the week of september 20-24, 2021
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digital & audio theatre
Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane streams through September 26th at Huntington. The digital production of the desperate-housewives-meets-Dionysius tragicomedy is directed by Jenny Koons.
Fehinti Balogun and Complicité's digital performance Can I Live? is available online until November 28th. Weaving together personal narrative, spoken word, rap, theatre, animation, and the scientific facts, Balogun shares his journey through climate activism as a young Black British man.
Lavina Jadhwani’s The Sitayana (or How to Make an Exit) streams through October 17th at East West Players. Directed by Reena Dutt, the virtual world premiere of the “artful transposition” of the Hindu epic The Ramayana is “the ultimate breakup play: part epic tale, part coming of age story.”
A triptych of three new short plays by Tracy Letts premieres at Steppenwolf on September 29th. The virtual works, directed by Patrick Zakem and Anna Shapiro, include the monologue Night Safari (starring Rainn Wilson), the filmed vignette (with puppets) The Old Country, and The Stretch (starring the playwright himself).
in-person theatre
Tina Satter’s Is This A Room starts previews tonight on Broadway. The transfer of the acclaimed Vineyard production will alternate performances with Lucas Hnath’s Dana H., which starts performances next week. I assume this also means that Emily Davis and Deirdre O’Connell can jointly share a Tony Award next spring because choosing between them is a sin.
James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner plays at the Shakespeare Theatre Company through September 26th. The production, directed by Whitney White, closed early in March 2020 and returns to complete its original run.
Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh is now playing at Second Stage. A companion piece to Animals Out of Paper, the play is directed by May Adrales and follows “the residents of a war-torn city as they seek peace through a series of notes that reveal a hunger for human connection.”
Soho Rep presents free presentations of its Writer/Director Lab’s works-in-progress starting September 24th. Productions include Blush (Keenan Hurley and Kedian Keohan), A Map to Nowhere (things are) (Nia Farrell and Talia Paulette Oliveras), Speak American (Kate Moore Heaney and Divya Mangwani), and Bust (Jeesun Choi and Bryn Herdrich).
the brits
The world premiere of Curious Directive’s Deciphering is now playing at London’s New Diorama Theatre. The science-led theatre ensemble’s latest intricate project requires audiences to wear headphones as they’re taken inside an Indonesian cave network containing the oldest graphic communication ever found.
Yaël Farber’s The Tragedy of Macbeth opens at the Almeida Theatre on October 1st. The “elemental” production stars James McArdle and Saoirse Ronan, in her UK stage debut. (If you’re stateside, don’t fret: there’s a possibility of a digital release.)
Caryl Churchill’s latest work What If If Only starts performances at the Royal Court on September 29th. Directed by James Macdonald, the 14-minute-long play asks “Your partner’s died, could things have been different?”
NW Trilogy is now playing at the Kiln Theatre. The evening of short plays set in the Northwest London features Moira Buffini’s Dance Floor, Roy Williams’ Life of Riley, and Suhayla El-Bushra’s Waking/Walking.
2021-22 season updates
Soho Rep announced its upcoming season. The line-up includes the world premiere of Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey’s while you were partying, Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (directed by Dustin Wills), and Omar Vélez Meléndez’s Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (directed by David Mendizábal).
Cutting Ball Theater announced its 2021-22 season. The San Francisco theatre will produce Morgan Gould’s Honestly, I’ve Never Wanted to Bash Someone in the Head with a Baseball Bat More Than I Do Right Now and Aimee Suzara’s The Real Sappho (directed by Maya Herbsman),
Audible Theater announced its fall programming. In-person productions include Wallace Shawn’s The Fever, a new production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (directed by Robert O’Hara), An Evening with Solea Pfeiffer, Faith Salie’s Approval Junkie, and DeLanna Studi’s And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears. Upcoming audio plays include Sharyn Rothstein’s Deep Fake (directed by Rachel Chavkin); Coal Country (by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with original music by Steve Earle and direction by Blank); Alexandra Wood’s Descent (directed from Natalie Abrahami); and Adam Rapp’s The Cube (directed by Whitney White).
playwright news
Heidi Schreck and Clubbed Thumb announced the first Constitution Commission playwrights. The recipients are Kori Alston, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Allyson Dwyer, Crystal Finn, Nazareth Hassan, Justice Hehir, Julia Izumi, Johnny Lloyd, Cristina Luzárraga, Kathy Ng, Hanna Novak, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Aaron Ricciardi, Ryan Szelong, Ruth Tang, and May Treuhaft-Ali. Each writer will receive $1,000 at an industry-only reading series of their work at The Wild Project next month.
Soho Rep announced the second year of its job creation program, Project Number One. Developed in respond to the pandemic, the initiative brings artists into the organization as salaried staff members. The next class includes two artists (so far): director/writer Abigail Jean-Baptiste and scenic designer Kimie Nishikawa.
Ensemble Studio Theatre announced the new Youngblood playwrights. The eight writers joining the collective of emerging professional writers are Brysen Boyd, Edison Ventura Mata Diaz, Miz Hashimoto, Justice Hehir, Sam Mueller, Phanésia Pharel, Nia Akilah Robinson, and Celeste Yim.
Matthew Freeman won the 2021 Kesselring Prize. The $25,000 award honoring “a playwright deserving of national recognition” also includes a two-week residency and a one-year membership at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park.
Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre announced the 2021 Expand the Canon list, featuring “nine plays by women that deserve a spotlight as theatres consider what works to present to its audiences”. The plays selected for 2021 are The Frolicks by Elizabeth Polwhele; Amor, Agavio y Mujer by Ana Caro; The Beau Defeated by Mary Pix; Fatal Falsehood by Hannah More; Françoise by George Sand, Forging the Truth by Yang Jiang; Foriwa by Efua Sutherland; A Happy Country by Maruxa Vilalta; and Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry.
the regional theatre game of thrones
Joanie Schultz is the new associate artistic director at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. The Chicago-based director joins the theatre in November and will “oversee the day-to-day operations of the artistic department, lead the Playhouse’s new play development work, help conduct season planning, direct mainstage productions, and represent the theatre locally and nationally.”
Ericka Ratcliff is the new artistic director of Congo Square Theatre. Congo Square is one of Chicago’s leading African-American theater companies and one of the city’s two Equity theaters dedicated to Black work.
Robert Falls will step down as artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in August 2022. Falls has led the Chicago theatre for more than three decades. He will program the 2022–2023 season, in which he will direct two productions.
Ed Herendeen will retire as producing director of Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Herendeen founded the new works festival, based at Shepherd University, in 1991. (For the record, I would abandon city life for Shepherdstown, West Virginia, my small town fantasy camp, in a heartbeat.)
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.)
Finance Associate, Ensemble Studio Theatre: $42,300
Living Wage for New York City: $51,323Education Programs Coordinator: Two River Theater: $37,000 - $40,000
Living Wage for Monmouth County, NJ: $40,555Executive Assistant & Board Liaison at Playwrights Horizons: $45,000
Living Wage for New York City: $51,323
