New Beginnings in the Year of the Rabbit Do you need a fresh start to wipe the slate clean and set sights on new goals? Beginning with the Gregorian calendar’s New Year on Jan 1, to the Lunar New Year just ushered in with the first new moon of the lunar calendar, January has provided …
by Dara O’Brien PART ONE I once served as the General Manager of the Italian branch of a multinational financial services firm. I held the job for about five hours. The brevity of my tenure had nothing to do with my performance. It also had everything to do with it. Because I wasn’t a manager …
The Return of In-Person Oral History The League of Professional Theatre Women’s first Oral History Project of the season celebrated a return to in-person events on Monday October 17, as producer Pat Addiss shared wisdom and humor with two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, television anchor and theatre critic Roma Torre at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. …
By Alexis Greene The twentieth century in America was the women’s century. The century opened with the ascendance of what the media at that time called the New Woman. The New Woman didn’t yet have the right to vote, but she was out there: getting jobs, so she could support herself; organizing unions; establishing settlement …
CELEBRATE! 2022-2023 marks the League of Professional Theatre Women’s 40th Anniversary Season: Dedicated to celebrating its diverse and accomplished membership, its rich history and its vision for a future in which women play an ever more central role in American theatre. At this year’s season launch, we were thrilled to see so many next generation …
American audiences don’t get access to many contemporary plays originally written in another language despite the burgeoning number of talented playwrights in the US and around the world who are creating work for the stage in languages other than English. Traditionally, classic European plays such as those written by Moliere, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov …
Lue Morgan Douthit, longtime director of literary development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), commissioned a translation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens into contemporary modern English in the fall of 2015, beginning OSF’s Play On! project. With the Bard still continuously the most-produced playwright in America, one purpose of the project was to ask why …
“From the time I was about twelve, I never stopped acting. Acting is my business.” “If you’re going to play a character other than yourself, it’s better that you bring that character to the first rehearsal…You have to leave yourself at home… When I’m immersed in a scene, I leave Angela at home.” “I’d like …
“A great actor at the height of her powers.”
On February 12th, Ms. Lee was the subject of the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Oral History at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Robert Viagas conducted the interview. Baayork Lee has performed in over a dozen Broadway shows. For the original production of A Chorus Line, she created the role of Connie, while serving as …
The purpose of theatre is to wound our memory. — Paula Vogel Paula Vogel, Tony-nominated playwright for Indecent, was interviewed by Linda Winer, in an Oral History presented to League members and their guests at the NY Library for the …
Series Part Two: Actor Simulations Help Train Future Doctors and More By Dara O’Brien How do you tell a parent that their five-year-old’s cancer is inoperable? Or a mother of five that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease? All doctors, whatever their specialty, will have to communicate traumatic news to some of their patients. In order … Continue reading
Theater as activism is not a modern invention, nor is the need for pro-active civic engagement to sustain it. In 425 B.C. when Athenian playwright, Aristophanes, called out the bumbling power plays of magistrates and war mongers in his play, Archarians, he was essentially the (documented) founder of activist theater. The first documented public poet, … Continue reading
I see a bright future for Native Theater in this country. A future where theater telling Native stories is a regular occurrence in communities around the country. Where communities can come together to experience each other’s stories to gain empathy about each other’s struggles and encounter each other’s joys onstage. Sharing lived experiences is a … Continue reading
by Alexis Greene Hrotsvitha and Alice Childress; Rachilde and Zora Neale Hurston; Ana Caro and Mrs. Harlow Phibbs. They lived centuries and continents apart, but they shared two enticing characteristics: they were women and they were playwrights. And now they are among the 250 dramatists who constitute “ON HER SHOULDERS: Celebrating 1,000 Years of … Continue reading
A woman of the Theater takes on the patriachs and carves out her place. By Kate McLeod and Martine Sainvil Playwright, Stage Director, Producer, Artist are just a few titles that Tony®, Drama Desk, and Obie Award-winning Emily Mann has earned over her long career. The creator of Annulla Allen: The Autobiography of a Survivor, … Continue reading
In a world filled with anxiety and fear due to the ongoing pandemic, as theatres remained shuttered and the future seemed uncertain, a group of women from all over the world started an online project. These women met virtually during the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award 2020 event week. Initiated and … Continue reading
A historic pandemic could not derail The League of Professional Theatre Women’s ongoing Oral History Project. The League of Professional Theatre Women’s ongoing Oral History Project, founded by Betty Corwin in partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, has for 26 years preserved the legacies of great theatre women, across all … Continue reading
When the news hit in the spring that theatres in New York were going to be shut down, I–like many of my fellow theatre-makers–was devastated. Our movement company, 10C, had been developing our third science-based piece throughout the fall and winter of 2019 and the quarantine felt like we drove 50 mph into a wall. … Continue reading
Thousands of years of history can put a novo-virus in perspective. Continue reading
ARTISTS and THOSE WHO WANT TO SUPPORT ARTISTS: If you are struggling to make ends meet in these unsettled times, here are some useful resources. If you have means, here are some ideas about where your dollars will directly help your community. https://actorsfund.org/am-i-eligible-help https://dgf.org/donate/donate/ https://www.theatreartlife.com/management/coronavirus-gig-cancellations/ Add additional resources in the comment section. Stay safe. Spring … Continue reading
WIT journal 