the week of september 27 - october 1, 2021
this is not a tony awards recap
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we got trouble (right here in williamstown)
You may recall that back in July, the entire sound department at the Williamstown Theatre Festival walked out of a tech rehearsal due to “unsafe conditions, poor management, understaffing, and rain.” Ashley Lee reported out the story for the LA Times and it was clear that the dam was about the break on WTF’s history of exploitative practices.
This week, Lee published a new in-depth report on Williamstown’s broken culture that exposes “artists-in-training to repeated safety hazards and a toxic work culture under the guise of prestige.”
In February, 75 WTF alumni sent an eight-page letter and appendix to the festival’s leadership and board, detailing the festival’s pay-to-play labor model, failed HR practices, and multiple incidents of racism, sexism, and classism. According to Lee, “The festival responded nearly three weeks later with a one-page letter that did not include an apology or acknowledgment of harm, but noted the hiring of an outside law firm for an investigation into the issues raised.” (Your regular reminder that third party investigations are designed to legally protect the institution, not seek justice.)
The article is a real feat of reporting and worth paying for a subscription if you hit the paywall: Lee details multiple, horrific accounts of workplace safety violations, a culture built on fear and intimidation, and the festival’s problematic apprentice program, which was branded as an educational opportunity but lacked any formal curriculum.
There are so many summer festivals and regional theatres built on similar bedrocks of labor exploitation, and it’s past time to abolish these unsustainable business models:
“So many people are now waking up to the fact that you don’t have to put yourself through this to work in the theater,” added [former intern Ryan] Seffinger, who now works in architecture. “After the last 18 months of activism, anyone who still bamboozles college students and young people into thinking the payoff is worth the exploitation is just licking the boot, and I cannot be complicit.”
the tonys & the jagged little pill mess
I am not doing a Tony Awards recap because I will not let the devil steal my joy. (I already worked at a LORT theatre that produced A Christmas Carol every year; I am not spending another second of my one wild and precious life thinking about that show.) Jackson McHenry and Helen Shaw wrote a round-up of the ceremony’s highs & lows over at Vulture.
Vulture also broke down recent events in the long controversy around Jagged Little Pill’s harmful treatment of trans and nonbinary artists and the development of the character Jo. It’s a real mess, so let’s start at the beginning: during the musical’s out-of-town tryout in 2018, Jo was clearly nonbinary. As theater critic Christian Lewis writes, “The character used they/them pronouns, they had a fight with their mother about their gender, they were deadnamed, and they were invalidated by their girlfriend. While the musical never directly said Jo is nonbinary, it was clear enough that many of the Boston critics mentioned it in their reviews.”
But by the time the show reached Broadway in 2019, script changes had been implemented to make Jo’s gender identity decidedly more ambiguous. Lauren Patten, the cisgender actor who originated the role, said in a 2020 interview that “Jo never was written as anything other than cis.” The production supported this claim in an April 2021 tweet:
After months of trans and nonbinary artists and advocates denouncing the erasure and gaslighting, the producers finally apologized on September 17th in an impact statement and committed to actionable changes, including “hiring a director of people and culture, bringing on a new dramaturgical team to ‘revisit and deepen’ Diablo Cody's script, and auditioning performers for the role of Jo who are on (or have completed) a gender expression journey themselves.” (Of note: Cody won a Tony Award for the book and didn’t address the unfolding situation.)
Patten issued an apology and video interview — but also announced she would be returning to the production when it reopens next week, despite calls for her to step down. (Patten won a Tony Award for the role and briefly addressed the controversy in her speech, thanking her “trans and nonbinary friends and colleagues who have engaged with me in difficult conversations.”)
Three actors also announced they would not return to the production, including Black nonbinary actor Nora Schell, who detailed extensive mistreatment from the production staff in response to their medical emergency. Celia R. Gooding and Antonio Cipriano both acknowledged the harm inflicted on the trans and nonbinary communities, and how it played into their decisions to leave the production. Iris Menas, a nonbinary actor who previously understudied Patten, also posted a response to the producers’ statement on Twitter, writing, “They don’t see the absolute PAIN this causes! i have PTSD!!!!!!” and “this is NOT enough. we are asking for basic care and we are gaslit.”
digital & audio theatre
An audio play of Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s Coal Country was released by Audible on September 30th. Directed by Blank and featuring original music by Steve Earle, Coal County premiered at the Public in 2020 and re-tells the story of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia, the most deadly mining disaster in recent U.S. history.
Vickie Ramirez’s Yuchewahkenh (Bitter) will have a virtual reading at 11 AM PST on October 2nd. The event is part of Native Voices at the Autry’s First Look series.
EXITS, an audio-theatrical journey through the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene, is now available. Created by Rachel Gita Karp, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Emerie Snyder, and Dina Vovsi, the piece exists as both a self-guided soundwalk and a site-specific live performance.
Two River Theater’s Crossing Borders Festival is streaming until October 10th. The virtual festival of new plays by Latinx playwrights is curated by José Zayas and features Paz Pardo’s CIERTAS ASTILLAS/CERTAIN SHARDS and Francisco Mendoza’s Machine Learning (both directed by Zayas), juliany f. taveras’ Syzygy Or, The Ceasing of the Sun (directed by Dominique Rider), and Nick Malakhow’s Optional Boss Battle (directed by Rebecca Martínez).
in-person theatre
The world premiere of Steph Del Rosso’s The Gradient starts performances October 1st at St. Louis Repertory Theatre. The satire, directed by Amelia Acosta Powell, is set at “a new facility that promises to take men accused of sexual misconduct and rehabilitate them into responsible citizens.” (Personal note: The Gradient was commissioned by Studio Theatre while I was working there; I am a big fan of Steph’s writing and I’m thrilled to see this play found a home.)
Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski runs October 6 - 17 at Shakespeare Theatre Company. The solo show, written by Clark Young and Derek Goldman, stars David Strathairn as “World War II hero and Holocaust witness Jan Karski, a messenger of truth who risked his life to carry his harrowing report from war-torn Poland to the Oval Office only to be disbelieved.”
The live, in-person culmination of P.S. plays October 7 - 21 at Ars Nova. The hybrid, multimedia experience is created by director-developer Teddy Bergman and playwrights Sam Chanse and Amina Henry, with materials designed by Kimie Nishikawa. The work began in November 2020, as audience members received a series of letters at home sent between two characters corresponding in real-time about the changing world, and the performance will reunite the characters onstage.
Cordelia Lynn’s Love and Other Acts of Violence premieres October 7th at the Donmar Warehouse. The “subversive and intimate love story about inheritance and the cycles of politics and history” is directed by Elayce Ismail.
revival round-up
Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play is returning to Broadway for a limited 8-week engagement in November. The production, directed by Robert O’Hara and featuring a majority of the original cast, will then transfer to Center Theatre Group.
Mike Bartlett’s play Cock will debut on the West End in March 2022, thirteen years after its premiere at the Royal Court. The production will be directed by Marianne Elliott. The real question: has the New York Times’ prim style guide evolved enough to print the actual title of the play?
Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga will star in Macbeth on Broadway next March. The production will be directed by Sam Gold, who is working his way through Shakespeare’s tragedies: his last Broadway production was the 2019 revival of King Lear, and he also directed Craig in Othello at NYTW.
Lileana Blain-Cruz will direct the Lincoln Center revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth. The production marks Blain-Cruz’s Broadway debut and starts previews in March 2022.
assorted news
Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s The Visitor delayed its first previews at the Public Theater by a week due to “conversations and commitments around equity and anti-racism.” Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the world premiere musical is based on the 2007 independent film about a widowed college professor’s chance encounter with an immigrant couple from Syria and Senegal, as he’s “swept up into their struggle to stay in an America that they have made their home, but seeks to cast them out.”
According to Playbill, “Recent discussions have included the concern over the centering of a middle-aged white man as a protagonist in a story largely about immigrant experiences as well as assurances that cast members have access to resources to fully participate in telling these stories.” (Note: The director and creators of the show are not of Middle Eastern descent.) Concerns had been raised at earlier developmental workshops, when actor Ari’el Stachel “requested to director Daniel Sullivan that his character not speak with a Syrian accent, as to accurately reflect his formative years spent in the U.S.”Reggie D. White is the second recipient of the Colman Domingo Award. The Vineyard Theatre prize, given annually to a multi-faceted Black male theatre artist, provides “a cash stipend, workshops and other developmental opportunities, access to writing and studio space, mentorship, and the ongoing support of The Vineyard.”
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.)
Education Coordinator, Imagination Stage: $36,000
Living Wage for Montgomery County, MD: $53,385Marketing & Audience Services Assistant, MCC Theater: $45,000
Living Wage for NYC: $51,323Education Associate, Theatre for a New Audience: $35,000 - $39,000
Living Wage for NYC: $51,323
