the week of october 25-31, 2024
joan rivers, glitter vikings, holy disorder
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:
The Friday weekly round-up is always free, but if you’d like to sustain this project (and get access to occasional bonus content), you can upgrade to a paid tier. (You can also support via Venmo @halvorsen or Paypal.)
If you want to say hi (or send me a press release), you can email me or follow Nothing for the Group on Instagram.
Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim
world premieres
The Builders Association’s ATLAS DRUGGED (Tools for Tomorrow) runs October 25-27 at NYU Skirball. The cross-media performance company’s latest technologically dazzling mind-bender melds the “benzedrine rants of Ayn Rand with Artificial Intelligence with electoral politics.”
Daniel Goldstein’s Joan starts performances October 27th at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA. David Ivers directs the “hilarious and heartbreaking account of the famously edgy, fearless and loving legend Joan Rivers.”
Matthew Libby’s Data runs October 31 - December 15 at DC’s Arena Stage. The “fast-paced techno-thriller unveiling the dark secrets lurking within Silicon Valley” is directed by Margot Bordelon.
Omer Abbas Salem’s Happy Days Are Here (Again) is now playing through October 27th at Steep Theatre in Chicago. Azar Kazemi directs the commissioned work “examining man-made ‘divine’ power, who wields it, and if they should be trusted.”
productions
Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day starts performances October 25th at The DC Arts Center in a co-production between Nu Sass Productions & Pinky Swear Productions. Aria Velz directs the “exploration of humanity’s struggle to preserve the best of ourselves in the face of insurmountable injustice and cruelty.”
Annie Baker’s Infinite Life runs October 25 - November 10 at Third Rail Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR. The “meditation on the complexities of pain and longing” is directed by Rebecca Lingafelter.
King Lear starts performances October 26th at The Shed in NYC. Rob Ashford, Kenneth Branagh, and Lucy Skilbeck co-direct the new production of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy with Branagh in the title role.
Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum runs October 29 - January 12 at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. The “zany musical romp of mistaken identities, wily ruses, madcap chases, a love story, and a happy ending of course” is directed and choreographed by Matthew Gardiner.
Jessica Goldberg’s Babe starts performances October 29th at Off-Broadway’s The New Group. Scott Elliott directs the new work about Abby and Gus, a pair of legendary record producers, whose harmonious work marriage is disrupted by a new A&R hire “who calls Abby out on the compromises she’s made in her work, [forcing her to] face the music and fight to survive.”
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s Still/Here runs October 30 - November 2 at BAM Next Wave Festival in Brooklyn, NY. The “groundbreaking and then-highly controversial multimedia dance theater work created during the AIDS epidemic” returns to Next Wave thirty years after its premiere.
Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt starts performances October 30th at Lincoln Center Theater. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs the “eloquent and moving family story about four sisters gathering at their childhood island home off the coast of Georgia for their annual reunion, [which] turns into a reading of their mother’s will, forcing everyone to grapple with a troubling inheritance.”
Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic runs October 30 - November 24 at Theater J in DC. The “epic family drama breaking open the global question ‘Where are we safe?’” is directed by Hayley Finn.
Derek Goldman’s The Art of Care starts performances October 31st at Mosaic Theater Company in DC. Goldman directs a powerhouse ensemble of local actors whose “riveting stories combine with the voices of caregivers, medical professionals, and everyday people to create a deeply personal and universally resonant theatrical event.”
Papel Machete’s On the Eve of Abolition runs October 31 - November 3 at ArtsEmerson in Boston. The Puerto Rican theater collective’s multimedia work is “a radical imaginary sci-fi story set in 2047 about survival, struggle, and the people's liberation movement that made abolition possible.”
Mfoniso Udonia’s Sojourners starts performances October 31st at The Huntington Theatre in Boston. Dawn M. Simmons directs the first installment of Udonia’s nine-play Ufot Cycle, which will be produced in full by various Boston theatres and arts organizations over the next two years.
Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing runs October 31 - January 5 at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL. The “big-hearted play—told in gentle collaboration with the audience—shining a hilarious and compassionate light on life’s small abundant joys” is directed by Kimberly Senior.
workshops & readings
The Public Theater’s Judith Champion New Work Series continues on October 28 & 29. This week’s readings include Else Went’s Degenerates (directed by Emma Went) and Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s Ronnie and Kripa (directed by Chowdhury); both plays will be dramaturged by Sarah Lunnie.
jose sebastian alberdi’s rachel, nevada will have Page 73 readings on October 31 & November 1 at ART/NY. Danya Taymor directs.
digital
The From Home Festival runs October 26 - November 3. The annual virtual theatre festival’s line-up includes Parker Sela’s one-on-one interactive show over the phone I Do Adore You, cirqueSaw’s live interactive online performance labRats, Young Playwrights’ Theater’s devised web series Silence is Violence: The Future of the Field, Tristan B. Willis’ in-browser game/play-script David & Jonathan, Megan Markham’s Megatron-1996, Phoenix Tears Productions’ one-on-one phone show The Game, Flapjack Theatrics’ theatrical adventure/memoir on Zoom Glitter Vikings of a Wolfish God, and Arshan Gailus’ SPACE.
separation of church and stage
Off Broadway’s The Connelly Theater suspended operations after its landlord, The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, cracked down on the content of rental productions. The New York Times reports that, “There was always a clause in the contract allowing the Roman Catholic Church to bar anything it deemed obscene, pornographic or detrimental to the church’s reputation. But only recently did the archdiocese seek to rigorously scrutinize scripts before approving rentals.”
Josh Luxenberg, the theater’s general manager of a decade, resigned last week, telling the Times, “Remaining in this position now requires screening production proposals for any content that is objectionable to the Catholic Church. This puts me in the untenable position of becoming a censor rather than an advocate of artistic freedom.”
Luxenberg also informed Playbill that “though the Archdiocese never said what the new content guidelines specifically were, he noticed that the church was putting content featuring trans characters or gender issues under greater scrutiny.” (New York Theatre Workshop’s production of Emil Weinstein’s Becoming Eve, a new play about “an ultra-Orthodox child’s search for her identity and life as a transgender woman”, was scheduled to premiere at the Connelly in March until the script was rejected by the Archdiocese.)
The loss of yet another small producing venue comes a week after New York State Assembly Member Robert Carroll and Senator Julia Salazar introduced the New York City Arts Space Act, a bill to create more affordable and accessible art spaces. “There are fewer and fewer [venues] that are in that small, Off-Broadway, professional house range,” Luxenberg told Playbill. “Part of what hurts so much is that it's totally unnecessary…We were deeply embedded in the community, and there was a lot of good happening. And the Archdiocese has chosen to put a stop to all that.”
residencies & commissions
PAC NYC commissioned eight new works for its inaugural The Democracy Cycle. The five-year series of 25 multi-disciplinary works will “illuminate the promise, practice, imperfection, and opportunity of democracy.” Each selected project receives $60,000 in support ($30,000 commission and $30,000 for project development). The inaugural works include Javaad Alipoor’s America’s Kingdoms; Baye & Asa’s At the Altar; Charlotte Brathwaite, June Cross, Sunder Ganglani’s Douglass v. Democracy; Pablo Manzi and Bonobo Teatro’s Estampida Humana; Angélica Negrón’s The Puerto Rico Experiment; Vickie Ramirez, Ty Defoe, Jeanette Harrison’s Six Nations: One Fire; Abigail Nessen Bengson and The Bengsons’ Sovereignty Hymns; and Talvin Wilks and Paul Schiff Berman’s The Truth Beneath.
Ensemble Studio Theatre announced its 2024-25 Youngblood Members. Morgan Barnes-Whitehead, Stefani Kuo, Abigail C. Onwunali, Fernando Buzhar Segall, and Matt Shvyrkov join the collective of emerging playwrights.
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.)
Donor Relations Coordinator at Studio Theatre: $42,000 – $47,000 (Full-Time Non-Exempt)
Living Wage for Washington, DC: $60,090
Revenue (2023): $6.79 million / Net Income: -$1.17 million
Executive Compensation:
Literary Assistant at Bret Adams Ltd: $41,600.00 + “bonuses based on revenue”
Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852
Literary Associate at Roundabout Theatre Company: $50,000 (Full-Time Non-Exempt)
Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852
Revenue (2023): $69.9 million / Net Income: -$1.89 million
Executive Compensation:
Artistic Director (through 4/23): $1,156,161 ($1,064,254 base / $91,907 other compensation)
Interim Artistic Director: $200,000
Executive Director (through 4/22): $436,585 ($397,077 base / $39,508 other compensation)
Executive Producer: $601,469 ($347,484 base / $253,985 other compensation)
All of these positions are overtime eligible. But I think it’s a useful exercise to show how many additional hours an employee would need to work to reach the minimum living wage for the area:
Studio Theatre
Annual Salary: $42,000 (Hourly Rate: $20.19 / Overtime Rate: $30.29)
Difference Between Annual Salary ($42,000) and DC Living Wage ($60,090): $18,090
Number of Overtime Hours Needed to Reach Living Wage: 597.23, or approximately 11.5/hours per week.Bret Adams
Annual Salary: $41,600 (Hourly Rate: $20 / Overtime Rate: $30)
Difference Between Annual Salary ($41,600) and NYC Living Wage ($69,852): $28,252
Number of Overtime Hours Needed to Reach Living Wage: 941.73, or approximately 18/hours per week.Roundabout
Annual Salary: $50,000 (Hourly Rate: $24.04 / Overtime Rate: $36.06)
Difference Between Annual Salary ($50,000) and NYC Living Wage ($69,852): $19,852
Number of Overtime Hours Needed to Reach Living Wage: 550.53, or approximately 10.59/hours per week.
Contrary to popular opinion, I do not delight in publishing That’s Not A Living Wage. I have compassion for theatre companies wrestling with impossible finances. (I can’t remember the last time I looked up a 990 and didn’t see a six-figure budget deficit.)
That being said: I will never trust solutions that devalue labor. Expecting workers to clock 50-60 hours a week to earn the minimum livable compensation is in direct opposition to most theatres’ purported values of equity, inclusivity, and sustainability. This perpetuates a culture of overwork and prevents people from building meaningful lives outside of their jobs — to the employer’s benefit. (A friendly reminder that capitalism is not designed to support one’s personal growth and fulfillment!) If a theatre cannot invest in its greatest asset — the workers who create and facilitate the art onstage — it will succumb to institutional rot.
Obsessed with the executive compensation broken down beneath the unlivable wages