Peter Marks is gone. Now what?
The veteran theater critic leaves the Post as a new generation takes DC theater journalism in new directions. Readers must adjust their habits to find them. By NICOLE HERTVIK
Bring back Page-to-Stage!
An appeal to Kennedy Center to resurrect the annual new play festival, from a playwright whose work got a boost at this vital event. By PATRICK FLYNN
Unpacking what was funny and not in David Sedaris’ show at...
Afterthoughts on an act in which some of the humorist's most memorable stories framed women or people of color as individuals we’re supposed to laugh at.
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at Kennedy Center opens us to our...
Aaron Sorkin's reimagining of Harper Lee's novel set in the 1930s is urgent and exhortative about the need to take sides against racism and ignorance now.
It’s still not time for theaters to quit mask and vax...
Continuation of COVID safety policies is crucial to local theaters’ economic health and survival.
Two women dress down ‘Five Women Wearing the Same Dress’
The comedy now running at Dominion Stage gets a critical look by its director and a cast member.
It’s time to say ‘No shot, no show,’ by Stephen Beaudoin
The executive director of The Washington Chorus calls on DC Metro performing arts organizations to make a vaccination policy rooted in respect.
The reopening long shot
It’s been quite the terrifying year for us connected to the performing arts. An absolute scary time that began in mid-March 2020 as theaters...
On toxic artistic leadership (part three): Manifesto for theater ethics
Back in the 1980s, the Harvard University Business School dismissed offers to create a curriculum in ethics—free of charge, if I remember correctly; an...
On toxic artistic leadership (part two): Training actors to be abused
The departure of Ethan McSweeny from the American Shakespeare Center was only one among many over the past year. Taken as a whole, the...
On toxic artistic leadership (part one): When workers unite in...
News of Ethan McSweeny’s departure as artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center has prompted a variety of responses—and the mainstream theater critics seem...
The year that COVID canceled live theater and a revolution came...
Theater history will long remember that 2020 was the year that COVID canceled live performance. It canceled lots else, of course, including, tragically, hundreds...
I have never been comfortable in theater, by Artemis Montague
I have never been comfortable in theater. Not safe. Not “safer.” Just completely unwelcomed.
We are in a global pandemic. There is movement building on...
The power of a pause, by Patrick W. Lord
Lights out.
Beat.
Beat.
When the lights go and I’m plunged into darkness, sitting in a theater, my heart always skips a beat, because I know that...
Ignorance of the Black theatrical canon is no excuse, by Courtney...
The authors of the following two op-eds are cofounders of DC’s acclaimed Restoration Stage, Inc., whose focus is “restoring the Black family—one story at...
Theater and the risk of breath, by Kari Ginsburg
There is a moment in theater that I live for.
I’m onstage, responding truthfully in the moment as if for the first time, embodying my...
The #WeSeeYou White American Theatre movement is ready to end a...
Boots are on the ground. Battle lines are drawn. A collaborative network of more than 300 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) theatermakers...
How the Signature board behaved badly, from a patron’s POV
By Dalissa Vargas
As a lifelong live theater fan and a woman of Puerto Rican descent, I have spent the better portion of my adult...
What ‘Into the Woods’ can teach us about surviving COVID-19
Broadway has been dark since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the longest shutdown in its history.
With theaters shuttered from Broadway to the...
Why a whisper network turned into a tornado at Flying V
On Monday evening, June 22, 2020, the Board of Flying V Theatre Company terminated Cofounder and Artistic Director Jason Schlafstein following a weekend of...