the week of november 12 - 18, 2022
on the boards
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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim
in-person theatre
Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders is now in previews on Broadway. Kenny Leon directs and Audra McDonald stars in the landmark production, which marks the 91-year-old playwright’s long-overdue Broadway debut.
Jesús I. Valles’ solo show (Un)Documents runs through November 20th at LA’s Latino Theater Company. Rudy Ramirez directs the actor/poet’s “journey across both sides of a river with two names, moving between languages to find their place as a child, a lover, a teacher, and a sibling in a nation that demands sacrifice at the altar of citizenship.”
Alex Edelman’s Just for Us is now playing through December 23rd at Woolly Mammoth. The comedian’s 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 — is directed by Adam Brace.
Julia May Jonas’ Your Own Personal Exegesis starts previews November 19th at LCT3. Annie Tippe directs the “bracingly funny and slyly devastating collision of coming-of-age eroticism and religious ecstasy." (Side note: I read Jonas’ Vladimir earlier this year and at first was like, “Great, I love a moody contemplation of upstate academia and sexual politics and complex marriages” but I had no idea what was going to happen page-to-page in the final third of that book. It’s a thrilling little gem of a novel.)
Bleu Beckford-Burrell’s La Race runs November 22 - December 23 in a co-pro with Page 73 & The Working Theater. Taylor Reynolds directs the Far Rockaway-set world premiere “examining the community that surrounds a grassroots city council campaign led by Maxine, a Black woman in her 30s who is pushed by her radical best friend to become the face of a movement.”
Aaron Posner & Teller’s adaptation of The Tempest starts previews November 23rd at Round House Theatre. The reimagined Shakespearean classic features “haunting music from the catalog of iconic songwriter Tom Waits, mind-bending moves from Pilobolus, and astonishing feats of magic.”
Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley starts performances November 26th at Northlight Theatre. Marti Lyons directs the rolling world premiere of the final installment of Gunderson and Melcon’s Christmas at Pemberley trilogy.
The world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s The Brightest Thing in the World runs November 25 - December 17 at Yale Rep. Playing on classic rom-com tropes (a bakery meet-cute!), the “funny and compassionate new play about people we all know and people we all love” is directed by Margot Bordelon.
on the boards
As you may remember, over the summer the Victory Gardens board unceremoniously fired the entire staff and essentially threw out the mission of the storied new work incubator to turn the theater into a rental house. In response, the Woolly Mammoth board has written an open letter asking trustees across the country to publicly commit to “improving relations between the boards of the theatres we sit on and the professional artists and culture workers who give our theatres life.”
The letter also speaks to the history of theater board stewardship and the importance of combatting the erosion of board/staff relations:
At the beginning of the nonprofit theatre field, many boards were established as groups of “Trustees,” as distinct from the “Directors” that govern corporate shareholder boards. While each theatre’s board structure and expectations may be unique, we all have one fundamental role: to hold our theatre’s mission—its principal reason for being—in trust for the communities we represent. Holding a theatre in trust this way is quite different than directing its operations. It is a stewardship that requires centering on the art and the artists and trusting their talent and expertise, even as we partner to balance a budget or provide legal and financial oversight. We commit ourselves to that “trust” at the heart of our job title.
As volunteers who dedicate our time to beloved cultural organizations in our respective cities, let us ensure that what happened in Chicago is an anomaly, not the norm. While we do not speak for every theatre, we have seen how easy it is for boards to silo themselves from the needs of the artists, administrators, and technicians who work to create the theatre they love and support. This is not serving us and our field.
The letter ends with a call to donate to the GoFundMe for ongoing financial support of the former Victory Gardens staffers.
end of an era: maryland edition
REP Stage will shutter at the end of this season. The in-house professional theater at Howard Community College is closing to “allow the college to refocus funding to programs and services that directly serve students.” The final two productions will be Falsettos (directed & choreographed by artistic director Joseph W. Ritsch) and the world premiere of Dane Figueroa Edidi’s Ghost/Writer (directed by Danielle A. Drakes).
Adventure Theatre is “pausing day-to-day operations pending the completion of a strategic planning process”. The Glen Echo Park-based children’s theater noted several recent hardships: a destructive fire, the pandemic, financial struggles, and leadership and staff transitions. (The statement neglected to mention the staff’s open letter alleging unfair pay and unsafe working conditions that was released in July.)
2023 season updates
Amy Herzog’s adaptation of A Doll’s House will premiere on Broadway this spring. The “radical new production” of the Ibsen classic will be directed by Jamie Lloyd and star Jessica Chastain.
Park Avenue Armory announced its upcoming season. Projects include Alexander Zeldin’s immersive drama Love, Robert Icke’s The Doctor (an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhardi), and the world premieres of German opera director Claus Guth’s Doppelganger and Venezuelan artist Arca’s experimental electronic music ritual Mutant; Destrudo.
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.)
Artistic Assistant at Two River Theater
Here’s the full compensation description because the juxtaposition with the obligatory EDI disclaimer is hilarious:
Living Wage for Monmouth County, NJ: $44,520
Revenue (2021): $4.21 million / Net Income: -$1.6 million
Executive Compensation (2020): $252,179 (Artistic Director) / $211,234 (Managing Director)
this is a living wage
Emory University is hiring a two-year playwriting fellow: $45K/year (in Atlanta), health benefits, travel fund, and as the description alludes, you get to work with Kimberly Belflower. (Devoted NFTG readers know this newsletter is a no-chill fandom for John Proctor is the Villain. If I don’t see that play in multiple 2023-24 season announcements, I will take to the streets.)
