coming to Broadway. Patrick Marber directs the decades-spanning, Vienna-set family drama, which premiered on the West End in 2020.
award season
Benedict Lombe’s Lava won the 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It is the first debut play the win the $25,000 award.
The Guggenheim Foundation announced the 2022 Drama & Performance Art fellows. This year’s recipients are César Alvarez, Jibz Cameron, Jen Silverman, and Michael Gene Sullivan.
The American Theatre Critics Association announced its 2022 awards. Chiara Atik’s Poor Clare received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and Makasha Copeland’s Extreme Home Makeover won the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award. David Templeton’s Galatea and Erlina Ortiz’s Young Money both received Steinberg/ATCA citations.
the regional theatre game of thrones
Jill Rafson is the new producing artistic director of Classic Stage Company. Rafson was most recently the associate artistic director of Roundabout Theatre Company, where she has served in various roles since 2005. (As always: Dramaturgs becoming artistic directors — we love to see it.)
things I read this week besides katie kitamura’s intimacies
Lauren Wingenroth’s profile of choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, who is about to make his Broadway debut with A Strange Loop (American Theatre)
Rob Weinert-Kendt’s profile of director Lileana Blain-Cruz, who is about to make her Broadway debut with The Skin of Our Teeth (The New York Times)
Marc Tracy’s NYT recap of David Mamet’s latest spewing of homophobic, transphobic garbage — i.e. going on Fox News to comment on Florida’s shameful “Don’t Say Gay” bill and saying that “teachers are inclined — particularly men, because men are predators — to pedophilia.” I refuse to spend another second of my one wild and precious life thinking about this man! Enjoy your right-wing brainworms, sir!
assorted news
A.R.T./NY updated its membership structure. Individuals are now eligible to join and don’t need to live in New York — members just need to “have ties to the New York theatre community in some capacity.” Benefits include subsidized studio space, workshops and roundtables, grant applications, and access to all programming.
No “That’s Not A Living Wage” this week so I’m going to leave you with the best feedback I got from last week’s edition, courtesy of esteemed former Pennsylvania resident and OG Nothing for the Group subscriber Adrian Rooney:
As often, I agree with Rooney