Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2024 i American Theatre

For many years now I’ve played guitar and sang in my church band in Brooklyn. This part-time music ministry means I’m no longer really a layman, and have occasionally guiltily wondered: If I weren’t leading the music, how often would I actually go to church and sit in the pews? My relationship to the art form I cover sometimes prompts a similar soul searching. As a critic and reporter, I not only see much more theatre than the average person; I am also blessedly insulated from ticket prices by press comps. So while I have what I think are informed impressions and opinions about the state of the art form and the industry, I know I am not representative of most theatregoers. I once heard a critic describe his job…

NETWORKING AND KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING TCG’s Research programs include long-standing studies such as the Salary Survey and Fiscal Survey, as well as responsive snapshot surveys. The National Conference is a biennial gathering of theatre professionals to forge connections, address field-wide issues, and celebrate the theatre of the host community. Theatre for Activism is a series of gatherings to strengthen care, share practices, and forge connections between activists and theatre practitioners. GRANTMAKING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS THRIVE! Uplifting Theatres of Color provides unrestricted funds for those who have all too often been outside the grantmaking sector’s funding opportunities: Black theatres, Indigenous theatres and Theatres of Color which are closely connected to and have positive impact on their chosen communities. The Rising Leaders of Color Program forms cohorts of exceptionally talented early-career leaders of color who participate…

It’s no secret that the nation’s resident theatres didn’t exactly come out of the pandemic lockdown like a lion, roaring at full volume. More like an injured cat with a muted meow. With Covid-related closures and cancellations hardly in the rear view mirror, several theatres have been forced to pause or shutter. Multiple articles have since been written (including by this magazine) that seem to portend the imminent demise of regional theatre. But precarity and contraction aren’t the whole story. All over the country, there are signs of life. In Theatre Communication Group’s 2023 Compounding Crises survey, 7.6 percent of the 171 respondents said they were “thriving,” while another 54 percent said they were “holding steady” or “improving.” “Our programming is very diverse—we attract a lot of different communities,” said…

In 1968, the regional theatre movement was finding its legs just as the Civil Rights Movement reached a major inflection point. About a month before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Zelda Fichandler, founding artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., sent a memo titled “Confidential Plan” to the board about her intentions to racially integrate the theatre’s acting company and audience. The memo is included in The Long Revolution: Sixty Years on the Frontlines of a New American Theater, a new book edited by Todd London, out now from TCG Books. London, a longtime arts leader, educator, and chronicler of the nonprofit theatre, spent a decade compiling this collection of essays and speeches, a project Fichandler herself began nearly 20 years ago, and was still at work on…

ALABAMA ALABAMA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, MONTGOMERY Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Ken Ludwig, Apr 18-May 12 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tim Rice (book & lyrics), Andrew Lloyd Webber (music), Jul 11-Aug 11 Zelda In the Backyard, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Jun 13-30 ALASKA CYRANO’S THEATRE COMPANY, ANCHORAGE Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon, May 10-Jun 2 Meteor Shower, Steve Martin, Sep 6-29 ARIZONA ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY, TUCSON AND TEMPE/PHOENIX True West, Sam Shepard; dir: Jenn Thompson, Apr 27-Jun 9 THE INVISIBLE THEATRE, TUCSON The Shadow of Her Smile, Ann Talman; dir: Lina Koutrakos and Alex Rybeck, May 17-18 Thriller of the Year, Glyn Jones; dir: Susan Claassen, Apr 23-May 5 Woody’s Order, Ann Talman, May 19 THE ROGUE THEATRE, TUCSON Love’s Labour’s Lost, William Shakespeare; dir: Joseph McGrath, Apr 18-May…

ROSIE BROWNLOW-CALKIN (SHE/HER) is an Equity actor and assistant professor of acting at the University of Nevada, Reno. She writes about the theatre economy for this magazine. In this issue, she explores the long-standing argument about the subscription model in “Subscriptions Are Dead. Long Live Subscriptions!” (p. 34). Says Calkin, “I kept reading these calamitous articles about subscription numbers, but I noticed they relied on anecdotal evidence to draw broad-stroke conclusions about the industry as a whole. I wanted to cast a wider net and take deeper, data-driven look at these trends. To my relief, the picture is a lot more complicated—and more hopeful—than other articles would have you think!” CARA JOY DAVID (SHE/HER) is a longtime theatre writer and an editor at Broadway World. For her piece “Survival Strategies” (p. 40),…

FIRST THEATRICAL MEMORY? A Midsummer Night’s Dream with my family in Cape Cod when I was about 10. I was enthralled. Some actors’ costumes blended into the set. Once the show started, they all started moving and the whole set came alive. To this day, I remember that feeling of magic in my body. LAST MEMORABLE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE? Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, Gavin Creel’s show at MCC Theater. It was so inspiring and innovative. I loved every second. WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO? Ariana Grande’s “yes, and?” on repeat. WHERE IS HOME TO YOU? Brooklyn. My partner. My family. My dog. WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST FEAR? Death. WHAT GIVES YOU HOPE? Music. Art. Laughter. Good food. Love. Friendship. Therapy. IF YOU COULD GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF ONE…

“It’s not just about being invited to the party,” says Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt, Autistic Creative Consultant for the musical How to Dance in Ohio. “It’s about being asked to dance.” Based on the 2015 documentary following disabled young people in preparation for a spring formal, the show (which ran from last December through early February on Broadway) marked a milestone for the theatre community, as it centered disabled folks not only onstage but throughout the process. This moment, as celebratory as it was, reminded me just how rare it has been for disabled audiences to really be “asked to dance.” As the industry struggles with audience retention rates, many non-disabled American theatre leaders have failed to realize the extent to which inaccessibility impacts their public, approximately 27 percent of whom…

It’s been said that the only constant in the world is change. In the theatre we’ve seen that play out in so many ways in the last four years, from adapting the way we deliver art to audiences to innovating the ways we engage with our communities. At TCG, we’re undergoing our own changes, not dissimilar to the ones that member theatres are experiencing across the country. We’ll dig into that, but first we want to introduce ourselves in these new roles. LATESHIA: I was born in Houston and later moved to Atlanta (where I’m based), starting in the theatre world as a young actress. I acted professionally for a bit, and then transitioned to arts administration in development at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. I joined TCG in…

The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company knows how to make the most of the love affair between the writer and his beloved New Orleans. Since their first show in 2015, they’ve produced 22 shows, and last year was their largest season yet: four full productions, community partnerships, a reading, and a show that traveled to the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival in Clarksdale. They also know how to bring some variety to the relationship—even if it involves puppets. The Felt Menagerie, running May 10-26, is a playful new take on their literary namesake. First offered for streaming during the all-virtual 2021 Tennessee Williams Festival, the show’s uproarious concept echoes the popular internet meme in which folks dream-cast popular titles with Muppets plus one human in a key role. But The…

When Amy Kaissar wrote her graduate thesis on the topic of nonprofit theatre subscriptions, her basic argument was: They’re not dead; we just haven’t invested in them. Now, 19 years wiser, and after 15 years in leadership positions, Kaissar, the current co-producing director at Bristol Riverside Theatre in Bristol, Pa., confessed, “I’m not sure I would 100 percent agree” with her earlier assessment. The hedging is important here—it’s not that her outlook has done a 180. But so much in the intervening years has complicated her earlier certainty, including, of course, the pandemic lockdown of the past few years, which impacted every aspect of the industry. But even without that bumpy chapter and its even rockier aftermath, the outlook for subscriptions has long been multilayered. Even now, for all the…

Primary Trust playwright Eboni Booth spoke with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, The Comeuppance, An Octoroon) earlier this year about her play’s gestation and meaning. BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS: You have this thing that I love and that I find a lot of actors-turned-writers have, which is a kind of effortlessness with character building. You write these vehicles for actors in some magical way that, once inhabited, instantly take on this uncanny quality of real, emotional depth. Your people just always strike me as so alive and warm and true. I’m just dying to know what your memories are of writing the play and where it came from for you. EBONI BOOTH: Thank you so much, Branden. At Juilliard, I hit my second year and I had to have something to publicly present. The…

SUSTAINING DONORS ($10,000+) Institutions Bloomberg Philanthropies Doris Duke Foundation Edelstein Family Foundation Edgerton Foundation Ford Foundation The Heinz Endowments Howard Gilman Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The Joyce Foundation Mellon Foundation National Endowment for the Arts New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York Community Trust New York State Council on the Arts The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Richard King Mellon Foundation Richenthal Foundation The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation The Shubert Foundation Walder Foundation The Wallace Foundation Walt Disney Imagineering Willa Kim Estate William & Eva Fox Foundation Individuals Eve Alvord Ralph Bryan Chenault Family Foundation James Chosy John Fontillas Olga Garay-English Jeffrey Gural - GFP Real Estate Myla Lerner Joan MacKeith Kevin McCollum David Moore, Jr. Julie Morris Eleanor Cook Nolan Betsy…