On Thursday, July 16, seven gender diverse artists and leaders in our theatre community gathered for a Roundtable to talk about the barriers that Black women, femmes, and nonbinary folx face in our community, guided by JR Nexus Russ. Watch the full discussion on the DCTS Facebook page. These conversations are not new. Whiteness and White […]
Tẹmídayọ Amay: Being, among other things, a nonbinary actor
Hi, my name is Tẹmídayọ Amay. I am an actor, writer, director, producer, and artist all day, every day. I like to cook, and bake. My favorite television shows include Grace and Frankie, Sex Education, and Grey’s Anatomy. I am a Libra sun, Leo moon, and Scorpio rising. I have deeply melanated skin and the […]
Defining and defending the gray area: the invisibility of small professional theatre
I’ve spent nearly three decades working in nominally professional theatre. That is to say non-Equity but (usually) paid, albeit below a living wage, but with enough EMC points to join. Two theatre degrees, worked with some famous people, garnered multiple awards and nominations, co-founded a theatre company in Boston that’s still going strong, etc. In […]
“I’m Not Interested in More Allies. I Need Advocates.” A conversation with Michael J. Bobbitt and Raymond O. Caldwell
What is it like for leaders of Color to work in White theatres? This Howlround Theatre Commons interview is between two well-known Washington area leaders: Michael J. Bobbitt, former Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre MTC, now Artistic Director of New Repertory Theatre in Boston, and director Raymond O. Caldwell, Artistic Director of Theater Alliance. ———————- […]
Another white man? Shakespeare Theatre’s staff speaks honestly about new artistic leader, Simon Godwin
Recently, Shakespeare Theatre Company announced the results of their exhaustive search for for an artistic director to replace Michael Kahn: the young British director Simon Godwin. Naturally, the theatre community burst into conversation. One of the things that struck me was the sheer number of artists and theatre professionals who were rolling their eyes and […]
The Tempest is a Bad Play. WSC Avant Bard has made it better.
In The Tempest, the lordly Prospero, formerly known as the Duke of Milan, is marooned on a miserable island with his daughter as his only human company. He also has Caliban, a growling subhuman whose function it is, apparently, to gather firewood, and the sprite Ariel, who he inherited from the island’s former occupant — […]
Powerful ‘wake up’ energy in Washington, DC: August Wilson, Peggy Cafritz and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
This past week brought a powerful confluence of “wake up” energy to Washington, DC. Sunday, people gathered at Washington’s National Cathedral to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave his last sermon there fifty years ago a few short days before he was gunned down in Memphis. Last Friday, Duke Ellington School held a […]
Abuse in Washington area theatres: Town Hall meeting tonight to share survey and proposed Code of Conduct
When the physical and sexual abuse at Chicago’s Profiles Theatre was brought to light, the theatre communities of America buzzed about. Here in DC, it shocked some , but for others, there was almost a sigh of relief. People were talking about it. Finally.
Terrorism, climate change, the subjugation of women. Is theatre equipped to confront any of it?
“If all theatres were demolished tomorrow, would anybody miss them, and for how long?” Several characters said that at different times throughout A Room in India, a theatre piece that had a run last month in New York at the Park Avenue Armory.
How a good play turned into another low for American theater
We welcome back playwright and professor R. W. Schneider in another of his insights on life and American theatre. “In the quiet pond of my office a mystery had opened its toothy jaws and swum forward.”
Considering Talkbacks: the art of after-show talk and its takeaways
Everyone is doing them, doing them, doing them. Well, actually no. Some artists say they hate them, notably David Mamet who recently threatened to fine theaters the hefty sum of $25,000 if they held any after his plays. In an article July 30th in the New York Times, Alexis Soloski sent out the intentional incendiary […]
Deep Cuts: a Lesson from Whipping’s Beer Man
In the past few days, as I’ve let Kathleen Akerley’s play Whipping, or The Football Hamlet (and this review) settle in my mind, I realize that my review perhaps comes off more harshly critical than I intended. Longacre Lea plays have a deserved reputation of inspiring polarizing, even heated, opinions. Such is the nature of […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.