David John Chávez is a theatre critic and reporter based in San Jose, California, with over 20 years of experience in educational theatre. In his reporting for us on efforts to help high school students find success in the performing arts, Chávez said he was both surprised and heartened to find theatre companies leaning into their part in building a strong industry ecosystem. “This is theatre’s best chance to build the ideal they want in their spaces,” Chávez said. “As long as diversity and investment is at the effort’s heart, theatre can thrive in amazing ways going forward.”
Nikki Massoud is a writer and actor who found her experience of behind-the-scenes reporting on a new musical about the Tahrir Square protests, We Live in Cairo, “deeply moving,” not only for her own affinity with the story—as an Iranian Canadian American, she said, her life was “also shaped by a revolution”—but for what she saw revealed in the process. “Every single member of the team of We Live in Cairo had a deeply personal connection to the material,” Massoud recalled. “So much time, research, and passion went into the making of the show.”
