the week of july 15 - 21, 2023

Jul 21, 2023

The JAW New Play Festival at Portland Center Stage runs July 28-30. This year’s play readings include Jonathan Spector’s Best Available (directed by Marissa Wolf), Bailey Williams’ In the Basement (directed by Josiah Davis), and Dorcas Sowunmi’s Safe Ride.
Cindy Lou Johnson’s Plunder and Lightning will have a reading July 21st as part of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Fridays@3 series. Portia Krieger directs the “dark comedy about greed and the urgent power of love.”
New York Stage and Film continues its summer 2023 season. The second week includes a July 22nd reading of Emily Kaczmarek’s Soft Target; Jo Bonney directs the new work about “childhood, guns, and all the wounds we can’t see.”

Lee Cataluna’s Sons of Maui will have a reading July 24th at SF Playhouse. Bill English directs the drama exploring the relevance of ancient Polynesian myths in modern Hawaii.

Murmuration’s table-top audio-experience One Moment Now is running July 22 - August 31 at Baker’s Daughter/Eaton from Solas Nua in DC. In the Dublin-based theatre collective’s latest work, “through headphones, you’ll hear fragments of a story — about memory, about grandsons and grandmothers, about coffee shops and hospital visits — and be invited to participate as it plays out on the table in front of you.” (Tickets are free!)

Soho Rep announced its 2023-24 season. The NYC company will present world premieres of Raja Feather Kelly’s The Fires and Becca Blackwell’s Snatch Adams & Tainty McCracken Present It's That Time of the Month (directed by Jess Barbagallo. The theater also announced that last season’s production of Shayok Misha Chowdhury's Public Obscenities will have upcoming runs at Woolly Mammoth and Theatre for a New Audience. (No updates on Soho Rep’s artistic leadership search…yet.)

Edward Hall and Kimberly Motes are the new leaders of Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The duo will start in mid-October: Hall succeeds founding artistic director Barbara Gaines, who stepped down after 37 years, while Motes takes over from executive director Criss Henderson, who exited the company after 33 years.
The Public Theater of San Antonio announced its new four-person leadership structure. The executive team now consists of president and CEO Asia Ciaravino, producing artistic director Jimmy Moore, director of marketing and audience experience Rick Sanchez, and managing director Christina Casella.
HERE founding artistic director Kristin Marting is stepping down after her upcoming 30th season. Marting has led the performance space since 1993 and her final season includes new works by Normandy Sherwood, Heather Christian, Nia Witherspoon, and the 11th annual Prototype Festival.
David Byrne is the new artistic director of The Royal Court in London. The playwright and director — who is currently the artistic director of the London new work incubator New Diorama — succeeds Vicky Featherstone, who stepped down after 10 years.

IATSE narrowly avoided a strike, reaching a tentative agreement yesterday with the Broadway League and Disney Theatrical Productions. The strike would’ve impacted 1500 workers on Broadway and on tour, including stagehands, hair and make-up artists, and wardrobe personnel.

Sanaz Toossi is the 2023-24 Judith Champion Playwriting Fellow. The annual award from Manhattan Theatre Club includes “a new play commission, a living allowance, access to office and rehearsal space, a ticket stipend, and a developmental workshop.”
Alabama Shakespeare Festival announced its New Southern Canon commissioning program. Robert Schenkkan, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Lauren Gunderson, and Mansa Ra are the first four playwrights commissioned for the multi-year initiative to develop 22 new works about transformative moments in the South.

Isaac Butler’s clear-eyed NYT essay “American Theater Is Imploding Before Our Eyes” on the case for federal intervention to save non-profit theaters, the necessity of N.E.A expansion, and the laws currently languishing in Congress that can help stabilize the industry. (Because why should government bailouts be reserved only for the banking and automotive sectors when arts & culture activity accounts for over one trillion dollars of the American GDP?) (NYT gift link)
If you’re going to Edinburgh Fringe this summer, I’m very jealous, but I also highly suggest reading Fergus Morgan’s ongoing show recommendation series at The Crush Bar.

Nothing for the Group