Author: Dan O’Neil
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Experimental Theater Built To Survive the Zombie Apocalypse: Radiohole’s NOW SERVING
even if death is on everyone’s menu, lurking somewhere after dessert, this evening, we survived
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Liza Birkenmeier on Dr. Sally Ride, the Scientific Method, and Sexual Power Dynamics
I went in with this insane piece, this musical phantasmagoria island site-specific thing — and came out with my most, sort of, small quiet piece I’ve ever made that really relies upon, for the most part, humans behaving based on characteristics that we can perceive.
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THE JOHNSONS: a Comedic Nightmare Version of the American Dream
It’s not always clear what we’re looking at, but perhaps Henry is tearing down the house, family, and narrative form itself with hope alongside rage.
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Weird Lingerers: The “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” plot their battles at Playwrights Horizons
Their arguments, even when hate-filled, are lucidly formed and difficult to penetrate. There’s a weird thrill of uncomfortable relief when we find ourselves half-agreeing with them.
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In Conversation: Joshua William Gelb & Nehemiah Luckett on JAZZ SINGER
It’s the concept of being brave and having a safe space that is safe enough that you can feel brave — because it takes bravery to have those conversations that you know will be difficult, with people that might have a viewpoint that is different than yours, but in order to find common ground and…
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The Show Lasts Longer Than It May Appear – WATERBOY AND THE MIGHTY WORLD
You feel, given the virtuosity and care demonstrated onstage, that you owe this much. You can carry all this. If you let it fall, it’ll break the spell. Don’t spill the water.
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Tranquility Disrupted – Sean Donovan’s CABIN
Donovan builds a tranquil place effortlessly, and then creates darkness within the negative (theatrical) space around it, using it as atmospheric pressure to hold the memory in place.
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The Literacy of Delight – In Conversation with Bailey Williams and Sarah Blush
You can get close to truth but you can’t ever – in my opinion – I don’t think any story is ever true.
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Both Lynchian & Eno-esque, PLANO Swirls Ever Inward
If life is a race, all the characters here are lagging behind the leader, just hoping to keep up and find space to breath amidst the density of inevitable heartbreak that comes along with living.
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The Verisimilitude of the Mad Ones
I’m not sure I would call Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie a play, as such, if only because a play suggests an exterior blueprint which is then built or enacted by a group of performers and designers. The Mad Ones appear to build out – they start with what is generally interior, a collection of tiny behavioral…
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The Story Variations of MARJANA AND THE FORTY THIEVES
through sharing, repeating, layering, and rephrasing, the company finds a way to both underline and subvert the brutality without explicitly pointing at it.

