Getting Real at the 2026 National Critics Institute
Reflections from this past summer’s institute, and on the work we saw at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s New Play Conference and New Musical Theatre Conference.
Category Archives: First Person
Writing With Our Ancestors
A ceremony from the writing room, and how to keep it at your own desk.
Monologues and Mayday in Minneapolis
In defiance of early 2026’s harrowing ICE/CBP occupation, Mixed Blood Theatre commissioned theatre artists to process and document the moment.
Mama’s Turn: My Mother, Me, and 2 Musical Bookends
How ‘The Music Man’ and ‘Gypsy’ framed the fatherless, aspirational life we shared.
The Not-So-Brief, Wondrous Adaptation Process of ‘Oscar Wao’
How did a playwright bring the Pulitzer-winning, generation-defining novel to the stage? By finding himself in the story.
‘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.
Facial Recognition, With a Difference: How ‘Wonder’ Sees the Invisible
The author of a new musical based on a book about facial difference writes about how the show took its unique shape and gathered its like-minded team.
Why I Left the Kennedy Center
A former copywriter for the D.C. organization reflects on the tenuous position of arts workers under the Trump administration.
Islands of Disorder
Lessons from the Global South on fugitivity and world-making in the face of empire.
Maybe, Maybe Not: A Casting Controversy and the Conversation It’s Started
An Asian American theatremaker reflects on the intent and impact of Broadway’s ‘Maybe Happy Ending,’ and the precedent its latest casting decision may set.
