the week of december 14-18, 2020
in which real writers report on The Flea
Welcome to Nothing for the Group, the newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes.
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2021 season updates
Atlantic Theater Company announced the line-up for its African Caribbean MixFest, a series of free readings co-produced by Guadalís Del Carmen and Kwame Kwei-Armah. The festival will run virtually Jan. 19-29, 2021 and feature Kwei-Armah’s Let There Be Love; Whitney White’s Auction and Jasmine Lee-Jones’ I Used to Love Her (both directed by Dominique Rider); an evening of short plays by Jeff Augustin, Julissa Contreras, Dane Figueroa Edidi, and Patrice Johnson Chevannes, all directed by Danielle A. Drakes; France-Luce Benson’s Tigress of San Domingue, directed by Awoye Timpo; and Del Carmen’s A Shero’s Journey Or What Anacaona and Yemayá Taught Me, also directed by Timpo.
Theater J announced an updated 2021 season, canceling all of their previously scheduled in-person programming for digital readings and classes. New initiatives include Israeli Theater Collection and a Yiddish Theater Lab reading series, and an upcoming reading of Patty Abramson Jewish Play Prize winner Nicole Cox’s Abomination.
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival announced their 2021 summer season, which will take place in an open-air tent, pending safety guidelines. The line-up includes James Ijames' The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (directed by Taylor Reynolds), The Tempest (directed by Ryan Quinn), and an educational radio play of Macbeth directed by Raz Golden.
Victory Gardens is postponing the remainder of their 2021 season. VG has had an, uh, eventful year—and I appreciated the stark clarity of this email:
Unfortunately, we are not at the point where we can guarantee safe working conditions in January 2021, and we will not put the health of the 100+ actors, artists, staff members, and partners involved in show creation at risk. Live theater, no matter how important to our mental and emotional well-being, is not worth the potential loss of a single human life, and we must do our part to help stop the spread of the pandemic.
assorted news
The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, which normally awards a $200,000 prize to a master playwright, will instead present twenty $10,000 awards to early and mid career playwrights. The change was made as “the Trust felt it was vital to shift those funds to provide impactful support to as many playwrights as possible.” Recipients will be announced next week.
things I read this week about The Flea
I am pleased to report that actual journalists wrote smart, detailed, sourced write-ups on the Flea drama so you don’t have to rely on my hasty breakdowns anymore!
Helen Shaw for Vulture on the history of the Flea, the lead-up to the dismissal of the artists, and the subsequent public fall-out:
The story of the Flea captures 2020 in a nutshell. It’s a theater enduring a year in which you can’t gather and make art. It’s a cultural building facing debts without any income. Its unjust structures are being challenged by activists as conflicting narratives emerge about the same small set of facts. And — for added piquancy — social media has made sure everyone is as angry as possible.
Joey Sims for The Brooklyn Rail on how The Flea became The Fled, with a focus on the voices within the Resident Artist Coalition
Diep Tran for Backstage on what the entire Flea debacle means for an industry reckoning with race, equity and exploitation
This is the last newsletter for 2020! I’ll be back on January 8th. It’s the first time in nine years that I’m not in rehearsal over the holidays, and I’m going to enjoy it, albeit solo. The last two weeks in December always inspire reflection, but after the slow-motion car crash and necessary isolation of this past year, I’m good on introspective contemplation, thanks, so I’m just going to chill for a few weeks and do as little work as possible. I’ve got stews to make and books to read and long, wintery walks to take. I hope you can find small pockets of warmth and peace and sanity during this time.
This week I read Clare Barron’s “Not Writing” in Almanac, Playwright Horizons’ literary magazine, and I’d like to end this year (and my first half-year of newsletters) with her words. See y’all in 2021:
My prayer for us is simply that we're not afraid to get old. My prayer for us is simply that we value the things we learn with time. That as much as we celebrate and listen to young people rising up. We also make space for people who have been living before us. Who have been working before us. That we do not forget the labor that has already been done. The things that have already been said. Before #metoo. Before Black Lives Matter. PEOPLE WERE WRITING ABOUT THESE THINGS AND THE THEATERS WERE NOT INTERESTED. I pray that we lift up the voices that came before us. That we read our old plays and rediscover what's there. That we allow for people to emerge at all ages. We allow for people to begin at all ages. To quit, and return again. To take breaks. And to come back to us. And we will welcome them with open arms.