Seeker of Hard-Won Joy
By Helen Shaw
Director Lear deBessonet has fused art and activism into a big-hearted, deeply attentive and seriously playful aesthetic

On the Peculiar Nature of Theatre
By Richard Nelson
What’s a play for? Not to change the world, a playwright argues, but to replicate the intricate workings of the human heart

PLAYSCRIPT: The Christians
The complete text of Lucas Hnath’s play about the high cost of meaningful change; PLUS: a conversation between Hnath and The Christians director Les Waters

DEPARTMENTS:

Editor’s Note

From the Executive Director
Art in the Classroom

News in Brief
Entrances & Exits
Awards & Prizes
Almanac
In Memoriam: Carl Hancock Rux on Ruby Dee, Ted Chapin on Mary Rodgers, Lonny Price on Eli Wallach, Harold Prince on Elaine Stritch; briefs
Front & Center
Conviction at Rubicon Theatre
Bull Durham at the Alliance Theatre
Selma ’65 at LaMaMa E.T.C.
Native Son at the Court Theatre
Marjorie Prime at the Mark Taper Forum
Lake Untersee at the Illusion Theatre
Production Notebook
Les Misérables at Dallas Theater Center

Conversations
Eliza Bent prompts Julia Jarcho and Sybil Kempson to compare notes on Jane Bowles

People
Elaine Avila talks to Lisa Wolpe about playing Shakespeare’s men

First Person
Joseph Haj prefers a co-director to keep him company

Currents
Suzy Evans ponders criticism at the O’Neill Theatre Center
The Seagull lands in troubled Uzbekistan, by Gavin Reub

Books
Garrett Eisler on John Lahr’s new biography of Tennessee Williams

Strategies
Gathering your friends for a night at the theatre, by Eliza Bent

Global Spotlight
Eliza Bent meets women helming Polish theatres

20 Questions
for Brooke Adams