the week of december 10 - 16, 2022
it's the end of the year as we know it
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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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim
This is the last weekly round-up of 2022! We’ll return to our regularly scheduled Friday posts on January 6th, but in the meantime:
The next edition of Bills, Bills, Bills will hit your inbox on January 4th
Paid subscribers will receive the annual year-in-review post…when I’m done writing it, so probably December 31st. I love all subscribers equally — there are 5,600 of you now! — but paid subs sustain this humble operation and I’m very grateful to those who opt in. (If you can’t afford a paid subscription at the moment but for some reason you’re dying to read my end-of-year thoughts and feelings, just email me and I’ll forward it to you.)
the theatre salaries database
Bills, Bills, Bills editor Jenna Clark Embrey launched a new and improved version of the Theatre Salaries Database, a crowd-sourced collection of salary information from theatre workers across the country. It's an incredible resource and it's even better with more data. If you want to anonymously submit your information, fill out this form.
in-person theatre
Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus received a workshop production at Mosaic Theater Company on December 10 & 11. David Mendizábal directed the new musical that uses “live looping and hip hop to explore an under-told chapter of the Underground Railroad and celebrate Black and brown bodies standing together against oppression.”
The Goodman New Stages Festival will present four one-day readings December 17-18. The selected plays are Charlie Oh’s White Monkey (directed by Eric Ting), Jeffrey Lieber’s Fever Dreams (of Animals on the Verge of Extinction) (directed by new AD Susan V. Booth), Omer Abbas Salem’s Modern Women (directed by Lavina Jadhwani), and Donja R. Love’s What Will Happen to All That Beauty? (directed by Malika Oyetimein).
Chris Davis’ One-Man Nutcracker runs December 20 - January 2 at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia. MK Tuomanen directs the solo show that “condenses the two-hour classic into a ballet power hour.”
once i hit 10K subscribers, we’ll do it:
award season
James Ijames and Lloyd Suh are the 2022 recipients of the Steinberg Playwright Awards. Each playwright will receive $100,000. Ijames was recognized for his Pulitzer-winning, Broadway-bound Fat Ham, while Suh was honored for The Chinese Lady, which is one of the most produced plays of the 2022-23 season.
what i read this week when i wasn’t mainlining white lotus memes & finishing gabrielle zevin’s tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, the best book i read this year
The 3 Views issue on KPOP, featuring writing and reflections on the production from Sunny Min-Sook Hitt, Christine Mok, and Cheeyang Ng
Steven Dietz on the necessity of prioritizing the cultivation and development of new work (American Theatre)
'Tis the season for top ten lists and year-in-review posts:
Vinson Cunningham, Alexandra Schwartz, and Helen Shaw’s roundtable on the most memorable theatre of the year in The New Yorker
Peter Marks’ Best Theater of 2022 in The Washington Post (gift link!), featuring NFTG fave Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain
Jackson McHenry’s Best Theatre of 2022 for Vulture
