One of the most promising books about drama and theatre on the spring list is Sean Carney‘s The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy, published a few weeks ago by the U…
When the 1 March sequester went into effect, the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts was cut by 8.2%, from $148 million to about $136 million, according to this report (this $148 m…
If you’re in Houston next Wednesday, don’t miss Diagilev’s Paris, a concert presented by Da Camera and featuring Sarah Rothenberg and my wife Marilyn Nonken. They’ll …
Earlier today I posted my review of Elfriede Jelinek’s Jackie at the Women’s Project Theatre; for those who want to know more, you couldn’t do better than the discussion, &…
Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek, translated by Gitta Honegger. Directed by Tea Alagic. With Tina Benko. Scenic design: Marsha Ginsberg; costume design: Susan Hilferty; lighting design: Brian H Sc…
I am rarely tempted to offer suggestions as to the improvement of drama criticism and reviews in the mainstream media. As some of the responses to John Lahr’s recent essay suggest, how…
On his public Twitter page yesterday, Los Angeles Times theatre critic Charles McNulty took issue with “The Illumination Business: Why drama critics must look at and look after the the…
Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides. Adapted and directed by Edward Einhorn; music by Aldo Perez; choreography by Patrice Miller; art by Eric Shanower; sets and masks by Jane Stein; costumes by …
Originally published here 23 March 2011. If I had known about the Frankfurt School in time, I would have been saved a great deal of work. I would not have said a certain amount of nonsense a…
In the introduction to his 1980 study of Egon Schiele, Simon Wilson offers a cogent, concise definition of painterly Expressionism of the early 20th century: Expressionist art at its highest…
For those who may believe that the United Kingdom has a healthier new play sector than the United States, Fin Kennedy has bad news for you. Yesterday he and Helen Campbell Pickford, an Oxfor…
Philosopher Simon Critchley and actress Fiona Shaw wag their jaws for a few minutes at a Rubin Museum of Art event, “Talk About Nothing.” For theatre critics and practitioners, s…
Once in a while it’s a good idea to cast a cold eye on one’s resume; and I am not particularly good at marketing myself (apparently Terry Teachout enjoys it, but perhaps he has a…
If George and Martha weren’t enough for you, meet Edgar and Alice, the witty, tormented married couple at the center of August Strindberg’s 1900 play The Dance of Death. The Red …
Originally published here on 25 August 2011. The role of the elegy is to describe a closed system: the closed system of the dead individual, now bereft of possibility and imagination. It is …
Ronan Christopher Louis, the son of Emily Rapp and her husband Rick Louis, passed away peacefully this morning at 3.30am in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the victim of Tay-Sachs disease. I have been…
From Rhys Tranter of A Piece of Monologue comes a pointer to this essay by Jonathan Bignell about Samuel Beckett‘s television plays. As might be expected, Bignell writes, these were no…
Oberon Books continues the publication of its elegant uniform series of Howard Barker’s plays with the release of Plays Seven, now available at amazon.com. In this volume, according to…
It hasn’t been long since Iphigenia in Aulis has been seen on a New York stage. Euripides’ tragedy about the events leading up to the Trojan Wars and the extraordinary saga of th…
I have written before of my difficulties with Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy, but obviously this doesn’t mitigate against its importance for any study of Greek drama and theatre. N…
I’ve spent some of this weekend thinking about what draws me as an artist, critic, writer, and unabashed enthusiast — not to mention as all of these wrapped up, along with everyt…
You may be forgiven for mistaking the next meeting of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle for a maternity ward; this week brought a slew of contenders tripping over their Kleenex boxes …
Originally published here on 4 February 2010. A revised version of this post appears as a passage in Word Made Flesh. The active contemplation for which the art of tragedy aims rehearses a c…
Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht; translation by John Willett. Directed by Lear deBessonet; dramaturgy by Anne Erbe; choreography by Danny Mefford; lighting by Tyler Micoleau; costu…
On Friday 1 March, NoPassport and NYU School for Individualized Study will present the 7th annual NoPassport Theatre Conference, Dreaming the Americas: Staging New Theaters/Challenging Hiera…