Beautiful Non-Violent Anarchist Revolution, Where Are You?
Thoughts on reading the vibrant diaries of Living Theatre pioneer Judith Malina, whose passion for observation and commentary vied with her theatrical impulses.
Category Archives: Books
Sorry-Grateful: 2 New Books Show the Many Sides of Sondheim
Daniel Okrent’s biography seeks the composer/lyricist’s motivation and finds complication and nuance, while Barry Joseph’s book asks what Sondheim’s games and puzzles can tell us about him.
When Beck Did Beckett: The Last Days of a Living Theater Cofounder
In this excerpt from her new book ‘Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths,’ a colleague of Julian Beck’s recalls his final years and roles.
‘Teeth,’ In-Your-Face and With Extra Bite
The maker of the original film reflects on how his gory fable about vagina dentata became a savagely witty stage musical by Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson.
What Happened to the U.S. Nonprofit Theatre Movement?
An excerpt from a new book ponders an industry that seems to have lost its way, even as it has grown—and what its future may hold.
The Confidence of a Mediocre White Man, 19th-Century Edition
A new book explores what the life of a middling actor in the pre-Civil War era can teach us about his time—and about notions of individualism and merit that are still with us in American theatre culture.
From ‘Bent’ to ‘Rent’: How 2 Theatre Kids Found Their Way
New memoirs from playwright Martin Sherman and producer Jeffrey Seller recount their bumpy but determined journeys to lives in the theatre.
A High School Ham’s First Take on ‘Hamilton’
Lessons from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s last 2 years at Hunter: collaboration, delegation, and digging deeper.
How We Know Aaron Burr Is Stuck: It’s in the Music
The brilliance of ‘Hamilton’s’ book and lyrics has been justly praised, but a new book argues for show’s deft musical storytelling as well.
A Jewish Testament: The Story of Ben Hecht’s ‘Warsaw Ghetto’
In 1943, when the horrors of the Holocaust were still not widely known, the famed screenwriter joined other big names for a pageant that toured the U.S. to raise awareness—and to celebrate resistance to the Nazis.
