Founding Fathers Who Look Like the Future
Recasting American history with non-white actors not only makes ‘Hamilton’ feel immediate, alive. It’s also a reminder that the story is still being written with each retelling.
Category Archives: Opinion
Drone Plays: There’s Something in the Air
Two new one-woman plays dramatize the unique stress and ethical pitfalls of fighting in the Chair Force.
Sure, ‘Hamilton’ Is a Game-Changer, But Whose Game?
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s subversive new hip-hop history musical richly deserves the acclaim. Here’s hoping it paves the way for more stories of, by and for the hip-hop generation.
If You Are What You Do, I Guess I’m Not a Playwright Anymore
Retiring from a creative calling that never really paid my bills has been much harder than I’d imagined—but it seems to have already happened anyway.
Chekhov, Our (Distracted, Prosaic, Prophetic) Contemporary
Somehow a Russian doctor who died in 1904 was able to pre-diagnose our 21st-century ways of not connecting, of spending our lives alone together.
The Great American Living-Room Play Gets a Remodel
In seeming to strike at the foundations of the realist family play, playwrights like Will Eno, Young Jean Lee and Taylor Mac may actually be proving the durability of its four walls.
Break On Through to the Other Side: Success and ‘Not Success’
Failure can be a gateway to new scenes, new ideas—even a brand new writing identity.
Write, Erase, Do It Over: On Failure, Risk and Writing Outside Yourself
Learning how to fail well is as crucial a part of a writer’s craft as putting words on a page. With other kinds of failure, you have less control.
Equity Vs. L.A. 99-Seat Theatre, the Final Showdown
As the battle over L.A.’s non-remunerative 99-seat plan comes to a head, players on either side have radically different prognoses for the health of the city’s sprawling theatre scene.
In London, a Mix of Old and New, Often on the Same Stage
A new history play set in the future holds its own alongside classics, as well as new works by Stoppard and Hare and a pair of ace musical revivals.
