Tag Archives: theatre

Translocal Arts Activism

An interesting discussion with Complex Movements, an artist-activist collective in Detroit, about the intersection of art, technology, and commodification in trying to build “translocal” alliances for change here.

Performance

  Dramatists, directors, actors all will tell you the same thing about it: theatre is when strangers come together to share a common experience. What is so unique is the connection between artists and audience. The same could be said of all the performing arts in pre-pandemic times. What about streaming theatre?  The various ways the Read More

Paying More and Getting Less

The damage done to the employment prospects of recent college graduates by the pandemic, and the litany of other 21st century disasters that preceded it, is severe. The pain is compounded by the cost of the education they pursued in good faith, only to have far fewer opportunities available to them than their parents’ generation. No Read More

Theatre From a Distance

A very bright young student of theatre by the name of Janice Rabian posted an interesting study of her industry’s response to the pandemic that has closed live performances for most of 2020 and the foreseeable future. Necessity being the Mother, it’s worth a look at how innovative people in the field are reacting, what Read More

Play4Keeps

When we began this website, the focus was Center for the New Northwest, a non-profit center for ideas about change. One of the things we wanted to change was Ashland New Plays Festival. A proud promoter of new works for the stage and the playwrights who write them, ANPF for nearly three decades had been Read More

Mysticism in Theatre and in Life

We revisited this post from 2017 the day after the 2020 elections and found it to be every bit as relevant now, as this quote from the linked article suggests: “As we head into a more difficult and divisive period in American political and social history, a reinvigoration of these ideas represents a much-needed remedy. Read More

A Brief History of Gender Equity in Theatre

How long has gender equity in theatre been an issue? Maybe forever. If you think we’ve moved closer to parity the past few years, we have. But not far enough and not nearly fast enough. If you’d like to gain a little perspective about the subject, you can get it here

Politics in Theatre

Intelligence is the third in Arena Stage’s Power Plays initiative—a ten-year plan to commission twenty-five plays, one for each decade of American history, about power and politics. Deputy Artistic Director Seema Sueko told me that the initiative was the result of Artistic Director Molly Smith “having her ears, eyes, and heart open to the heartbeat of Read More