We Can Work It Out
Two new books lift the voices of designers and production workers on their art and their labor.
Category Archives: Book Reviews
Left by the Roadside: A Theatre Legacy Considered, and Reconsidered
2 new volumes by and about a pioneering Appalachian company celebrate decades of work, though they also deserve scrutiny.
The Legend of Zelda
2 new books show and tell the instructive story of Arena’s path-breaking co-founder, Zelda Fichandler—both the work she did and the work she left for us to continue.
Burning Down the Spouse
A new book looks at the marriages of convenience—and backstage inconveniences—behind the filming of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
The Theatre of Politics, or the Politics of Theatre? Yes.
Two new books consider the possibilities and limits of documentary theatre in a polarized nation.
Reading Race Through Shakespeare, and Vice Versa
Two books come not to bury the Bard but to bring his writing down to the common ground we share.
Can a Theatre Critic Be a Good Dad?
Priscilla Gilman’s memoir portrays her father, Richard Gilman, as a passionate, difficult figure who bequeathed her life lessons, many unwittingly.
A Man in Full: August Wilson and His Plays, in All Their Complexity
Patti Hartigan’s excellent new biography gives us a rich portrait of the playwright’s life and art, and a measure of his significance.
What’s True in ‘True West’?
A new biography of Sam Shepard focuses on the man as an icon rather than as a writer—though, as with everything in the late dramatist’s work, such delineations are never so neat.
Triple Threats
A look at two new reads for musical theatre fans: a thought-provoking analysis of Broadway’s body biases and a breezy memoir by dance icon Chita Rivera.
