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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Haley Morton | Editorial Support: Rebecca Adelsheim
in-person theatre
Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain't No Mo' is now playing at Woolly Mammoth through September 30th. Lili-Anne Brown directs the “vibrant, no-holds-barred comedy examining the lives of Black Americans in the aftermath of the election of a Black president – and hurtling toward the point of no return.” (A separate production of Ain’t No Mo’, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, opens on Broadway in November.
Marissa Joyce Stamps’ Blue Fire Burns the Hottest runs through September 24th as part of the 2022 Exponential Festival. Stamps also directs the boxing ring-set drama “exploring the intersection of hypermasculinity and spirituality, especially for Black men.”
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is now playing at Baltimore Center Stage. The Pulitzer-winning classic is directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
The US premiere of Natasha Gordon’s Nine Night runs through October 9th at Round House. Directed by Timothy Douglas, the dramedy explores the ritual, loss, and generational divides during a traditional Jamaican Nine Night wake.
Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning is now running through October 23rd at DC’s Studio Theatre. Sivan Battat directs Pulitzer finalist Arbery’s “incisive yet personal look at the intelligence and despair of the Catholic right.”
Matthew López’s The Inheritance runs through November 27th at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Mike Donahue directs the “two-part, seven-hour epic drama centered on a group of gay New Yorkers, two decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic.”
The world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me A Soprano is now playing at The Alley Theatre in Houston. The 1930s-set screwball comedy, based on Ludwig’s earlier work Lend Me A Tenor, is directed by Eleanor Holdridge.
Rebekah Greer Melocik and Jacob Yandura’s musical How to Dance in Ohio is now playing through October 9th at Syracuse Stage. Sammi Cannold directs the world premiere based on Alexandra Shiva’s Peabody-winning documentary that followed “seven autistic young adults in a Columbus, OH counseling center as they came of age and found their ways in the world.”
Jiehae Park’s peerless is now in previews at Primary Stages. The “darkly comedic twist on Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in the cutthroat world of elite college admissions” is directed by Margot Bordelon.
Eleanor Burgess’ Wife of a Salesman runs September 27 - November 6 at Milwaukee Rep. Directed by Marti Lyons, the co-world premiere with Writers Theatre imagines a 1950s housewife from a certain iconic American play who drives to Boston to confront her husband's mistress.
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun starts performances September 27th at The Public Theater. The revival, directed by Robert O’Hara, is an “innovative new production of an American classic [that] fearlessly interrogates the American dream in the face of racial and economic strife.”
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord is now running through October 16th at La Jolla Playhouse. Chay Yew directs the Pulitzer finalist solo show detailing Wong’s early pandemic experience “sew[ing] masks out of old clothes and household materials, eventually leading a virtual cohort of volunteers that blurred the lines between ‘feminist care utopia’ and ‘mutual aid doomsday cult.’”
Gracie Gardner’s I’m Revolting opens September 28th at the Atlantic. Knud Adams directs the world premiere “set at a skin cancer clinic in NYC (not the famous one) as patients wait to find out how much of themselves they're about to lose.”
The Kilbanes’ rock opera Weightless is now running through October 16th at WP Theater. Inspired by a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the show is based on the duo’s visual concept album weaving together ancient myth and indie rock and is directed by Tamilla Woodard.
2023-24 season updates (yes, already)
The world premiere of Jocelyn Bioh's Jaja’s African Hair Braiding will open on Broadway next fall. Manhattan Theatre Club will open their 2023-24 season with Whitney White directing the Harlem-set work “following a tight-knit community of West African immigrant hair braiders.”
the regional theatre game of thrones
Matt Shakman is stepping down as artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in February 2023. Shakman led the LA theatre company for five years and cited his film and television commitments as the reason for his departure.
Jeanette Harrison is the new artistic director of Artists Rep in Portland. Harrison was previously the co-founder and artistic director of AlterTheater for seventeen years. She will be ART’s first Native American woman artistic leader.
awards & residencies
The 2022 Helen Merrill Awards for Playwriting were announced. This year’s recipients are Gethsemane Herron, Zora Howard, C.A. Johnson, Michelle J. Rodriguez, and Cori Thomas. Each writer receives “an unrestricted award of $30,000 cash to provide a critical financial lifeline as they pursue their writing with fewer financial obstacles due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home is the 2022 winner of the Horton Foote Prize. Anderson will receive $50,000. (The play is currently premiering at Berkeley Rep.)
The Ntozake Shange Social Justice Theatre Residency with The Public Theater, Barnard Center for Research on Women, and Shange Literary Trust was established. Conceived by inaugural playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza, the rotating two-year playwriting residency for a “woman, femme, trans, or non-binary playwright of the African diaspora” will provide a salary with benefits and full support to pursue their creative work as a playwright.
Madeleine George is the 2022 recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award. George receives “a cash prize of $35,000, a six-week residency at the Hermitage, and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital such as New York, Chicago, or London in the fall of 2023.”
Playwrights Realm announced its 2022-23 Writing Fellows and inaugural Native American Artists Lab. The fellows are Andrea Ambam, Alyssa Haddad-Chin, Jesse Jae Hoon, and Alex Lin; Sean-Joseph Choo and Moki Bear Eagle are the first members of the Native American Artists Lab.
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 at Gulfshore Playhouse: $34,000-$36,400
Living Wage for Naples, FL: $40,884
Revenue (2020): $16.02 million / Net Income: $12.55 million
Executive Compensation: $164,575 (CEO & Producing Artistic Director)
I read the Helen Merrill awards as the Helen Mirren Awards—dyslexia looking out, and up, for us all.
Correction: I removed a listing for Soul Train at ACT, which has been postponed to 2023; I blame lingering COVID exhaustion for me not knowing the difference between 2022 and 2023 on their website text!