the week of june 24 - 30, 2023
a production of guys & dolls isn't immersive unless it's in a sewer
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To celebrate the upcoming third anniversary of Nothing for the Group, I wrote my version of an annual report: highlights (national press!), achievements (55,000 monthly views!), some thoughts about work & ambition (the classic anecdote of how I scammed my way into an overdue raise at Studio many years ago!), and how this project has become the foundation and heart of my freelance career. I also temporarily unlocked on some old paid-subscriber-only posts, so check those out while you can:
productions
Candrice Jones’ Flex is now in previews at Lincoln Center Theater. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs the “adrenaline-packed play that richly illuminates the beautiful complexity of five members of the 1998 Lady Train high school basketball team.”
The world premiere of Sufjan Stevens, Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Justin Peck’s musical Illinois is now playing through July 2nd at Bard SummerScape. Peck also directs and choreographs the adaptation of Stevens’ 2005 concept album known for its “lush orchestrations and wildly inventive portrayal of the state’s people, landscapes, and history, complete with UFOs, zombies, and predatory wasps.”
The Who’s Tommy is now playing through August 6th at The Goodman in Chicago. The 30th anniversary production of the reimagined rock opera is directed by Des McAnuff, who won a Tony for directing the original Broadway production.
Alex Edelman’s Just for Us is now playing on Broadway. The late Adam Brace directs the OBIE-winning solo show, which centers on Edelman's personal experiences with anti-Semitism and what happens when he crashes a White Nationalist gathering in New York.
George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta starts performances July 6th at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, IL. The play with music chronicling the legacy of rock-gospel musician Sister Rosetta Tharpe is directed by E. Faye Butler.
Fela Kuti, Bill T. Jones, and Jim Lewis’ Fela! runs July 7 - August 13 in co-pro from Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center in Maryland. Lili-Anne Brown directs the musical exploring the life and impact of Nigerian musician, activist, and Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti.
workshops & readings
Steph Del Rosso’s Precarious will have readings June 29 - July 1 at the Cape Code Theatre Project in Falmouth, MA. Jaki Bradley directs the “dark comedy about mothers and daughters, generational divides, and climate change.”
Readings of Collin Van Son’s Natural History and Liba Vaynberg’s The Matriarchs runs July 5-8 at The O’Neill Playwrights Conference in Waterford, CT. The future-set Natural History follows “two environmental activists on a mission to steal the last bison from the American Museum of Natural History as a wildfire rages on” (direction by Jackson Gay and dramaturgy by Chelsea Radigan), while
The Matriarchs is “loosely based on the women of the Torah [and] follows six teenage girls as they squabble over snacks, sex, the Sabbath, and everything in between” (direction by Melia Bensussen and dramaturgy by Kristin Leahey).
streaming/digital
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is now available on HBO Max. The two-hour documentary captures Mac’s marathon performance of the immersive theatrical experience in 2016 at St. Ann’s Warehouse. (Here’s a gift link to Wesley Morris’ NYT review of the 24-hour concert; I know he’s a critic-at-large but consider this my personal plea to have Wesley cover more theater!)
The Wilma Theater’s production of Twelfth Night is available to stream on demand through July 23rd. The slapstick beach party reimagination of Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy is directed by Yury Urnov.
awards & commissions
The Playwrights’ Center and Venturous Theater Fund announced the 2023-25 Venturous Playwriting Fellows and released the Venturous List, a collection of 50 plays “created by playwrights uplifting other playwrights”. The new fellows and their partner theaters are Harmon dot aut (Spectrum Theatre Ensemble and the Contemporary American Theater Festival), L M Feldman (City Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, and The VORTEX), and Jessica Huang (Florida Studio Theatre). The writers receive two years of support ($25,000 per year, for a total of $50,000 of direct support to each playwright) and over $15,000 in developmental and holistic artist support. Their partner theaters commit to producing their plays within the next three years and are eligible to receive production subsidies of up to $75,000.
(I highly recommend reading all of the wonderful playwrights-on-plays recommendations in the Venturous List if you need a serotonin boost.)
Alexa Derman’s ZIONISTA RISING is the winner of the 12th Annual Jewish Playwriting Content. The competition is sponsored by the NYC-based Jewish Plays Project; Derman will receive development support and a public reading in September at the Marlene Myerson JCC in Manhattan.
ruth tang is the inaugural recipient of the Breaking the Binary Commission. The commission supports the creation of full-length works by trans, nonbinary, and two-spirit (TNB2S+) theatre artists and comes with a $10,000 grant to develop new work with Breaking the Binary (BTB) Theatre.
AriDy Nox and a.k. payne are Rattlestick Theater’s 2023-24 Van Lier New Voices Fellows. The annual fellowship supports two playwrights of color under 30 with “a $35,000 living stipend, a $5,000 artistic fund, mentorship with a chosen mentor playwright, workshops and readings of new work, as well as participation in Rattlestick’s larger artistic network.”
the regional theatre game of thrones
Sarah Slight is the new artistic director of Raven Theatre. Interim artistic director Slight has been leading the Chicago company since Cody Estle left in late 2022 to take over Milwaukee’s Next Act Theatre. (Here’s to more dramaturgs running theaters!)
this week in our ongoing field-wide existential crisis
Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre is closing after 33 years. The board president cited “a cascade of events in a sector where the margins are usually already razor-thin” including “diminished audience attendance, changes in funder priorities and a lack of enough major donors”, as well as refunding $20,000 in ticket sales after a COVID exposure shut down a production.
Brooklyn Academy of Music is laying off 13% of its staff. The company is also reducing its programming, including producing seven shows (down from 13) in its Next Wave Festival. Playbill also noted, “Since the pandemic, BAM has cut its operating budget from a little over $50 million to $30 million. And, this is not the first round of layoffs the institution has had since coming back from the pandemic. Prior, BAM had 256 full-time staff positions. It now has a little under 200.”
We’re in a new gutting wave of layoffs and furloughs, so I just want to say that if there are any staff fundraisers, Venmos, support funds, etc. — please let me know so I can publicly signal boost them. Sometimes it feels like theatre people are always passing around the same $50 to help each other out, but I know and you know that no one in this industry is getting generous severance packages.
what I read this week when i wasn’t bingeing my way through vanderpump rules
Jerald Raymond Pierce and Gabriela Furtado Coutinho’s new monthly Chicago theatre dispatch for American Theatre
Helen Shaw’s London theatre recaps of Operation Mincemeat, Guys and Dolls, and The Motive and the Cue in The New Yorker
Peter Marks on how the team of GALA Hispanic Theatre is carrying on the vision and legacy of its producing artistic director and co-founder Hugo Medrano, who died last month, in The Washington Post (gift link)
Bill Hirschman on the depths of the theatre industry’s current labor crunch and materials crisis for American Theatre
Some rare positive news from the usually bleak world of arts journalism: Sara Holdren is returning as the theatre critic of Vulture and New York Magazine and American Theatre is resuming its print edition after a three-year hiatus.
