Arts reporter Alexis Soloski, whose interview with critically lauded playwright Amy Herzog appears on page 32, figures she and her subject should have, by rights, met years ago. “Herzog and I were actors at the same college at the same time and later moved to the same neighborhood,” Soloski acknowledges. “But I’ve only known her from afar, admiring the shrewd construction and fierce truthfulness of her scripts. So it was a particular pleasure to meet her in person and to find her as incisive and insightful as her plays suggest—if far less emotionally fraught!”

Marshall Jones III is known for his strong opinions, at New Jersey’s Crossroads Theatre Company, where he is producing artistic director, and elsewhere—so American Theatre was pleased when he offered to elucidate his reservations about the staging of The Scottsboro Boys in a thought-provoking essay about racial imagery (page 52). “Even an Obama White House has not been able to easily resolve deep-rooted issues caused by centuries of institutional racism and white privilege,” Jones observes. “Perhaps more than ever, the time is ripe to have meaningful dialogue with one another about our past, so we can have a truthful reconciliation that will lead to a stronger sense of hope for us all.”