theater

Staging History to Make History: Theater and the Road to the Good Friday Agreement

by Marilynn Richtarik

Brian Friel's play "Making History" wasn't faithful to the facts of the life of Hugh O'Neill, a 16th century chieftain who had symbolized Irish resistance to colonization. But, as an influential artist, Friel purposefully substituted myths of cultural hybridity for myths of nationalism to make the negotiation of peace palatable to his friends in politics.

The Method is the Main Character: A Conversation with Isaac Butler

by Lauren Goldenberg

Isaac Butler has recently published an acclaimed book on the rise of the method school of acting and its origins with Konstantin Stanislavski's "system" of training the inner creative life of actors.

Malcolm X Returns to the Opera Stage

Anthony Davis's 1985 opera "X" was slow to catch on in the American repertory, a fact that would have been no surprise to its subject. 

Library of Congress will Acquire Neil Simon's Papers

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden expressed gratitude to Simon's widow Elaine Joyce Simon for the donation, which enhances the library's holdings in performance arts and ensures future researchers will be able to access his work. 

"Not For Sale" Dramatizes the Costs of Opposing Segregation in 1960s Suburbia

Barbara Teed's play dramatizes her own family's history, which was shaped by a racist backlash to her father's advocacy for fair housing.

Ed Bullins, Leading Playwright of the Black Arts Movement, Dies at 86

“He was able to get the grass roots to come to his plays,” the writer Ishmael Reed said in an interview. “He was a Black playwright who spoke to the values of the urban experience. Some of those people had probably never seen a play before.”

The Great White(washing) Way: Business History on Broadway Without Slavery

by Imani Perry

The new show "The Lehman Trilogy" tells a heroic story of German Jewish immigrant brothers who rose to the top of American finance, but it tells it without reference to the labor of enslaved people that made it possible. 

Rally 'Round the Rune: Fascist Echoes of the CPAC Stage

by Mark Auslander and Jay Ball

The incorporation of a Norse rune associated with the SS into the stage of the recent CPAC conference probably isn't an accident; the choice reflects the cultural cachet of Norse myth on the far right, the conservative movement's desire to maintain deniability about its ties to the far right, and the recognition that the design would be crystal clear to viewers of internet memes. 

The Black Ambition of "A Raisin In The Sun"

by Koritha Mitchell

Lorraine Hansberry's play and the critical response to it offer a lens on American theater's current reckoning with racism and exclusion, as "the play reveals that what has been framed as “integration” is really about getting white people to stop hoarding everything desirable."

Curtain Up: Two Theater Companies Return to Live Performance, with Concessions to COVID

by Bruce Chadwick

“We want to remind the Berkshires, and the country, that the virus will be defeated and that in the meantime we must reclaim our lives and the arts is the way to do that,” said Nick Paleologos of the Berkshires Theater.

Historians on the "Hamilton" Film

The Broadway hit moves to streaming video. Historians weigh in on the source material, the relationship of the founding to slavery, and more. 

The Other Booths

by David O. Stewart

The notoriety of the Lincoln assassination has obscured the other Booths in history, but some were as well known as John Wilkes--or even better, at least until he pulled the trigger in the president’s box at Ford’s Theater, 155 years ago this week. 

Shakespeare Wrote His Best Works During a Plague

by Daniel Pollack-Peltzner

The most heartening lesson from Shakespeare’s era is that the playhouses will likely survive and reopen, again and again. What plays to perform when they do?

Plagues Follow Bad Leadership in Ancient Greek Tales

by Joel Christensen

Zeus observes in Homer’s “Odyssey,” as I’ve translated it, “Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering / but they experience pain beyond their fate because of their own recklessness.”

Hamilton’s Pulitzer Prize is a Shot in the Arm for History

by Bruce Chadwick

The nod of the Pulitzer committee will whet the public appetite for more history plays, and movies.

Why “Hamilton” Is the Right Musical for Our Time

by Robert W. Snyder

“Hamilton” pulls musical theater decisively into the 21st century and reinterprets the American past.

“Hamilton,” Based on a Book, Is Becoming One Again

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s raucous hip-hop musical, “Hamilton,” sprang from an unlikely source: a dense, 818-page biography of Alexander Hamilton by the historian Ron Chernow.

“Hamilton” on Broadway – “It Lived Up to the Hype”

by John Baick

It’s history written with hip-hop, heart, and heroes.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' and the Inclusive Future Of American History

by Ian Reifowitz

Hamilton points the way toward our future as a people by looking back at our past in a revolutionary manner.

‘Hamilton’ Heads to Broadway in a Hip-Hop Retelling

The musical retelling of the life of the nation’s first Treasury secretary is poised to become not only a hit, but a turning point for the art form and a cultural conversation piece.