It appears that in many major theaters across the country, men's roles out number women's by half. One out of every three roles go to women. (An informal survey of 10 theatrical seasons from across the country that I did put women in only 35% of the total roles). This...

March 20th is World Theater for Children and Young People Day. Some of you might be thinking, "Oh lord, why do we need a day to celebrate actors being silly, wearing bright colors and singing obnoxiously at squirming kiddos and bored parents?"

But if you think that's what...

Without hesitation I can say that CalShakes' Production of The Taming of The Shrew (running now through Oct 16th) is a lovely, funny, smartly directed production performed with muscle and wit. Director Shana Cooper dreamed up a Miami Vice version of Padua that was equal parts Hustler Club,...

To mark this year's World Theatre Day (March 27) I want to blend two very true things:

1. Theatre is an organic byproduct to the human experience on this earth
2. This earth is very old and still going

There is a rather mind-blowingly cool organization based in...

*I swear that I'm not making this up. Even though that is usually my job. This is completely true.

The day before Valentine's Day, after workshopping a new play at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA, I was...

There's been much hubbub reacting to National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman's comments about the supply and demand of American theatre. He said that, based on imbalanced growth of arts participation compared to arts events, perhaps there is too much theatre for too little interest in...

Standing up in solidarity with the oppressed and exiled members of the "bravest theatre in the world" (Time Out London, Belarus Free Theatre [BFT]), US theatre companies nationwide are putting on free staged readings of the BFT's acclaimed play Being Harold Pinter.

The position of Poet Laureate started officially when in 1616 King James I of England gave the title to Ben Johnson -- a noted poet and playwright. In 1937, the United States established a similar position that, while at first a title-only kinda gig, is now a lauded (and paying)...

Andrus Nichols as Hamlet in We Players' Hamlet

Denmark is a prison.

I'm headed to see We Player's production of Hamlet on Alcatraz. On the ferry from Pier 33 across the San Francisco Bay to The Rock, I overhear three young hipster...

The entire point of the aptly titled play cycle The Great Game: Afghanistan is to overwhelm ignorance about Afghanistan with history, up-to-date fact, and epic storytelling.

I got to see this incredible theatrical marathon this weekend at Berkeley Rep -- a 3-part cycle of short plays covering the 200...

I was going to save my continuing exploration of the term "political play" for Berkeley Rep's upcoming (and highly anticipated) The Great Game: Afghanistan, a three-part "sweeping cycle of 12 short plays" covering the history of our bruised war-time bedfellow, which opens later this month. But then I...

What is drama?

I spent two years and several thousand dollars in grad school (and NYC housing) adjusting the answer to that question. I came to something like: Drama (and comedy) is active risk and choice, people doing things of consequence to an end, character in vigorous crisis questing...

I had a fabulous (but way too brief) visit to the thespianically sumptuous Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland last week. It's more than a gem of a small town, and more than a buffet of handsomely and brilliantly performed and produced plays. What struck me most was the...

My previous theatre essay on "Holy Sh*t Theatre" generated a lot of conversation in the theatre twitterverse and blogospohere. A lot of the dialogue focused on labeling theatre. There was a dissatisfaction (or outright confusion) with what I meant by badass theatre, and why it is/is not different...

I just saw California Shakespeare's Macbeth directed by Joel Sass last Thursday night in their newly renovated, and glorious outdoor theatre. The lights went down (including the sun) and the first eerie strains of music and witches' words seeped into the space like a slow ghost. The witches appeared in...

A recent article in The Guardian made some interesting if harsh points about the canon of plays written about science and scientists. To summarize ungraciously: they generally suck.

Pardoning the great science plays, of course: Stoppard's Arcadia, Brecht's Galileo, Frayn's Copenhagen. A few others pass...

Robert Redford and Arianna Huffington headlined the Americans for Arts National Summit in Baltimore last month. They both extolled the power, vitality, and fundamental importance of the arts in this country. Even in a recession. Even with environmental disasters licking our toes. Despite that -- heck,...

I wish that vomiting oil would stop. I hope so hard that the era of global women's abuse shrieks to a halt. I want this war (which war? Exactly) to end.

But as a playwright I'll tell you that the hardest part of the my job is finding that...