the week of august 16-22, 2024

black magic, kleptomania, the age of AOL

Lauren Halvorsen

Aug 16, 2024

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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim

save the date

On September 23rd, I’m moderating Spotlight on DC's Stages: Exploring the New Theater Season at The Smithsonian Ripley Center as part of Theatre Washington’s DC Theatre Week. (The full line-up of Theater Week events was announced earlier this week.)

I’ll be chatting with DC-area critics about the local arts landscape and previewing the wide array of theatre happening around town. (If you can’t make it, I’ll be writing a round-up of my personal highlights again.)

Everyone knows how I feel about public speaking (hard pass 99% of the time) but last year’s conversation was sincerely fun — and not just because The Smithsonian solicits audience questions on index cards, which is 1) civilized and 2) makes me feel like Andy Cohen at a Vanderpump reunion.

world premieres

Douglas Lyons’ Table 17 is now running through September 22nd at MCC Theater in NYC. The “hilarious and sweet open letter to love found, lost, and possibly reignited” is directed by Zhailon Levingston.

productions

Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Dial M for Murder starts performances August 17th at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Tatiana Pandiani directs the “iconic, plot-twisting thriller about suspicion, deception and murder.”
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun runs August 21 - September 15 at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR. The “timeless masterpiece delving into the divergent dreams and conflicts within the Younger family across three generations” is directed by Dexter J. Singleton.
Naomi Iizuka’s new version of Richard II starts performances August 21st at Magic Theatre in San Francisco in a co-pro with Play On Shakespeare. Dr. Karina Gutiérrez directs the “examination of the destructive powers of privilege.”
Doménica Feraud’s Someone Spectacular is now playing through September 7th at The Signature Center in NYC. The skewering of group therapy and “open-ended meditation on loss” is directed by Tatiana Pandiani.

readings

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's Sauce will have a free reading on August 17th at St. Thomas’ Parish from DC’s Solas Nua. The Irish dark comedy about a “compulsive liar and a kleptomaniac, both recently out of controlling relationships and thrust into uneasy freedom” is directed by John King.
Jan Rosenberg’s Pluck will have readings August 19 & 20 as part of Shotgun Players’ Champagne Staged Reading Series in Berkeley, CA. Molly Van Der Molen directs the 2003-set work about “gender identity, dysphoria, twins, and monsters in the age of AOL.”

summer festivals

Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play runs August 22 - September 8 at Portland Theater Festival in Portland, ME. Kelly O'Donnell directs the “deft combination of satire, family drama, puppetry, and slapstick humor mining thorny questions ranging from adoption and non-traditional family-rearing to boxing and Darwinian evolution.”
Boise Contemporary Theater’s BIPOC Playwrights Festival runs August 21-25 in Boise, ID. This year’s staged readings include Habib Yazdi’s Ajax (directed by Kareem Fahmy), Kamila Boga’s In Case of Bruising (directed by Steph Paul), Lisa Langford’s Dear God (directed by Stephanie Hickling Beckman), Prince Gomolvilas’ Artificial (directed by Jeff Liu), and Luma Jasim’s Between Here and There, I am Homeless.

2024-25 season updates

Spooky Action Theater announced its 2024-25 season. The DC theatre will produce Christopher Hampton’s Cracking Zeus (directed by Reginald L. Douglas) and Michael Pemberton, Andrea Pemberton, and Jesse Rasmussen’s musical Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show (directed by Elizabeth Dinkova with musical direction by Marika Countouris).
IAMA Theatre announced its upcoming season. The Los Angeles company will produce the world premiere of John Lavelle’s The Very Best People (directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed) and two workshop productions: Douglas Lyons’ Don’t Touch My Hair (directed by Velani Dibba) and Abigail Miller’s Trauma Play (directed by Diana Wyenn).
Transport Group announced its 2024-25 season. The Off Broadway theatre’s line-up includes a developmental production of Michele Lowe and Zoe Sarnak’s musical Split (directed by Jack Cummings III, co-pro with New London Barn Playhouse) and Willian Inge's Bus Stop (directed by Jack Cummings III, co-pro with Classic Stage Company and NAATCO). The company will also produce workshops of Jack Cummings III’s 1939 and Michael John LaChiusa’s Beautiful Jolie Gabor, Her Glamorous Three Daughters, and Always the Happiness Is Life, as well as four readings: Harrison David Rivers’ The Sea & The Stars, Kirsten Guenther’s Our Table, Ryan Langer’s Mourning Songs, and Laurie Graff & Nancy Shane’s The Pet Project.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose is coming to Broadway next February. Phylicia Rashad will direct the new drama about a Black political dynasty, which premiered at Steppenwolf earlier this spring.

the nyc theatre game of thrones

Jonathan Silverstein is stepping down as artistic director of Keen Company at the end of this season. He has led the Off-Broadway theatre since 2012.

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.)

Company Manager & Production Department Associate at Westport Country Playhouse: $45,000 (Full-Time Exempt)
- Living Wage for Fairfield County, CT: $61,289
- Revenue (2022): $3.82 million / Net Income: -$1.88 million
- Executive Compensation: $240,000 (Artistic Director) / $162,228 (Managing Director)
Artistic Office Assistant at Manhattan Theatre Club: $42,000 - $46,000 (Full-Time)
- Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852
- Revenue (2023): $26.88 million / Net Income: -$1.66 million
- Executive Compensation: $505,758 (Artistic Director) / $598,515 (Executive Producer)
Literary Associate at The Atlantic: $50,000 - $55,000 (Full-Time)
- Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852
- Revenue (2022): $18.9 million / Net Income: $4.1 million
- Executive Compensation: $229,968 (Artistic Director) / $249,918 (Executive Producer)
Theatre Technical Director at Constellation Theatre Company: $47,500 (Full-Time)
- Living Wage for Washington, DC: $60,090
- Revenue (2023): $1.13 million / Net Income: -$216,213
- Executive Compensation: $0 (Artistic Director) / $30,200 (Managing Director from July 2022)

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