Making My Playhouse Great
In this excerpt from his new book about running the Pasadena Playhouse for 2 decades, Epps arrives at the intersection of its history and his.
Category Archives: Books
‘Pippin’ in the Belly of the Beast
In this excerpt from a new book about the making of the iconic 1970s musical, the show collides with some real-life drama and danger in the nation’s capital.
Making ‘Sensory Theatre’ for All Ages and All Senses
A new book from a founder of Oily Cart offers an insider’s guide to the world-building of inclusive, interactive theatre for young and disabled audiences.
Taking It to the Streets
Socially engaged performance has a rich history in this country, and it deserves an account as localized and multivocal as its leading practitioners.
How Jack O’Brien Learned to Direct: Watching, Doing, and Living to Tell
In a new memoir, the longtime Old Globe leader and frequent Broadway helmer considers an eventful career and offers tips he picked up the hard way.
Mr. Abbott Meets the Kid: The Care and Feeding of the Revival
In this excerpt from his new memoir ‘Jack in the Box: Or, How to Goddamn Direct,’ Jack O’Brien recounts his fierce face-off with theatre giant George Abbott.
Are We Selling Experiences or Serving Communities?
In excerpts from their new book, Anthony S. Rhine and Jay Pension answer important questions about audience engagement practices in nonprofit arts.
Les Waters: Theatre Spaces and Thin Places
In excerpts from a new book, the British-born director talks about childhood mysteries, the theatre buildings he’s worked in, and his fascination with erasure and contradictions.
Life During Wartime: The Backdrop of Kenny Leon’s ‘Much Ado’
How a Shakespeare in the Park production taught this designer that ‘political theatre’ could mean something different for Black and white Americans.
A Lost ‘Member’: The Mary Rodgers Musical That Wasn’t
In this excerpt from ‘Shy,’ the brutally frank memoir Rodgers wrote with Jesse Green, a Carson McCullers adaptation takes shape, then founders.
