the week of march 28 - april 1, 2022

no goals, just vibes

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in-person theatre

• Dominique Morisseau’s Confederates opened at Signature Theatre in New York. The world premiere “leaps through time to explore the reins that racial and gender bias still hold on American educational systems today” and is directed by Stori Ayers.

• The US premiere of Stefano Massini’s 7 Minutes is now playing at HERE Arts Center. Mei Ann Teo directs the Waterwell/Working Theatre production, which is a “razor-sharp portrait of unionized factory workers grappling in real time with the power imbalance they depend on for their very livelihoods.”

• Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth starts previews on April 1st. The Broadway revival of the Pulitzer-winning classic is directed by Liliana Blain-Cruz and features additional material by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

• The NNPN rolling world premiere of Ali Viterbi’s In Every Generation runs April 2 - May 1 at Victory Gardens. Devon de Mayo directs the Passover-set meditation on the enduring resonance of generational trauma.

• Radical Evolution’s Songs About Trains runs April 5 - 23 at the New Ohio. The world premiere musical exploration of the many cultural communities that built the American rail system is directed by Rebecca Martínez and Taylor Reynolds.

• Charly Evon Simpson’s it's not a trip, it's a journey starts performances at Round House on April 5th. Nicole A. Watson directs the world premiere about four friends taking an impromptu road trip to the Grand Canyon, which is one of the anchors of the National Capital New Play Festival.

• José Rivera’s Sueño runs April 7 - May 8 at Trinity Rep. The humorous and haunting adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Life Is A Dream is directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo.

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2022-23 season updates

• The Goodman Theatre announces its 2022-23 season. The season includes Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s (directed by Kate Whoriskey), Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone (directed by Ron OJ Parson), The Who's Tommy (directed by Des McAnuff), The Cherry Orchard (directed by Robert Falls), Milwaukee Rep’s production of Dael Orlandersmith and Antonio Edwards Suarez’s Antonio's Song/I Was Dreaming of a Son (directed by Mark Clements), and three world premiere: Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State (directed by Falls), Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home (directed by Miranda Haymon), and Martin Yousif Zebari’s Layalina (directed by Sivan Battat).

• Cleveland Play House announced its 2022-23 season. The five-play line-up includes José Cruz González’s American Mariachi, Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap, Mark St. German’s Becoming Dr. Ruth, the world premieres of Charly Evon Simpson’s I’m Back Now and Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Mystery.

• The Court Theatre announced its 2022-23 season. The Chicago theatre’s line-up includes Arsenic and Old Lace (directed by Ron OJ Parson); Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona’s The Island (directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent); Caryl Churchill's Fen (directed by Vanessa Stalling); and Mark J.P. Hood and Charles Newell’s The Gospel at Colonus.

• The Edinburgh International Festival announced its 2022 programme. Theatre highlights include the UK premiere of International Theatre Amsterdam’s adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life, Alan Cumming and Steven Hoggett’s Burn, Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of Medea, Sri Lankan-Australian writer S. Shakthidharan’s Counting and Cracking, and James Thierrée’s ROOM.

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playwright news & awards

• The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis announced its 2022-23 fellows and mentees. The new cohort includes Jerome Fellows Jake Brasch, Francisca Da Silveira, Blossom Johnson, and Minghao Tu; Many Voices Fellows J. Corey Buckner, Gethsemane Herron, and Liqing Xu; and Many Voices Mentee Johanna Keller Flores.

• Mike Lew’s tiny father is the winner of the 2022 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. Lew will receive a $10,000 cash prize and a $10,000 commission from Williamstown.

• Winsome Pinnock and Sharon Bridgforth received the Windham-Campbell Prize. The $165,000 grant is awarded “to support their writing and allow them to focus on their work independent of financial concerns.”

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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 Assistant, Roundabout Theatre Company: $42,000+
  Living Wage for NYC: $56,718
  Expenses (2020): $49 million / Executive Compensation: $952,870 (President/Artistic Director)

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things I read this week besides the oral history of Mad Max: Fury Road

This isn’t explicitly about theatre, but Amil Niazi’s piece in The Cut on losing their ambition during the pandemic articulated every swirling thought I have about my own shifting definitions of success and the long, agonizing process of deprogramming yourself from prioritizing work above anything else:

“I have abandoned the notion of ambition to chase the absolute middle of the road: mediocrity. This, unsurprisingly, comes after the past two years — two years filled with intense pandemic parenting coupled with working full time. I want to “just be, man,” and won’t let concerns like success or climbing the corporate ladder stand in my way. The new dream is simply no goals, just vibes.

…There’s an illusion with work that everything you give up now, all the stolen time commuting, working overtime, checking your email and Slack notifications after hours, will somehow earn you freedom and capital in your later years. But the farce of “work hard now, play later” has been exposed for millennials and Gen-Zers; most of us will be working until we die. It’s hard to maintain your ambition in the face of that reality.”