The news that Chicago is losing the American Theater Company–here’s the Chicago Tribune story–is stunning. Artistic Director Will Davis was let go, and the board has decided to fold the company. It’s the last paragraph that’s distressing. Under Davis, the theater took a more experimental turn, far from the pathway...
I have long had an interest in arts groups using transitioning commercial and retail spaces to alleviate space crunch. On hearing that Matt Cosper and his Charlotte-based ensemble XOXO are taking part in such a venture I asked him to write a little about the process and after it was...
I have long had an interest in arts groups using transitioning commercial and retail spaces to alleviate space crunch. On hearing that Matt Cosper and his Charlotte-based ensemble XOXO are taking part in such a venture I asked him to write a little about the process and after it was...
In my role as executive director of the South Florida Theatre League, I regularly get asked why South Florida doesn’t have a fringe festival. If we can support one of the largest and most important art festivals in the country, why aren’t we able to support a fringe? It’s an...
In the background: A rainy night in New York City in late spring. In the foreground: a live stream broadcast of Thais Flaitt’s Portuguese translation of my play The Way of Water from Cia de M.A.T.I.L.D.E University in Sao Paolo, Brasil. Four professional actors are seated on folding chairs at...
On my own blog some time ago I wrote about smaller and regional theatres being considered “minor league” in the pejorative sense and the broken ideas around that vocabulary in a post called “Is this Heaven, No It’s Iowa”. The happy upbeat ending for those of you too good to...
THEATER IN BUFFALO IS NOT A CONTRADICTION. On Allen Street in Buffalo, New York, there is an establishment called Rust Belt Books. While the name certainly pays ironic tribute to an outsider’s image of the city, the back room of this iconic haunt imparts a truer, and more progressive, vision....