Playwright and youth worker Nathan Lucky Wood asks why work being made with ‘hard-to-reach’ groups is so closely focused around their most difficult experiences
Essays
2 January 2018
Features • Essays
Theatre Prefects
By Alice Saville
Alice Saville explores why it’s time to stop talking about ‘theatre etiquette’, and to start thinking about the behaviour of all sections of the audience.
4 December 2017
Features • Essays
Why it’s time for theatre to embrace grime
By Ifeyinwa Frederick
“Hard-to-reach audiences are not hard to reach if you speak their language” – Ifeyinwa Frederick argues for a new direction for theatre.
28 November 2017
Features • Essays
Diorama for Shoalstone Pool
By Diana Damian Martin
Slow criticism: Diana Damian and Anette Therese Pettersen consider a meditative seaside performance created by Norwegian artist Ingri Fiksdal.
24 November 2017
Features • Essays • Performance
Aesthetics Off Centre
By Alice Saville
As $elfie$ comes to Hackney Showroom, Malik Nashad Sharpe explores the Black and Queer contexts behind their performance.
6 October 2017
Features • Essays
On Supporting Playwrights
By Alice Saville
“How do I mentor a playwright when every time I write a play I feel like I’m starting from scratch?” Tim Crouch on joining the growing band of mentors and dramaturgs who hold up a mirror to the playwriting process.
22 August 2016
Features • Essays
Isn’t This Reason Enough for Celebration?
By Rosemary Waugh
Rosemary Waugh tells the stories of Celebration, Florida, the town that Disney built and Celebration, Florida, the show that Greg Wohead created.
30 June 2016
Features • Essays
Arts in a Time of Crisis
By Rosemary Waugh
In the wake of Brexit, a feeling has emerged that now is not the time to be thinking about theatre. Rosemary Waugh discusses why separating the arts from politics is not so simple.
4 April 2016
Features • Essays
University Women in the Arts Mentoring: “Kicking down doors together”
By David Ralf
Jennifer Tucket on the new UK-wide mentoring programme University Women in the Arts from Central Saint Martins.
7 March 2016
Features • Essays
Game Designers are Theatremakers
By David Ralf
A video game critic and a theatre critic discuss a recent game jam between devising theatre makers, pervasive game designers, and computer game developers.
26 February 2016
Features • Essays
Florence Keith-Roach: “Why is feminism only palatable in the mouths of rich, beautiful celebrities?”
By Tim Bano
Ahead of her play Eggs at Vaults Festival, Florence Keith-Roach talks feminism and the dangers of remaining silent.
22 February 2016
Features • Essays
Junior Doctors: The People Behind the Scrubs
By David Ralf
The director of new devised show Rounds talks about bringing junior doctors into the rehearsal room and telling their stories.
8 December 2015
Features • Essays
A review of the Young Vic’s emergency evacuation announcement playing on loop until 3am outside my goddamn house
By David Ralf
Ring the alarum bell!
3 December 2015
Features • Essays
Pantomime: A Whistlestop History, Through The Eyes of Its Detractors
By Alice Saville
A tour through the history of pantomime from its traditional beginnings to today’s world of Bake Off references and Uptown Funk.
20 November 2015
Features • Essays • Opinion
What Will We Look Like?
By Amelia Cavallo
Querying quotas: tokenism, the “able” disabled, and “pretty crips”.