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.
Category Archives: Opinion
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.
The Genius of O’Neill
He wrote his best play last, but it’s a mistake to think of the rest of the playwright’s thorny, ambitious, stammeringly poetic work as simply a warmup for ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night.’
NYC Festival Wrapup: Emotional Rubble, Glam Rock and Spiritual Cojones
This year, dozens of shows in a few weeks pushed boundaries and pointed in invigorating new directions for performance and performers.
Who Cares About Censorship on School Stages?
Fighting for freedom of expression in high school theatres can be a complicated cause, but it’s clearly a fight that matters for all theatre artists.
