If I learned anything, I learned that being an audience member can be exhausting.

So what makes a good stage adaptation? Can you know just by looking at the film?

As an industry, I fully believe we should strive for authenticity and raising up voices of marginalized people whether they are writing the script, behind the scenes, or on the stage. But at the same time, people should not be required to list every invisible facet of their identity just to get a job. Nor should those who don't fit these identities perfectly be immediately invalidated on that note.

Over a dozen new plays. I’m in awe.

Everyone is expected to do dramaturgical work even if it isn't given that label. That's because the work leads to a more cohesive, fleshed out, and effective production.

I'd rather have a deeply affecting, thought-provoking experience, even if the effect is anger, disappointment, or disgust. That way, I have something to talk about.

We will be back on Sunday, January 6!

The way things often happen at Carnegie Mellon, for better or for worse, is after a tragedy we work. But that work is necessarily different for what we have been through. Whether it means we have to skip out on something or follow a whole new course, things change.

Well, the conclusion I came to is that any and everything can be inspiration and food for theatrical work. Especially other forms of art.

What is particularly frustrating about the use of brownface and racial stereotypes is that it cancels out some of the more serious and important messages woven into Drood.

Lots of theatre deals with uncomfortable subjects. That's not going to change. But people should know ahead of time so they do not find themselves having a panic attack while stuck in the audience.

Where a piece of new work usually needs to go next is past a giant, intimidating wall of deadlines, budgets, and creative blocks.

All the changes were meant to strengthen the story and the show as a whole. And I would argue that, even if I miss one moment or another, or preferred the original lyric, these changes helped the show to become a better version of itself.

Taking care of artists and audiences in theatre is not shielding them from discomfort. It is finding a way to discuss difficult topics and present uncomfortable events on stage that provides enough safety so the audience can engage with the meaning and take something forward.

In most United States history classes, you'll learn that World War II was a great thing for America. But it is important to look at the greater, more human consequences of the war, and how we can learn from them today.

Very few people can afford to drop $15 on every single script they're interested in. Some plays might never make it past the literary department of a given theater. But with New Play Exchange, plays get read. Period.

If we really want to support theatre, shouldn't we foster it at home and not just on a few streets in Midtown Manhattan?

This is no simple stunt casting fad sweeping through Broadway. It is a parade of celebrated television and film actors, dedicating themselves to performing live on Broadway for weeks on end.

So much of what I have experienced of bisexuality in theatre is in its use as a buzzword. It's better than stereotypes, sure, but it seems like the word gets tossed around for the sake of being able to tout a bisexual character.  

In a musical theatre piece on Broadway in this day and age, to be so quiet for so long is risky and daring. Fortunately The Band’s Visit - book writer Itamar Moses, composer and lyricist David Yazbek, director David Cromer, and the entire cast and creative team - have taken the risk of silence.

Hadestown has many merits that I can gladly list. But above all else is the message that drives me an artist: we must keep singing the stories over and over again, experiencing and remembering, living and breathing.

What is real and worth everything is the community of theatre. And you, a fresh new theatre major, are undoubtedly a part of that community.

In the process, I learned a lot - but I learned, most of all, that I desperately wanted to translate Antigone for myself.

To think of opera as a fixture of the past is to ignore almost everything that makes it wonderful.