the week of february 4-10, 2023
a nesting doll of institutional failures
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this week in criminal institutional failures: cleveland play house
cw: sexual assault
Last month, the Cleveland Play House announced it was canceling its upcoming world premiere of Charly Evon Simpson’s I’m Back Now, citing that “a series of events impacted the community of artists involved with the production.”
This week, Simpson and director Stori Ayers released statements refuting the Play House’s narrative. Ayers wrote that she departed the production after an actress was sexually assaulted by a stranger in the artist housing’s elevator and the leadership of Cleveland Play House “neglected to act appropriately”, including not immediately re-housing the actor, nor adjusting her rehearsal schedule. The theatre also failed to notify other artists staying in the same complex of the potential danger. Ayers specifically cited the negligence of current interim artistic director Mark Cuddy:
"The behavior of Cleveland Play House was not just harmful. It was criminal. Mark Cuddy, the artistic director, never contacted the artist who survived the sexual violence. He never offered an apology or a comforting word. His excuse for not telling me about the sexual assault was that it 'wasn't at the forefront of his mind.' Mark Cuddy is still employed at Cleveland Play House. Shame on the board of directors.
On January 15th, Simpson pulled the rights to the play “in agreement and solidarity” with Ayers:
Ayers wrote more about her recent experiences with institutional misogynoir:
I've worked at 2 institutions in 2 years where severe negligence, poor leadership and the lack of protection for Black women have led to the pulling of rights to produce the plays -- Plays that were written by Black women playwrights who sought to uplift and honor the lives of Black women through their work.
Saying NO is the common denominator in both of these situations.
I will not accept harm & abuse toward Black women and non-binary artists.
I will not tolerate being used or mis-used as a Black woman artist.
I will not have the wellness of those I lead become an afterthought.
I will say NO. Every. Time.
As of February 9th, Mark Cuddy and the Cleveland Play House have yet to publicly respond.
in-person theatre
Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is now in previews at BAM. Anne Kauffman directs Hansberry’s “sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love”, which hasn’t had a New York revival since 1972. (Kauffman directed an acclaimed revival of the play at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2016.)
Meanwhile in Seattle: Intiman Theatre and The Williams Project’s co-production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window starts performances on February 9th. Ryan Guzzo Purcell directs.
Mashuq Mushtaq Deen’s Flood is now playing through February 19th at Kansas City Rep. The world premiere absurdist tragic-comedy is directed by Kenneth Prestininzi.
The world premiere of Deepa Purohit’s Elyria begins February 9th at the Atlantic. Awoye Timpo directs Purohit’s Off Broadway debut about “two mothers colliding 20 years, three continents, and two oceans after making a deal of a lifetime.”
Nathan Alan Davis’ The High Ground runs February 10 - April 2 at Arena Stage. Megan Sandberg-Zakian directs the world premiere drama “in conversation with Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 1921 race massacre…offering a complex portrait of what it means to bear witness, to resist and to move forward from devastation.”
Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King runs February 10 - March 5 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Hall directs her own Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy revolving around a loving gay couple and their extended clan’s quest to take the crown at a Memphis hot wing competition.
Dominique Morisseau’s Confederates starts performances February 11th at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. The time-bending drama that traces “an enslaved rebel turned Union spy and a tenured professor in a modern-day private university having parallel experiences of institutionalized racism, despite existing more than a century apart” is directed by Elizabeth Carter.
Agnes Borinsky’s The Trees runs February 12 - March 19 at Playwrights Horizons in a co-pro with Page 73. Tina Satter directs the world premiere, which follows a pair of siblings “unwittingly establishing a queer kind of society that tries to sustain itself in a mercenary world.”
Gina Femia’s And the Answer is... will have a live, in-person recording on February 13th as part of The Parsnip Ship’s Radio Roots Writers Group. Estefanía Fadul directs the commissioned radio play about two best friends making a podcast together as “they fall together and apart and back again, from Chipotle dates that aren’t dates to the early frontier of Twitter.”
Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s Public Obscenities starts performances February 15th at Soho Rep. Chowdhury also directs the bilingual play about “the things we see, the things we miss, and the things that turn us on.”
Christine Quintana’s Clean/Espejos runs February 15 - March 5 at Syracuse Stage. The bilingual theatrical experience — performed in English and Spanish — about “two women with vastly different life experiences intersecting at a Cancún destination wedding” is directed by Melissa Crespo.
digital theatre
The Broadway production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy is available to simulcast through February 12th. Austin Pendleton directs the Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy; all simulcast tickets are $68.
The Enlightened livestreams February 10 & 11 as part of the HOME Manchester’s 2023 PUSH Festival. The true crime thriller meets internet deep-dive, unfolding online and in person, “weaves a web of postcolonial mystery about a young, white man who went to India in search of enlightenment but disappeared without a trace.”
the international theatre game of thrones
Vicky Featherstone is stepping down as artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Featherstone took over the London new work theatre in 2013 and vowed to only hold the job for a decade. As The Guardian notes, this follows other recent high-profile departures of UK artistic directors: The Donmar’s Michael Longhurst announced he is stepping down in 2024 after a five-year tenure, Roxana Silbert departed Hampstead in December after a 100% funding cut from Arts Council England, and Chichester Festival Theatre’s Daniel Evans, who is leaving to co-lead the Royal Shakespeare Company with Tamara Harvey.
award season
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize announced its 2023 finalists. The ten plays are Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Father and the Assassin, Maryam Hamidi’s Moonset, Karen Hartman’s New Golden Age, Katie Holly’s Her Hand on the Trellis, Kimber Lee’s saturday, Sarah Mantell’s In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot, a.k. payne’s Amani, Francisca Da Silveira’s Pay No Worship, Zadie Smith’s The Wife of Willesden, and Ruby Thomas’ Linck & Mülhahn.
things i read this week when i wasn’t reading sequoia nagamatsu’s how high we go in the dark
Soyica Diggs Colbert on the two current revivals of Lorraine Hansberry’s seldom-produced The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (American Theatre) Colbert also wrote an acclaimed biography on Hansberry that was published last winter; it’s on my to-read list for this year.
3Views’ coverage of the 2023 Under the Radar Festival, featuring reflections and reviews from Brittani Samuel, Ariel Sibert, Afrikah Smith, Sarah Rose Leonard, Emma Orme, and Maddie Rostami.
Margaret Hall on the rise of out-of-control audience behavior post-reopening, and the unconscionable violence, abuse, and bodily fluids endured by front of house staffs. (Playbill)
that’s not a living wage
Thanks to the anonymous contributor who forwarded this posting. (Your regular reminder that the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in NYC is currently $56,718):
Just a note to acknowledge that it looks like the Playbill article I cited about bad audience behavior has been removed from their website in the last 24 hours, which is too bad because after reading house reports for 15+ years I can confirm that FOH staff -- everywhere, not just in New York -- deal with far more abuse & human bodily fluids than anyone should and it's unacceptable
Came here about the Playbill article. Strange that the blurb is still on the site but the link is broken. I'd be interested in an interview with Margaret Hall, the author.