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...
Let’s see if I have this straight. Women write about bias–unconscious or not–in an industry, they set up a group to support fellow women in said industry, men immediately comment on social media about how this isn’t really a problem, maybe these women are biased, because it damn well isn’t...
Heroes. They’re not just for comic books anymore. With the rise of more serious, “realistic” portrayals of comic book heroes has come a trend of real people making themselves into superheroes. This is not a joke, and it’s not the movie Kick-Ass, based on the comic book of the same...
What Fringe Means for Local Playwrights The Kansas City Fringe recently held its 8th festival, and if there’s one thing the festival has become known for (besides burlesque) it’s as a breeding ground for new plays by local writers. There are several theatre companies in Kansas City that will occasionally...
The ease of publishing in this post-Millennial moment means that a lot of half and semi-baked ideas get pushed into the universe, and the lack of friction to respond combined with the relative lack of consequence of narrowcasting your opinions means that a lot of folks get to talk an...
One of my favorite things about summer in an arts organization is that you get a couple of precious weeks where, in between the planning and the subscription mailings, there’s a little fallow time where you can sometimes rise above the fray and say, HEY. What are other people doing...
When I read Howard’s HowlRound article “What’s Wrong with Canadian Theatre” I chuckled to myself. Name five Canadian playwrights? I immediately rattled off five Vancouver playwrights, three of which had shows or workshops produced in the last 12 months that I had been a part of. But if my friends...
I’m currently writing a play called The Secret of the Biological Clock, about a former girl detective who is turning 37 and wants to solve the mystery of what makes a family. I have spent the past two months flipping out about stage directions. Stage directions. The play itself is...
Somewhat by accident, I stumbled into a weekly twitter conversation about new play development (hashtag #newplay) despite the fact that I am not a playwright. What I am is a university professor who for six of the ten years I spent in academic administration led a large theatre/film school whose...
I’ve been thinking more and more about my responsibility as an artist. And just typing that feels a little weird—the idea that artists have responsibilities other than to their art. But our work does more than just sit there in our heads. It wanders out of our skulls and into...