212 stories by "Jason Rohrer"
COMIC EPHEMERA In Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s 1636 comedy L’Illusion Comique, the modern playwright has abandoned the contextual trappings that make the…
BLACK AND WHITE AND GOOD ALL OVER A smart play is usually a provocative play, but a provocative play is rarely smart. Many playwrights competent to stir controversy have neither the chop…
IMPRISONED BY ART Most literary intellectuals have as much business writing about life behind bars as incarcerated felons have teaching text analysis. In the last few months, Los Angeles…
WHY DO WE HAVE WHY WE HAVE A BODY? Every few years a vanity project comes along so appalling that one’s jaw hangs open for its entire running time, saliva connecting the lower lip to t…
THRILLING HOPELESSNESS Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. – Jeremiah 42:11. In 1964,…
ACTS OF CONSCIENCE All theater is inherently political, in that a story is only as objective as its teller. But some plays go straight to the 24 hour news cycle definition of politics, a…
FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES Carson Kreitzer’s 2003 play Slither conforms to a certain category of American text: the women’s empowerment monologue extravaganza. Hallmarks of the …
A LACK OF PHILOSOPHY Elina de Santos’ production of David Ives’ 2008 New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 …
CHEATED OF FEATURE The joy of watching Shakespeare in performance largely depends on the ensemble’s ability to make sense of the language. In this regard, Sacred Fools’ new R…
IF THIS IS THE CIRCUS, WHERE’S MY BREAD? In 1992, Guy Laliberté gentrified the big top with Saltimbanco, offering pure spectacle at Wagnerian prices, and in the process conflating art…
WARLIKE FROTTAGE The Porters of Hellsgate’s production of Shakespeare’s Trojan War essay, Troilus and Cressida, begins promisingly. A shifting tableau establishes characters …
UNINTELLIGENT DESIGN When a writer writes, sometimes the heavens open up; but more frequently, nothing opens except the mouth. The difference between what we wish to say and what gets sa…
