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I Ain’t Shit
I read Questlove’s article about Trayvon Martin and how Black men are perceived in America (which also had the byproduct of teaching me who Questlove is) while it was making the rounds of...
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The Problem with Cosplay Celebrity
My husband and I are both 501st. My initial forays into cosplay were through the 501st, and I became an official member in 2007. We did local events. We did cons. And we branched out early on into...
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Don’t You Want Me, Baby?
This is just here to amuse me. I’ve written before about playwrights and rejection. I think it’s difficult, though, to understand just HOW MUCH rejection we’re talking about here, and how insanely...
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Racism for Breakfast
Because my cosplay article has been kinda going crazy the past few days, people are tagging me all over the book of faces in discussions of various cosplay and cosplayers. I’ve been ignoring most of...
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Facts Are for Chumps, Amirite?
Race in casting is an issue I care deeply about. I’ve written about it, more than once. I’ve assigned Racebending to my university students. I discuss issues of race in screenwriting, casting, and...
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What Theatre is For
Arisa Bega in Monica Byrne’s What Every Girl Should Know at Impact Theatre. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what theatre is and why we do it. It sounds like an easy...
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Just Out of Curiosity, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, Commercial Costume...
For little girls. But it’s OK because all police uniforms include a miniskirt, right? This is the time of year when Concerned Citizens, such as MYSELF, like to point out how uncomfortably sexualized...
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Stop Complaining that Young People Don’t Like Shakespeare
Jeanette Penley and Will Hand in Lauren Gunderson’s Toil and Trouble. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs. 2012. Once upon a time, I was ALL ABOUT the new plays. I wrote my dissertation on appropriating and...
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Emotional Isolationist
I was deeply honored to be asked to participate in Lit Crawl by the head of Limina Magazine– an online journal of women writing about faith that will have its inaugural issue in January. Because the...
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High School Yellowface
I’m not posting pictures of the actual minors in the show. Instead I’m choosing to post pictures from America’s vast yellowface past. This keeps the kids’ identities confidential while also providing...
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The Remarkable World
I’m speaking to you from the center of two mind-blowing experiences. Cassie Rosenbrock as Audrey in Impact’s production of As You Like It. Warden Lawlor was her Touchstone. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs....
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The Politics of Accents
This guy. While I could write plenty about nonsense like Asian actors being asked to do “the accent” in their audition for “Prostitute #3″ and “Kung Fu Master Criminal,” or Black actors being asked for...
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Six Things Playwrights Should Stop Doing
Because what says “HAPPY NEW YEAR” better than a judgmental listicle? One thing I want to say right at the start is that this is a list borne out of my own personal experience. These are things I...
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“I’m Not Apologizing for Voicing My Opinion”: Entitlement Goes to a Middle...
So someone I know recently went to his kid’s middle school play. Awwwww, adorable, right? During the event, he posted a picture of a beautiful Black woman– surely another parent or relative (because...
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Directing, Creative Freedom, and Vandalism
From endlessorigami.com Once upon a time I worked at a theatre that received two cease-and-desist orders in two seasons– one for copying dialogue from a Disney film word-for-word and performing it...
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Fathering Daughters: You’re Doing It Wrong
I’m choosing to accompany this article with pictures of gorgeous women who don’t conform to the beauty myth. This is Malaysian model Loretta Lucia Kwek Leng Choo. Picture from thestar.com. I’ve seen...
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The Weapon of Invisibility
Jered McLenigan in Lantern Theater’s Julius Caesar. Photo by Mark Garvin. This is a piece about the Wooster Group’s production of Cry, Trojans!, Lantern Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar, the Lean...
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Speaking from Privilege
I posted the other day on facebook and twitter that white privilege and thin privilege are the toughest scrappers in the game– they’ll throw any kind of punch they can think of to preserve their...
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RANTYPANTS
Bea Arthur is my spirit animal. I will never achieve such epic glare. Oh, internet. I love you so much. But sometimes, sometimes . . . you work my last available, barely functional nerve. I have some...
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Playwriting is Storytelling
Maybe this will become a series: “Directing is Storytelling,” “Acting is Storytelling.” Since I’m right in the thick of season planning and reading a ton of plays every day, writing is my current...
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