the week of july 11-15, 2022

abandon all hope ye who enter here expecting a funny girl take

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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim

in-person theatre

• Madhuri Shekar, Christian Magby, and Christian Albright’s The Incredible Book Eating Boy is now playing at the Alliance in Atlanta. Jamil Jude directs the new musical based on Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling children’s book.

• Marcus Hummon & Charles Randolph-Wright’s American Prophet: Frederick Douglass In His Own Words is runs July 15 - August 28 at Arena Stage. The world premiere musical powered by Douglass’ own speeches and writings is directed by Charles Randolph-Wright.

• Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy is now playing through July 24th at Steppenwolf. The gospel-infused drama about “a young gay Black man and his battle between identity and community” is directed by Kent Gash.

• Aya Ogawa’s The Nosebleed starts performances July 16th at LCT3. Ogawa also directs the “tender and darkly humorous play that explores Ogawa’s fractured relationship with their long-deceased father and considers his impact on their own life.”

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summer festivals

• The 2022 Breaking Ground Festival runs July 20-25 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company. The six-day festival features four plays by Huntington Playwriting Fellows: Catherine Epstein’s Arbor (directed by Morgan Green), Fedna Jacquet’s Black Mother Lost Daughter (directed by Stevie Walker-Webb), Andrew Siañez-De La O’s Rough Magic (directed by Melinda Lopez), and Kate Cortesi’s Let’s Pretend We’re Married (directed by Rebecca Bradshaw).

• New York Stage & Film continues with a workshop of Don Nguyen's The World Is Not Silent from July 15-17. The multilingual father-son drama — performed in English, Vietnamese, and Sign Language — is directed by Marya Mazor.

• Lameece Issaq’s Good Day to Me Not to You runs July 21-23 at Cape Cod Theatre Project. The solo work follows a “a 40-whatever dental lab technician’s assistant [after she gets] fired and moves into St. Agnes Residence, a woman’s rooming house run by nuns” and will also be available to stream.

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a victory gardens update

• Following last week’s news, Erika Dickerson-Despenza pulled the rights to Victory Gardens’ production of her play cullud wattah, citing the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchal values espoused by the board of directors.” The Equity cast members will be paid through the original closing date of July 17.

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end of an era: southern rep

• Southern Rep in New Orleans is closing after 36 years. American Theatre summarized the company’s tumultuous recent history, including financial pressures, staff shuffles, and the company’s admitted failure to “build the infrastructure (marketing, fundraising, governance) necessary for a sustainable theatre.”
  
  In 2018, Southern Rep, a predominantly white institution, transitioned from an itinerant model to a permanent space in a historically Black neighborhood. A recent job posting acknowledged their subsequent errors and harm: “We struggled to fit into and serve the Black community around us. We were careless with our relationship building in our new neighborhood, and did not do the slow, necessary work of discovering what our neighbors needed and wanted from a community theatre.”

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this week in inevitable scams

• Paradise Square is closing this weekend and multiple unions are suing the producers for $350,000 in unpaid benefits and wages. Can’t believe a man convicted of financial fraud was an irresponsible lead producer! Redistribute the wealth of any investor dumb enough to give Garth Drabinsky one single dollar.

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2022-23 season updates

• InterAct Theatre announced its 2022-23 season. The Philadelphia company will present Will Snider’s Death of a Driver, Kareem Fahmy’s American Fast, and two world premieres: Stephanie Satie’s The Last Parade and Francisca DeSilveira’s Pay No Worship.

• The Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival announced its 2022 line-up. The October event, led by Founding Artistic Director George Strus, will feature seven works by trans, non-binary, and two-spirit artists: Ty Defoe’s Trans World (direction by co-curator Dominique Ride and dramaturgy by co-curator Josephine Kearns), Liliana Padilla’s Twitch (directed by Jack Ferver), Roger Q. Mason's Hide and Hide (direction by é boylan and dramaturgy by Gaven Trinidad), Ruth Tang's Work Hard Have Fun Make History (directed by Kedian), Aziza Barnes’ Nana, and Mara Vélez Meléndez's Thelma and Louise and The Time Machine (directed by Sivan Battat).

• Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’ is coming to Broadway in the fall. Stevie Walker-Webb will again direct the comedy that “imagines what would happen if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa”, which had its world premiere at the Public Theater in 2019.

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the regional theatre game of thrones

• Adam Immerwahr and Laura Lee are the new leaders of Village Theatre. The Issaquah, WA musical theatre-focused company was previously solely led by executive director Robb Hunt, who recently retired after 43 years.

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things i read this week when i wasn’t reveling in the post-casa amour chaos and lies on love island

• Helen Shaw’s remembrance of director Peter Brook, who died on July 2nd. Big congrats to Helen, who will be joining The New Yorker as a staff writer covering theatre next month.

• Annie-B Parson, James Allister Sprang, and Suzanne Bocanegra’s visual critical responses to Jess Barbagallo's Weekend at Barry's/Lesbian Lighthouse, commissioned by 3 Views.

• The first installment of Fergus Morgan’s Edinburgh Fringe coverage at The Crush Bar, focusing on five of the best solo shows.

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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.)

• Marketing & Development Associate, Lyric Stage: $38,000 (60% of healthcare plan covered)

  • Living Wage for Boston: $57,611

  • Expenses (2020): $1.88 million / Revenue Less Expenses: $24,000

  • Executive Compensation: $87,500 (Artistic Director)