66 stories by "The Feminist Spectator"
Dael Orlandersmith's poetic two-hander Yellowman was Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002, after she spent many years as a solo performer (touring with, among other performance work, the Nuyorica…
Luis Alfaro's Bruja at San Francisco's Magic Theatre continues his recent spate of Latino-themed adaptations of classic Greek plays. Following Oedipus el Rey, which premiered at the Magi…
What novelty to see a play that's not only by and about a woman but that takes feminism as its topic and theme. Gina Gionfriddo's (Becky Shaw) new play uses the history of the second wav…
Shonda Rimes' new television series arrived at its first season finale last week, after a terrific premiere and seven-week run and the promise of renewal for a second season. Kerry Washi…
I’m coming late to the controversy over the resoundingly white male-written and -directed season announced for the Guthrie next year, in part because I’m tired of hearing myself …
Smash ended its first season this week, and has been renewed for a second, minus Theresa Rebeck, its creator and original show runner (and one of the only women playwrights to be produced on…
The ceremony at which I received the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 2010-2011 was staged in Prospect House at Princeton University on April 28, 2012. Â Cornell profess…
Lena Dunham's HBO series has been hailed for its sharp, insightful snapshot of 20-something young, white, straight women navigating their New York City lives in a post-Sex and the City momen…
FYI, Split Britches will receive the Edwin Booth Award from the Theatre Program of the CUNY Graduate Center today. I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful conversation. See the link for de…
How sweet is the taste of a movie with a female heroine heralded as the top-grossing non-sequel film debut weekend of all time? And how sweet is it that The Hunger Games, the adapt…
The HBO-produced adaptation of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's best-selling 2009 book, Game Change centers on the John McCain-Sarah Palin part of the ticket for the 2008 Presidential elec…
This controversial production comes to Broadway with the baggage of both historical and contemporary critique. First produced in the 1930s as a "folk opera" by George and Ira Gershwin, a…
Cynthia Nixon, playing the lead in the Broadway revival of Margaret Edson's play, Wit, does a heroic job putting her own mark against Kathleen Chalfant's signature performance as the dying V…
What's a feminist spectator to make of an awards show that honors films that have so little to do with women behind the camera or as central to their stories?  Other writers have detai…
I was in Ann Arbor last weekend for the first-ever conference on queer dance, co-organized by Clare Croft (whose dissertation I was pleased to advise at the University of Texas at Austin)…
With only two episodes aired, it's difficult to say where exactly Smash, the new NBC series about backstage Broadway lives, will take us. Executive produced and so far written by play…
