the week of july 12 - 16, 2021
the one-year anniversary edition
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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pretty good year
It’s the one-year anniversary of this newsletter! Mama, we made it. This project originated as a weekly corral of current news and trends, sprinkled with my salty commentary and analysis. Over the last year of writing and rambling, two themes emerged: 1) dissections of how institutions frame their public narratives and 2) the power structures and dynamics that create and perpetuate inequity in the industry.
I toiled away in the trenches and mid-levels of various theatre companies for fifteen years, and if I learned anything, it’s this: you can advocate for change, you can take care of individuals, you can wield your minimal power and influence thoughtfully and responsibly — but real transformation comes from the top. The power to enact equitable structures and policies resides with leadership and boards, not with underpaid workers with limited agency. Bureaucratic red tape is a man-made obstacle to preserve the status quo. It’s time for leaders to do the work instead of pawning it off on task forces and staff committees — and it’s up to all of us to hold them accountable.
I don’t know if I’ll ever return to institutional dramaturgy. I miss my colleagues and relationships with artists, the general work of advocating for plays, and the ephemeral community of a rehearsal room. I don’t miss the mental gymnastics: the ongoing, ever-evolving compromises to stay sane, engaged, and not overwhelmed by organizational bullshit you can’t control. And as I build my freelance artistic practice — and expand the reach and scope of this modest platform — I think I can create a more significant impact outside of an institution. I’ve always said that dramaturgs are fueled by a pathological desire to be useful, which has been the driving force behind this newsletter: How can I help? How can I amplify? How can I reframe tired narratives and redirect your attention?
I hope you’ve enjoyed the last year of links and hot takes, but I also hope my writing has encouraged you to reflect on how you hold and handle your power, the impact you have on others, and how you can fight for yourself and your colleagues. Thank you for being here.
Before we get to the usual round-up, here are my five favorite newsletters from the last year:
July 17, 2020: Institutional racism at PlayPenn (This was the first edition!)
“First of all, admitting you’ve monumentally failed artists of color as a white-led institution — and then trying to slip in a self-congratulatory acknowledgment of your past diversity stats is definitely not the move. But it’s the stated goal of “a more equitable participation rate” that encapsulates PlayPenn’s entire problem. This isn’t about participation — it’s about empowerment. It’s not enough to merely hire BIPOC artists; institutions and artistic leaders need to actually listen to them, trust in their vision and experience, and take swift decisive action in response to reported harm.”
July 25, 2020: On arts & culture bailouts
“There hasn’t been a large-scale public lobbying effort [in the US] for longterm relief for theater workers. Why use your power and influence for good when you could announce a spring 2021 revival of Our Town that no one fucking asked for? Regional theatres are gutting their staffs while simultaneously placating subscribers with tentative season announcements for six to eight months from now. By the time theatres can safely reopen, what kind of skeleton crew will exist to actually produce that work?”
August 20, 2020: Theatres and the language of family:
“Your workplace is not your family. This language is designed to manipulate and exploit employees, especially ones that are younger, marginalized, and underpaid. It can sugarcoat organizational toxicity and dysfunction, or serve as a roadblock to career advancement: think of how many theatres advertise themselves as close-knit families, yet dismiss women who come forward about sexual harassment or abuse, silence BIPOC employees who call out racist and discriminatory behavior, or condition workers not to ask for raises or time off. (Invoking the language of family is especially egregious for an industry that has historically failed to accommodate working parents and other caretakers.) Theater work traffics in hazy boundaries between personal and professional lives, and institutions expect unsustainable levels of commitment and loyalty that they won’t necessarily return during a crisis.”
February 26, 2021: Ethan McSweeny’s “resignation” from ASC:
“As a dramaturg, I’m trained to constantly think about how information is framed and received. This newsletter obviously operates under very different editorial standards than The New York Times. But it’s been over three years since the start of the #MeToo movement and we’ve seen dozens of similar resignations as the theatre industry reckons with workplace inequity, racism, and sexism. It’s inexcusable for media outlets to give artistic leaders accused of abuse and harassment a platform for their personally crafted exit narratives. Centering McSweeny's version of the story — one that reduces the staff’s brave advocacy to a marginal plot point — allows him to retain his power.”
June 11, 2021: Christopher Massimine and Pioneer Theatre
“Scamming is an American artform, with its own echelon of the celebrity….Massimine’s exploits don’t reach the high-octane heights of Fyre Fest, or the audacious fraud of [Elizabeth] Holmes. It’s a familiar story: white man fails upward into a 200K salary and leadership role, assisted by corporate incompetence and a résumé woven out of red flags. But Massimine’s rise and fall illuminates the grim reality of organizational power structures in theatre, and how, as [Jia] Tolentino writes, “scammers are always safest at the top.”
digital theatre
Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here will livestream July 15-18 at the Goodman Theatre. The production, directed by Lili-Anne Brown, originally debuted as an audio play from Studio Theatre.
Alexis Roblan’s audio/visual experience Samuel plays at The Tank, in-person and online, from July 23 - August 14. Directed by Dara Malina and fashioned after self-guided audio museum tours, Samuel “invites audience members to listen to audio scenes on their own devices as they explore an unnerving visual world of collective loss, existential fear, and the everyday trauma of family relationships.”
The Bay Area Playwrights Festival streams online July 16 - 25. Projects include Jaisey Bates’s Real Time remix, Miyoko Conley’s Human Museum, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s Tiger Beat, Sam Hamashima’s Supposed Home, and Johnny G. Lloyd’s The Problem With Magic, Is:.
in-person theatre
The immersive theatrical experience Alien/Nation plays Williamstown Theatre Festival from July 20 - August 15. Written and devised by Eric Berryman, Jen Silverman, and the Company of The Forest of Arden, the site-specific performance can experienced by foot or car.
La Jolla Playhouse’s DNA New Works Series premieres July 22–25 and July 29–August 1. Readings include Lisa Sanaye Dring’s SUMO (directed by Ralph B. Peña), Noah Diaz’s All the Men Who’ve Frightened Me (directed by Kat Yen), Francisca Da Silveira’s not-for-profit (or the equity, diversity and inclusion play) (directed by Reginald L. Douglas), and Andrew Rosendorf’s One-Shot (directed by Chip Miller).
New York Stage and Film’s summer season kicks off on July 17 with an outdoor presentation of songs from Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus. Directed by David Mendizábal, the concept album is “inspired by the estimated 4,000–10,000 enslaved people in the southern part of the United States who pursued a journey into Mexico instead of looking north.”
Lolita Chakrabarti's Hymn plays July 17 – August 13 at the Almeida Theatre. Directed by Blanche McIntyre, the play follows two men who meet at a funeral and “asks what it takes to be a good father, brother or son.”
2021-22 season updates
Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. and Tina Satter’s Is This a Room are coming to Broadway in a rare joint venture. The two OBIE-winning documentary plays will alternate performances for a limited 17-week run. (A few weeks ago, I said that now is the time to be taking risks and producing wild shit and this is exactly what I meant. I love the genius pairing of these projects and this producing model.)
Signature Theatre in Virginia announced its 2021-22 season. Projects include the pre-Broadway run of Jason Kim, Helen Park, and Max Vernon’s musical KPOP (directed by Teddy Bergman); Rent and She Loves Me (both directed by Matthew Gardiner — more on him in a minute); Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Daphne’s Dive (directed by Paige Hernandez); the world premiere of Chelsea Marcantel’s The Upstairs Department (directed by Holly Twyford); Lauren Gunderson and Ari Afsar’s new musical We Won’t Sleep (directed by Erin Ortman); and the musical The Color Purple (directed by Timothy Douglas).
Warehouse Theatre announced its 2021-22 season. The Greenville, SC theatre’s line-up includes Hedwig and the Angry Inch (directed by Andrew Scoville), Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (directed by Kerrie Seymour), Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens (directed by Patrick Torres), Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (directed by Anne Kelly Tromsness), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate (directed by Ibi Owolabi), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (directed by Shelley Butler), and the world premiere of Dorothy Fortenberry’s The Lotus Paradox (directed by Jay Briggs).
WP Theater announces its 2021-22 season. Projects include Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s Many Happy Returns; Rebecca Martinez’s Welcome Home, or Ten Tiny Snapshots of WP; Charly Evon Simpson’s sandblasted (directed by Summer L. Williams); and the 2022 Pipeline Festival.
Playwrights Horizons announced its 2021-22 season. The line-up includes four previously scheduled projects — Aleshea Harris’s What to Send Up When It Goes Down (directed by Whitney White), Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (directed by Tyne Rafaeli), Dave Harris’s Tambo & Bones (directed by Taylor Reynolds), and Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here (directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch) — and the world premiere of Will Arbery’s Corsicana (directed by Sam Gold).
The NYT also reported that Jeremy O. Harris’ Boy’s Company Presents: Tell Me If I’m Hurting You was still in the works for a future season, but Harris had a very different take:
the regional theatre game of thrones
Marti Lyons is the new artistic director of Chicago’s Remy Bumppo Theatre. I’m very biased, as I’ve dramaturged for Marti twice and we’re friends, but she was born to be an artistic director.
Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo are the new co-artistic directors of Teatro Vista, Chicago’s largest professional Latinx theatre company. The long-time Chicago creators are best known as the popular comedy duo "Lolo and Wendy" aka Dominzuelan, co-founders of the content creation studio Chicago4Real, and co-hosts of Bochinche at Nite on Twitch.
Matthew Gardiner is the new artistic director of Signature Theatre in Virginia. Gardiner has directed and choreographed over 30 productions at Signature and served as associate artistic director for over a decade. He was appointed interim artistic director last June after founder Eric Schaeffer resigned following multiple sexual assault allegations.
this is how you name an initiative
Theater Mu announced the members of its new playwrights’ incubator program: The Mu Tang Clan. Designed specifically for Asian-American writers, the Minneapolis theatre’s inaugural cohort includes Marlina Gonzalez, Kathy Haddad, Keiko Green, Alex Lin, and Susan Xu.
things I read this week
Does anyone give good interview like Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu? She kicked off Pass Over press this week with two conversations: Diep Tran for The Undefeated and Kelundra Smith for American Theatre.
Vinson Cunningham on Aleshea Harris’s What to Send Up When It Goes Down at BAM (The New Yorker)
Lily Janiak on the “long tenures and limited opportunities” of theatre leadership (San Francisco Chronicle)
Nicole Serratore on Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s now-closed installation Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy at the Guggenheim (Exeunt)
