the week of february 28 - march 4, 2022
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in-person theatre
R. Eric Thomas’ Backing Track premieres at the Arden Theatre Company on March 3rd. The “karaoke play and live mixtape rolled into one” is directed by Rebecca Wright.
Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, and Ann McNamee’s Other World is now playing at Delaware Theatre Company. Adrienne Campbell-Holt directs the world premiere, video game-set musical exploring “the connections we make on- and off-line, while celebrating the families and friendships we need to thrive in any world.”
Eleanor Burgess’ Wife of a Salesman runs March 3 - April 3 at Writers Theatre. Directed by Jo Bonney, the world premiere imagines a 1950s housewife from an iconic American play who drives to Boston to confront her husband's mistress.
The world premiere of Bryna Turner’s At the Wedding starts previews at LCT3 on March 5th. The comedy about a heartbroken lesbian at her ex's wedding is directed by Jenna Worsham.
Arden: But, Not Without You plays at the Flea Theater through March 6th. The genre-bending new work is led by Peter Born, Diana Oh, Okwui Okpokwasili, Niegel Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and Nia Witherspoon. Let’s go with Diana’s description of the experience: “Four Generations of Deeply Intimately Bound All-Kinds-of-Doing-Shit Artists sharing of themselves in a Tender-Ass Room full of Queer Femme Shamanic Energy who Genuinely and Gently Welcome You: Social Anxieties, Yummy Freakiness, and All.”
Mike Lew, Rehana Lew Mirza, Sam Willmott’s Bhangin’ It: A Bangin’ New Musical debuts March 8th at La Jolla Playhouse. The world premiere musical comedy set in the high-stakes world of intercollegiate competitive bhangra is directed by Stafford Arima.
The three-part, nine-play The Key Workers Cycle premieres at London’s Almeida Theatre on March 9th. Featuring an 80-member community cast, ranging from ages 16 to 96, the short play cycle celebrates “the humor, the hope and the stories of those who keep our daily lives running.”
Agnes Borinsky’s A Song of Songs runs March 10 - 27 at El Puente’s Williamsburg Leadership Center. Presented by Bushwick Starr and Jeremy O. Harris, the Machel Ross-directed performance/ritual “unpacks and remixes the Biblical poem, treating it as a jumping off place for thinking about love, erotics, collectivity, and justice.”
digital theatre
Experimental tech and art consortium h0tclub’s latest work-in-progress — Freeicecream.network — livestreams March 10th. The multimedia work explores “how our desire for connection and delicious treats entangles us with networks of information technologies.” The artists, robots (for real), and dancers will present the piece in-person at San Francisco’s Innerspace Art Party in early May.
Donja R. Love’s new digital series i need space premieres on Broadstream starting March 8th. Told through a collection of video messages, the series follows Marcus, a man isolated in his childhood bedroom and losing touch with his loved ones and his struggle to find a way forward. (It also features two of my favorite DC actors: Dane Figueroa Edidi and Justin Weaks.)
travis tate’s Queen of the Night livestreams March 9 - 13 at Victory Gardens. The “hilarious, heart-rending family portrait about reckoning with the wilderness of a shared past…[and exploring] masculinity and queerness through the lens of multi-generational Blackness” is directed by Ken-Matt Martin.
Harrison David Rivers’ This Bitter Earth streams March 7 - 20 at Hartford TheatreWorks. David Mendizábal directs the nonlinear drama about an interracial queer couple reckoning with divisive political realities.
2022 season updates
Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive will premiere on Broadway in April. Susan Stroman directs the political farce, which will star Julianne Hough, Vanessa Williams, Rachel Dratch, Lea DeLaria, Lilli Cooper, Suzy Nakamura, and Julie White.
We all know I love making predictions (the next edition of Season Planning Futures is in the works, I promise!) and when I’m right, I’m right — now let’s widely produce the rest of these:The Gift Theatre announced its 2022 season. The line-up includes Naomi Iizuka’s At the Vanishing Point (directed by Lavina Jadhwani), and the world premieres of Jennifer Rumberger’s The Locusts (directed by John Gawlik) and Michael Patrick Thornton’s ten-episode radio drama Mud City.
The Fled Collective announced its inaugural season. The line-up includes the live radio show RADIO FLED, developmental workshops of Jacob Marx Rice’s The Tragical Historie of Maximilien Robespierre and Liz Morgan’s Deliver: Letters to the Motherland from a Foreign Body, and the late-night episodic play competition SERIALS.
award season
The short list for the 2022 Yale Drama Series Prize was announced. The eight plays are Jordan Ramirez Puckett’s A Driving Beat, Lilly Camp’s All Eight, Matthew Paul Olmos’ a home what howls (or the house that was ravine), Seayoung Yim’s Jar of Fat, Candrice Jones’ A Medusa Thread, Libby Heily’s Midnight Showing, Aaron Coleman’s Tell Me I’m Gorgeous at the End of the World, and Iraisa Ann Reilly’s The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo.
Sara Gmitter is the first recipient of the Adrienne Shelley Foundation Playwrights Award. The $3,000 prize will support the writing of Gmitter’s new play The Night Witches, a WWII-set drama about Soviet female combat pilots.
the regional theatre game of thrones
Barbara Gaines is stepping down as artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2023. Gaines founded the company in 1986 and has led the organization for the last thirty-six years. This is the latest major artistic leadership exit in Chicago theatre, after recent departures and transitions over the last year and a half at Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Writers Theatre, The Gift, Remy Bumppo, Teatro Vista, Congo Square Theatre, House Theatre of Chicago, Sideshow, and The Goodman.
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.)
Summer Season Stage Management PA at Pittsburgh CLO: $11/hour, “plus time and a half for hours above 40 hours per week” = $1760/month before overtime
- Monthly Living Wage for Pittsburgh: $2,754 (i.e. you’d have to work 60 hours of overtime a month to make a living wage)
- Expenses (2020): $6.5 million / Executive Compensation: $416, 374 (CEO)
Digital Marketing Associate at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: $30,000 - $35,000
- Living Wage for Morris County, NJ: $50,301
- Expenses (2020): $2.2 million / Executive Compensation: $185,000 (Artistic Director)
The inclusion of executive compensation is perfection.