the week of october 4-8, 2021
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this week’s endless scroll
Welcome to the longest edition yet of Nothing for the Group. If you’re reading this in your inbox, I suggest switching over to the full site because this tome exceeds Gmail’s length limit. I didn’t expect to channel a 19th century Russian novelist this week, but there are three reasons, which also serve as a tidy industry snapshot:
A beloved institution’s surprise closure
Jeremy O. Harris
Two beleaguered theatres — (the subjects of my top two most-read newsletters) — decided to act up
R.I.P. The Lark
The Lark announced this week that it will cease operations after 27 years. The board came to the decision to shutter the new play incubator after “many long months of responding to pandemic-related crises and seeking paths to sustainability.”
American Theatre reported out the behind-the-scenes financial crises inherited by artistic director May Adrales, who took over for founder John Clinton Eisner in February 2021. Board president Colin Greer acknowledged a “perfect storm” of setbacks: fundraising difficulty, unexpected staff departures, and a ghoulish landlord’s threat to double the rent on the Lark’s Midtown space.
The Lark is currently “in conversation with peer institutions to re-home existing programs and fellowships.” One can speak to the value and impact of every Lark initiative, but I hope the global playwright exchanges find a new home; there aren’t many organizations that host international residencies and facilitate the development of thoughtful new work in translation.
When I first read this news, I immediately thought of the Intiman. Kate Whoriskey was appointed artistic director of the Seattle theatre in 2010, hand-picked by her predecessor Bartlett Sher, who led the organization for a decade. A few months into her tenure, she learned of the theatre’s crippling 2.3 million debt. Within six months, the board voted to close the theater and lay off the entire staff, including Whoriskey. (The Intiman eventually relaunched with new leadership in 2012.) I wasn’t the only one to draw a similar comparison:
no L.A. for Slave Play
Last week, Center Theatre Group announced the 2022 season for its Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre venues. The line-up included a bunch of world premiere co-pros — Rajiv Joseph’s King James (with Steppenwolf), Benjamin Benne's Alma (with American Blues Theater), Dave Harris’ Tambo & Bones (with Playwrights Horizons) — plus the world premiere of Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool, Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (directed by Phylicia Rashad), and Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play (directed by Robert O'Hara), following its return limited engagement on Broadway.
The season was immediately criticized for its lack of gender equity, but programming dude-heavy seasons is a pattern at the Mark Taper Forum. As playwright Claire Kiechel noted on Twitter, “2 out of 6 productions in 2019 had non-male playwrights, 1 in 2017 & 2018, 2 in 2016, 0 in 2015 & 2014.”
On October 5th, Jeremy O. Harris posted a screenshot of an email he sent to CTG leadership:
I'm emailing to let you know the reason why I haven't shared much digital enthusiasm about the season.
As a playwright who holds dear the principles of both inclusion it was a shock to realize that this season was programmed with only 1 woman across all theatres. As an Angeleno and a lover of theatre I think Los Angeles audiences deserve an equitable showing of the playwrights working in the US right now.
I've spoken to my team and would like to begin the process of removing Slave Play from the season at this time. Hopefully in its place some young playwrights I love might be able to join the fold like: Celine Song, Tori Sampson, Aleshea Harris, Claire Kiechel, Antoinette Nwandu, Ming Pfeiffer, Whitney White, Clare Barron, Majkin Holmquist, Genne Murphy, Aziza Barnes and so many more.
In a later thread, Harris acknowledged the confluence of career privileges that allowed him to take this action:
In assembling Center Theatre Group’s upcoming Taper and Douglas seasons, we first honored commitments to many shows that were disrupted by the pandemic over the course of the last two years. Some of those commitments include plays by women that have been scheduled for next season due to artist availability but are not yet announced. We understand the frustration, disappointment and even anger in the scarcity of women playwrights in the upcoming season. Although we have announced a lineup featuring voices from many standpoints and identities, we acknowledge that we’ve fallen short of our own expectations and those of our community in regards to gender equity, and for that, we apologize. We can and will do better.
The statement also commits to gender parity among playwrights for its 2022-23 season, and notes 11 out of 16 of its recent commissions are by women and all four directors in the current Kirk Douglas Theatre season are women or nonbinary.
I’m sympathetic to the puzzle-making and pressure of season planning — how rights availability & scheduling can quash best artistic intentions and send you into a scramble — but it’s not a valid excuse. CTG was right to apologize and I support Jeremy’s decision to harness his career advantages and singular visibility to draw attention to a field-wide problem.
update: American Shakespeare Center
In February, I wrote about Ethan McSweeny’s resignation from American Shakespeare Center, following allegations he created a ‘toxic’ culture of fear, intimidation, and bullying. The organization announced it would transition to an actor-manager model of shared leadership.
Devoted Nothing for the Group readers know that one of my common refrains is that removing an abusive leader won’t magically fix an institution because organizational dysfunction is never concentrated in one person. This week, the Washington Post reported that American Shakespeare Center is canceling its fall season due to “internal strife over how the company is run, and its treatment of women and people of color.”
After a series of key resignations, the board hired consultant Joseph Toni Castañeda Carrera for a nine-month stint to “revise company values through an EDI lens” and ceased productions due to “issues around training, personnel and policy.” The Post’s Peter Marks also details the erosion of ASC’s nascent leadership structure, and how sources cited that “whatever problems may have surfaced during McSweeny’s tenure were not solved with his departure.”
update: The Flea
Last December, I wrote about the suspension of the Flea’s Resident Artist programs, and the vague, messy organizational messaging around the transition. If you really want to deep dive, I recommend Helen Shaw on the Flea’s long history of wage complaints and the lead-up to the dismissal of the artists and subsequent public fall-out.
Yesterday, the Flea unveiled its new producing model and announced a series of changes:
The Flea will host a Key Resident Company, a three-year program providing “the presentation of work, $10,000 unrestricted cash support each year, $50,000 space rental credits each year, in addition to production and marketing support and resources to develop their new projects.”
The inaugural partnership is with The Fled Collective, a non-hierarchal company comprised of the former Flea resident artists who organized for change last year.
A “multiyear residency program for itinerant artistic companies.” The first company will be the Black woman-led modern dance troupe EMERGE12. Participants receive “creative, technical and producing support, discounted rental space, and access to office space for at least three years.”
The board has been restructured, with five new members and “at least one seat now allotted to an artist from a resident company.”
One press release doesn’t radically transform and heal the The Flea’s history of damage. I don’t have any insider info, but it sounds like the organization thoughtfully engaged in a facilitated, restorative process with its resident artists and even — dare I say — learned from its multiple PR blunders. (I think the color scheme of their new website is more appropriate for a frozen yogurt shop than a cutting-edge theatre but institutional reinvention is a winding road.)
digital theatre
The Vineyard Theatre announced its Fall Forward Festival line-up, featuring five newly commissioned works of alternative theatre. Kirsten Childs’ audio musical Aunt Lillian (directed by Awoye Timpo) and Ngozi Anyanwu and Alfonso Johnson’s short film Maybe Dorothy Was Right are now streaming, while upcoming projects include Jared Mezzocchi's multimedia performance On the Beauty of Loss, Polly Pen’s 56 Flowers, and Madeline Sayet’s The Fish.
in-person theatre
Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. started previews on Broadway. The transfer of the acclaimed Vineyard production — directed by Les Waters and starring Deirdre O’Connell — is alternating performances with Tina Satter’s Is This a Room.
Wallace Shawn’s The Fever runs October 8 -24 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. The Audible Theatre/New Group co-production is directed by Scott Elliott and stars Lili Taylor.
Eduardo Machado’s Celia and Fidel runs October 9 - November 21 at Arena Stage. The 1980s-set world premiere “imagines a fight between Cuba’s most influential female revolutionary and its most notorious political leader” and is directed by Molly Smith.
The New Black Fest’s HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments is now playing at the Alliance Theatre. Directed by Keith Arthur Bolden and Alexis Woodard, the production features seven monologues by Black playwrights, depicting “the realities of Black America from the perspective of varying genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The Universes’ Live from the Edge runs October 9 - 31 at City Theatre Company. The performance “tracks the evolution of language from childhood rhymes and community rituals to poetry and theater, hip-hop, gospel, Latin jazz, and down-home blues.”
Vanessa Severo’s Frida…A Self Portrait starts performances October 9th at Portland Center Stage. The solo show, directed by Joanie Schultz, “cracks open the brilliant, nuanced world of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s tumultuous life.”
The world premiere of Keith Josef Adkins’ The West End opens October 9th at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Directed by Nicole A. Watson, the 1940s-set drama examines the intersection of Cincinnati’s German and Black residents at the precipice of World War II.
Simon Stephens’ Morning Sun starts previews at Manhattan Theatre Club on October 12th. The decades-spanning world premiere is directed by Lila Neugebauer and stars Blair Brown, Marin Ireland, and Edie Falco.
2021-22 season updates
Woolly Mammoth will present the Royal Court’s production of Jasmine Lee-Jones’ seven methods of killing kylie jenner. Directed by Milli Bhatia, the play offers “a Gen Z analysis of Black womanhood, colorism, and the politics of social media activism.”
Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie will open on the West End in April 2022. Directed by Justin Martin, the production will star Jodie Comer, who was an unhinged delight in the one season of Killing Eve I watched.
TheaterWorks Hartford announced its upcoming season. The line-up includes Harrison David Rivers’ This Bitter Earth (directed by David Mendizábal), Matthew Lopez’s Zoey's Perfect Wedding (directed by Rob Ruggiero), Madeleine George's Hurricane Diane, and Jared Mezzocchi's live virtual experience Someone Else's House (directed by Margot Bordelon).
the regional theatre game of thrones
Teresa Sapien is the new associate artistic director of Arena Stage. Sapien originally joined Arena two years ago and most recently served as casting director/line producer.
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. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Executive Assistant & Board Liaison, Round House Theatre: $38,000 - $40,000
Living Wage for Montgomery County, MD: $53,385Marketing Associate, Signature Theatre (VA): “Low 30s”
Living Wage for Arlington County, VA: $56,221
I would be curious to hear from those involved in Slave Play (other than JOH) say what they think about the sudden loss of a job. Were those people, who don’t enjoy the same newfound professional privileges the playwright described, consulted before making this decision?