On Hiring: One Broadway Director’s View Beyond the Audition Room
After making nearly 240 hiring decisions in a single year, Sammi Cannold reflects on how actors are actually cast — and what transparency might offer artists navigating the process.
No Matter the Play, This Pole Takes Center Stage
Obstacle or opportunity? Five directors explain how they worked with — and around — Theaterlab’s infamous white pillar.
The Show Must Go On . . . at 5. Or 7. Or Midnight
As Sam Pinkleton dreams of late-night Rocky Horror performances, Broadway and Off-Broadway are experimenting with new curtain times — from 11 a.m. matinees to pre-dinner starts. Are we entering a timely revolution?
By Tim Teeman
Ryan J. Haddad on Intimacy, Ensemble Work, and Letting Go of the Plan
The actor and playwright talks Tartuffe, his autobiographical solo performances, being a musical theater kid, and what’s next.
Turning “Picnic at Hanging Rock” into a Musical
The playwright Hilary Bell discusses collaborating with composer Greta Gertler Gold, developing new work in New York, and honoring the classic Australian story rooted in female struggle and First Nations history.
Meghan Finn on Taking the Tank to New Heights
Eight years into her tenure as artistic director of the Tank, Finn reflects on the nonprofit’s revolutionary production model, sharing the reins with Johnny G. Lloyd, and mounting “Everything Is Here.”
The Barrow Group’s 40-Year Experiment in Realism
The theater company’s classes and productions have shaped artists across the city—and now Scott Organ’s new play Diversion demonstrates why its “non-acting acting” remains so resonant.
By Jude Cramer
Francis Jue Plays the Voice of Reason in a World That Won’t Listen
Fresh off his Tony win for Yellow Face, the actor discusses why he finally said yes to Tartuffe, finding the comedy in moral frustration, and the lesson he keeps relearning: “I have a right to be there.”
When Music Becomes Visible
Jay Alan Zimmerman on composing for the eyes, adapting Sarah Ruhl’s poems, and building a new language for Deaf artists and audiences.
Judy Kuhn on Acting through Song, Taking Risks, and Reviving “The Baker’s Wife”
From Rags to Pocahontas to Classic Stage Company, the actor reflects on her evolving career, collaborating with Stephen Schwartz, and why an old-fashioned musical comedy feels surprisingly right for this moment.
Fiasco and the Saunders Collective Shake Up “The Comedy of Errors”
Through the Without a Net initiative, the theater company and the real-life siblings invite audiences into their workshop of Shakespeare’s fastest farce.
The Stage Manager Takes the Stage
Ruth Sternberg spent 18 years as the backbone of the Public Theater. Now she's making her acting debut in the same building she helped run, in Ethan Lipton’s The Seat of Our Pants.
Twenty Years, 65 Plays, and the Man Who Won’t Let Shaw Fade Away
For two decades, Gingold Theatrical Group’s David Staller has championed George Bernard Shaw—and he’s convinced the playwright still has something to say in 2025.
By John DeVore
The Art of Collaboration
What makes a successful writer-director partnership? Writer Kate Douglas explores this essential question through conversations with long-term creative pairs, as well as her own work with director Kate Whoriskey.
Best Friends Forever?
Playwright Lia Romeo and director Katie Birenboim discuss their collaboration on The Lucky Ones, a play that tests the bonds of female friendship amid life, illness, and desire.
Douglas Lyons on Boldness, Craft, and Writing the World He Wants to Live In
As his new musical Beau launches its uptown run, the multi-hyphenate artist discusses daily habits, building community, and why artists need more than one creative fire burning.
In “Jewish Plot,” Torrey Townsend Resists a Tidy Narrative
The playwright’s shape-shifting new work uses an invented Victorian melodrama to excavate his grandfather's anti-fascist legacy—and confront his own identity.
Abby Wambaugh Knows How to Begin Again (and Again and Again)
In The First 3 Minutes of 17 Shows, the comedian experiments with styles, props—and even the audience—to explore what it means to start over after loss.
The Play That Saw Fascism Coming
The Mint Theater, whose mission is to stage forgotten plays from the past, resurrects Sally Carson's Crooked Cross, a warning about the rise of fascism. Director Jonathan Bank and dramaturg Amy Stoller share their insights into Carson's work, the Mint's process, and the play's contemporary resonance.
Inside Off-Broadway’s Future
Fresh venues, small shows, big names. The industry is restless, inventive—and under pressure to prove why it matters now.
By Tim Teeman