the week of april 3 - 8, 2022
it was colonel mustard in houston & syracuse with the lead pipe
You’re reading Nothing for the Group, a newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes. If you like this sort of thing:
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in-person theatre
Tim J. Lord’s “We declare you a terrorist…” is now playing at Round House Theatre. The world premiere political thriller, directed by Ryan Rilette and Jared Mezzocchi, is one of the anchors of the inaugural National Capital New Play Festival.
The 2022 Pacific Playwrights Festival runs April 8 - 10 at South Coast Rep. This year's festival features five staged readings — Spenser Davis’ A Million Tiny Pieces (directed by David Ivers), Naomi Lorrain’s How to Roll a Blunt (directed by Colette Robert), Katie Do’s Love You Long Time (Already) (directed by Mei Ann Teo), Eliana Pipes’ Bite Me (directed by Jennifer Chang), and Michael Shayan’s Avaaz (directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel) — and a fully staged world premiere production of Christine Quintana’s Clean/Espejos (directed by Lisa Portes).
The world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Our Daughters, Like Pillars is now playing at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. Kimberly Senior directs the “epic and funny saga about a contemporary Black family and the joys and tensions of sisterhood.”
Carolyn Ratteray’s Both And (a play about laughing while black) starts performances April 7th at Boston Court Pasadena. The world premiere solo performance investigates the nucleus of Black joy through clowning and poetic text and is directed by Andi Chapman.
Lauren Gunderson, Bree Lowdermilk, and Kait Kerrigan’s new musical Justice runs April 9 - 30 at Arizona Theatre Company. The intimate, epic three-person musical charting the unique relationship between Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is directed by Melissa Crespo.
Diana Oh’s The Gift Project plays April 9 - 10 at Symphony Space. The concert — created, composed, & co-directed by Oh, with Nicholas Cotz — emerged from Oh’s interviews with Elders of Marginalized Experience or Identity.
The world premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s A Case for the Existence of God starts previews April 12th at Signature Theatre in New York. David Cromer directs the “thoughtful meditation on human resilience” set in southern Idaho.
Dmitry Krymov’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard starts performances April 12th at the Wilma. The Russian director collaborated with the Wilma’s HotHouse Acting Company to reimagine one of Chekhov’s masterworks.
Mona Mansour’s Unseen and Once on this Island kick off Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2022 season. Evren Odcikin directs Mansour’s “riveting portrait of a conflict photographer facing colliding personal and political crises”, while Lili-Anne Brown helms the acclaimed Caribbean-set Ahrens and Flaherty musical.
Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here runs April 13 - May 22 at Playwrights Horizons. Gaye Taylor Upchurch directs the 1978-set world premiere chronicling a tight-knit group of friends in an Iranian suburb over a decade of war.
Travis Alabanza’s BURGERZ plays April 13 - 24 at ArtsEmerson in Boston. The solo performance explores “how trans bodies survive and how—by reclaiming an act of violence—we can all address our own complicity.”
Ana Nogueira’s Which Way to the Stage starts previews April 14th at MCC Theatre. Mike Donahue directs the world premiere, set outside the stage door of If/Then, about a conversation between two long-time friends that forever alters their relationship.
Daaimah Mubashshir’s Room Enough (For All of Us) runs April 14 -16 at WP Theater as part of the 2022 Pipeline Festival. Katherine Wilkinson directs the “insightful journey into the struggle of one contemporary African-American Muslim family to come together, despite everything trying to tear them apart.”
digital theatre
Ukraine’s ProEnglish Theatre will livestream The Book of Sirens on April 9th. Alex Borovenskiy directs the piece, which will stream from the theatre that turned into a bomb shelter at the beginning of the invasion.
An archive recording of Dante or Die’s live 1:1 performance installation Skin Hunger is now available to stream. The site-specific theatre’s work is comprised of three monologues by Ann Akinjirin, Tim Crouch and Sonia Hughes that “explored the fundamental role that touch plays in our lives, with refreshing humor and insight.”
Jasmine Lee-Jones’ seven methods of killing kylie jenner is streaming until April 17th. Milli Bhatia directs the Royal Court production, which explores “cultural appropriation, queerness, friendship, and the ownership of black bodies online and IRL.”
The Mosaic Theater production of Mona Pirnot’s Private is now available on demand through April 17. Knud Adams directs the not-so-distant future drama about a young married couple under employer-mandated surveillance.
Darkfield Radio’s Knot: A Trilogy is now available for download. The three-part immersive audio experience asks audiences to situate themselves in different locations — a park bench, in a car, and a room of their home — to experience intersecting, interwoven episodes revolving around a traumatic event.
the regional theatre game of thrones
Producing artistic director Michael Donald Edwards and managing director Linda DiGabriele are jointly stepping down from Asolo Rep in Sarasota. Edwards has led the company for 18 years, while DiGabrielle is retiring after serving in various roles for a total of 50 years.
Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj has stepped down as producing artistic director of American Stage in St. Petersburg after just six months. The theatre announced he was departing for “personal reasons, effective immediately.”
2022-23 season updates
The Alley Theatre announced its 2022-23 season. The line-up includes Edward Albee’s Seascape (directed by Nathan Winkelstein), Sandy Rustin’s adaptation of Clue (directed by Brandon Weinbrenner), Derek Walcott's adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey (directed by Christopher Windom), Katie Forgette’s Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily (directed by Brandon Weinbrenner), Rob Melrose’s translation and adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters, and three world premieres: Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me A Soprano (directed by Eleanor Holdridge); Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips, and Annie Tippe’s musical Cowboy Bob (directed by Tippe); and Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s Torera (directed by Tatiana Pandiani).
Playwrights Realm announced the 2022 INK’D Festival of New Plays line-up. Readings include Audley Puglisi’s the salt women (directed by abigail jean-baptiste), Will Brumley’s Pulling Leather: A Queer Rodeo Fantasia (directed by Carlos Armesto), Emma Horwitz’s MARY GETS HERS (directed by Josiah Davis), and Jeesun Choi’s Lost Coast (directed by Nana Dakin).
Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit announced its upcoming four-play season. Projects include Candrice Jones’ Flex (co-world premiere with TheatreSquared), Sean Daniels’ The White Chip (co-pro with Dad’s Garage), Nia Vardalos and Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things, and Stephen Karam’s The Humans.
Syracuse Stage announced its 2022-23 season. The line-up includes Our Town (directed by Robert Hupp), Sandy Rustin’s adaptation of Clue (directed by Ben Hanna), Christine Quintana’s Clean/Espejos (directed by Melissa Crespo), Disney’s The Little Mermaid (directed by Melissa Rain Anderson), and two world premieres: Kyle Bass’ Tender Rain (directed by Rodney Hudson) and Rebekah Greer Melocik and Jacob Yandura’s musical How to Dance in Ohio (directed by Sammi Cannold).
Playwrights Horizons announced its 2022-23 season. The season includes Mia Chung's Catch as Catch Can (directed by Daniel Aukin); Bruce Norris' Downstate (directed by Pam MacKinnon); and three world premieres: Agnes Borinsky's The Trees (directed by Tina Satter); Julia Izumi's Regretfully, So the Birds Are (directed by Jenny Koons); and John J. Caswell, Jr.'s Wet Brain.
things I read this week when I wasn’t watching pachinko
Soyica Diggs Colbert on the historical and cultural context of the 1976 Broadway production of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls... (h/t Brian Eugenio Herrera's #TheatreClique newsletter)
Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s short play A Step-by-Step Guide for Calling Your Ex-Husband to Let Him Know That a Notice for Jury Duty Came for Him in the Mail in Playwrights Horizons’ literary magazine Almanac
This profile of Oscar Isaac in Esquire, where he talks about how his dream project is Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. (Anne Kauffman directed a well-received revival at the Goodman in 2016 and I’ve been obsessed with why it hasn’t been done since. I’d much rather see movie stars harness their clout to remount underproduced works like Sidney Brustein instead of headlining American Buffalo.)
I am currently on a much-needed Twitter break, which is my preferred platform for bullying people into consuming whatever media I’m obsessed with at the moment, so I’m using this space to tell you to watch Pachinko on AppleTV+. (There are three playwrights on the writing staff — Lauren Yee, Hansol Jung, and Mfoniso Udonia — so it is relevant to our interests!) There is nothing I love more than a sprawling, intergenerational saga with multiple timelines and Big Themes (love! sacrifice! identity! ambition!), but Pachinko also illuminates a historical era — the early 20th-century Japanese annexation and occupation of Korea — that I was woefully ignorant about until I read the book in 2017. (I also can’t stop thinking about the series’ opening credits, which are so unexpected and joyous yet perfectly capture the ethos of the story.)
what paid subscribers got this week
I wrote a short meditative missive ruminating on the timing and structure of recent season announcements and the future of pandemic-resonant art — but it’s really an excuse to gush about the recent HBO adaptation of Station Eleven. (Is Gael García Bernal too young to be playing King Lear in that show? Probably, but he’s hotter than a thousand suns so I will allow it.)
Finding time to write additional content beyond these weekly Friday emails — while also working full-time and balancing small freelance assignments that let me collaborate with other people so my interpersonal skills don’t completely erode — is an ongoing challenge. (I deeply wish my brain worked before 7 AM or after 6 PM, but the only things I can handle at those times are sleep, the Monday NYT crosswords, and Law and Order: SVU reruns. Real mid-30s shit.) Anyway, if you’re a paid subscriber: thank you for helping to sustain this project.
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area and the most recently available 990 data. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Lighting Supervisor, People’s Light: $40,000
Living Wage for Chester County, PA: $45,709
Expenses (2019): $10.7 million / Executive Compensation: $165,094 (CEO/Artistic Director)
Digital Media Manager, Olney Theatre Center: “Low 40s”
Living Wage for Montgomery County, MD: $53,074
Expenses (2020): $6.7 million / Executive Compensation: $139,053 (Artistic Director) / $137,681 (Managing Director)
Thank you for sharing the ProEnglish Theatre's livestream of The Book of Sirens - I was able to watch it as it aired and it was powerful.