Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i American Theatre

AT A RECENT EDITORIAL MEETING, THE AMERICAN THEATRE staff had a telling exchange: When, one editor wanted to know, would we say was the purported Golden Age of Broadway? He didn’t mean it as a trick question—of course there’s no single factual answer about when any so-called “golden age” begins or ends, let alone whether said era was especially halcyon. He was instead wondering about the claim, in an illuminating article by theatre scholar Garrett Eisler in this issue (p. 20), that Broadway’s Golden Age ranged from the 1920s to the 1950s. Isn’t there a rough consensus, this editor wondered aloud, that Broadway’s best years ran from the 1940s to the 1960s? Well, yes—if you’re talking about the Broadway musical. But the heyday of New York’s commercial theatre district as…

• Philadelphia Theatre Company has named Paige Price its producing artistic director. She’ll begin her new role in April, succeeding executive producing director Sara Garonzik, who departs after 35 years at the helm to pursue consulting and independent producing projects. Price most recently served as executive artistic director of Colorado’s Theatre Aspen. • Seattle’s Intiman Theatre has announced that producer and activist Phillip Chavira will fill the new position of executive director, in which he’ll work alongside board president Kevin Malgesini and producing artistic director Andrew Russell. In 2016, Chavira received a Tony • omination for coproducing Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed. • In March Michele Weathers became the new managing director of Pittsfield, Mass.’s Barrington Stage Company. Weathers, who had been serving as interim managing director of Chapel Hill, N.C.’s PlayMakers…

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins War An interview with the playwright Lileana Blain-Cruz: We’ve talked a lot about how War was influenced by your time in Berlin, but is that where the idea began? Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: It actually started with an interest in thinking through what a “black family drama” might actually mean, given the historical slipperiness of a concept like “blackness”— or even “whiteness”—in the first place. Like: What exactly makes a family “black” or not “black” dramatically? And since when? And says who? Initially, I had conceived of—and, honestly, it’s still my intention to try and pull this off—a sort of sweeping saga tracking one black family over multiple generations, but which was also somehow deconstructing the evolution of “blackness” as a concept alongside it. My time in Berlin became key…

on Facebook In February we ran a web-only piece called “Does Race Have a Place in Theatre Criticism?” inspired by the controversy around a New York Times review of a revival of Big River. Some responses: Keith Byron Kirk: Racial or gender-related discussions seem to only serve the Broadway theatrical machine when the producers require the manipulation of those specific topics for marketing purposes. Topics deemed “beyond the scope” of the producer’s intentions when discussed within reviews by The New York Times bother the powers that be when the commentaries in question don’t allow for sound bites or, more importantly, call them on the carpet for problematic motivations in choosing certain productions. Ask yourself this question: Why was Margo Jefferson unsuccessful as a theatre reviewer at the Times? She engaged…

When New York City-based critic and historian Garrett Eisler began his piece about the state of new plays on Broadway (p. 20), he says he “started out with a hunch that nonprofit U.S. companies and governmentsubsidized U.K. theatre” have had a growing impact on Main Stem plays in recent years. “A deep dive into the Internet Broadway Database proved I was right.” He adds that he was grateful for playwright Paula Vogel’s candor about her mixed feelings as she prepares to make her Broadway debut at the age of 65. Alongside her concerns about the inequities of the current commercial theatre industry, Vogel admitted to Eisler how excited she is for her big opening night, saying she hasn’t “thought this much about what to wear since my wedding!” Twin Cities-based…

250 YEARS AGO (1767) To win over American audiences, the London Company changes its name to the American Company and stages The Prince of Parthia in Philadelphia, making Thomas Godfrey the first American-born playwright to be produced by a professional company in North America. The troupe continues employing British actors and performing an almost entirely British repertoire, though the new moniker does help with its favorability among the colonists. 190 YEARS AGO (1827) The Michigan Territorial Legislature approves an act that will make puppet shows, wire dancing, tumbling, juggling, and sleight of hand in exchange for money a punishable offence by a fine of $10 to $20. The act, created “for the prevention of immoral practices,” will be enforced until 1837, when Michigan officially joins the union as a state,…

• The Dramatists Guild of America has named Rajiv Joseph the recipient of the Horton Foote Playwriting Award, sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation. The honor comes with a cash prize of $25,000. • The 27th annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards recognized 19 theatre companies in Southern California. The most honored organization was Celebration Theatre, with seven prizes. The Los Angeles LGBT Center won five, including best season. In addition, Center Theatre Group presented the 2017 Sherwood Award for innovative and adventurous artists to lighting designer Pablo Santiago, an honor that comes with $10,000. The two Sherwood finalists were costume designer Jenny Foldenauer and video designer Keith Skretch, who each received a $2,000 honorarium. • The American Theatre Wing has announced the recipients of the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grants: Ben…

What’s your first theatrical memory? I think I was in first or second grade and was part of a school play or pageant. I saw James Brown on TV, and for my solo I decided to do a shimmy into one of the James Brown jazz splits. And I felt so cool onstage. That’s the feeling that I wanted to duplicate later in my life. My first time onstage doing a play was Dark of the Moon in high school my junior year. I walked onstage, got a bit of applause—I was playing a funny character named Uncle Smelicue Jed—and I thought, “Oh, this is what I want to do.” Tell me about your first experience seeing Hamilton as an audience member. My initial reaction was: What was that all-encompassing…

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE ATTENDING A BROADWAY show was as a 10-year-old on a trip with my parents. We drove up from Baltimore in a Ford LTD and stayed at the City Squire Motor Inn. It rained the whole time, but that was hardly a hindrance. We took in the iconic sites, attended Promises, Promises and Butterflies Are Free, and had a chance encounter with Orson Welles at the old Forum of the Twelve Caesars restaurant. Sporting a bright yellow ribbon in my hair, I silently swore to myself that New York would be my home one day. There I also had my first inkling that being onstage seemed less interesting than being the one to get people to the stage. Promises, Promises starred Jill O’Hara and Jerry Orbach, and was…

DAVID L. ARSENAULT Profession: Scenic designer Hometowns: Born in Naples, Fla., raised in Fitchburg, Mass. Current home: New York City Known For: He designed sets for Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy The Norman Conquests, presented in Vermont at Northern Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, and Weston Playhouse in 2016. He also served as associate scenic designer for The Color Purple on Broadway and Passion at Classic Stage Company. What’s Next: Upcoming projects include Sex With Strangers at the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, N.Y., Mamma Mia! at Northern Stage, and two shows with director John Doyle: Pacific Overtures at CSC and the national tour of The Color Purple. What Makes Him Sp ecial: “David reads the play like a direc tor,” says Rachel Lampert, artistic director of Kitchen Theatre Company. “I love talking…