Issues of The Hat

January 2026

Articles

Tim Teeman

The Show Must Go On . . . at 5. Or 7. Or Midnight

Tim Teeman

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

Tim Teeman

Sammi Cannold

On Hiring: One Broadway Director’s View Beyond the Audition Room

Sammi Cannold

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.

Sammi Cannold

Billy McEntee

No Matter the Play, This Pole Takes Center Stage

Billy McEntee

Obstacle or opportunity? Five directors explain how they worked with — and around — Theaterlab’s infamous white pillar.

Billy McEntee

Winter Miller

Ryan J. Haddad on Intimacy, Ensemble Work, and Letting Go of the Plan

Winter Miller

The actor and playwright talks Tartuffe, his autobiographical solo performances, being a musical theater kid, and what’s next.

Winter Miller

SPOTLIGHTS

Articles

Joey Sims

Pete Simpson Is Everyone Everywhere All at Once

Joey Sims

At the Exponential Festival, the ubiquitous actor is doing more of what he loves: experimental theater, back-to-back plays, and throwing himself “over the cliff.”

Joey Sims

Kara Cutruzzula

Inside a Role: Initiative’s Greg Cuellar on Seven Years, 9,000 Words, and That Five-Hour Play

Kara Cutruzzula

The actor reflects on endurance, boundaries, and the creative process—plus backstage snacks—required to take on a millennial epic.

Kara Cutruzzula

Articles

Georgie McKeon

The Theatrical Audacity of Anne Gridley

Georgie McKeon

The longtime performance artist discusses turning disability, spectacle, and “dumb theater magic” into Watch Me Walk, her fearless solo show.

Georgie McKeon

December 2025

Articles

Jude Cramer

The Barrow Group’s 40-Year Experiment in Realism

Jude Cramer

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

Jude Cramer

Durra Leung

Francis Jue Plays the Voice of Reason in a World That Won’t Listen

Durra Leung

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.”

Durra Leung

Jay Alan Zimmerman

When Music Becomes Visible

Jay Alan Zimmerman

Jay Alan Zimmerman on composing for the eyes, adapting Sarah Ruhl’s poems, and building a new language for Deaf artists and audiences.

Jay Alan Zimmerman

Jen Gushue

Judy Kuhn on Acting through Song, Taking Risks, and Reviving “The Baker’s Wife”

Jen Gushue

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.

Jen Gushue

SPOTLIGHTS

Articles

Shoshana Greenberg

Turning “Picnic at Hanging Rock” into a Musical

Shoshana Greenberg

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.

Shoshana Greenberg

Jude Cramer

Meghan Finn on Taking the Tank to New Heights

Jude Cramer

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.”

Jude Cramer

November 2025

Articles

John DeVore

Twenty Years, 65 Plays, and the Man Who Won’t Let Shaw Fade Away

John DeVore

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

John DeVore

Kate Douglas

The Art of Collaboration

Kate Douglas

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.

Kate Douglas

Danielle Frimer

Best Friends Forever?

Danielle Frimer

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.

Danielle Frimer

Tyrone L. Robinson

Douglas Lyons on Boldness, Craft, and Writing the World He Wants to Live In

Tyrone L. Robinson

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.

Tyrone L. Robinson

SPOTLIGHTS

Articles

Peter Marks

Fiasco and the Saunders Collective Shake Up “The Comedy of Errors”

Peter Marks

Through the Without a Net initiative, the theater company and the real-life siblings invite audiences into their workshop of Shakespeare’s fastest farce.

Peter Marks

Joey Sims

The Stage Manager Takes the Stage

Joey Sims

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.

Joey Sims

October 2025

Articles

Tim Teeman

Inside Off-Broadway’s Future

Tim Teeman

Fresh venues, small shows, big names. The industry is restless, inventive—and under pressure to prove why it matters now.

By Tim Teeman

Tim Teeman

Adam Gwon

In Praise of Intimacy

Adam Gwon

Composer-lyricist Adam Gwon traces the moments when theater collapses the distance between artist and audience, offering something private, urgent, and transformative.

Adam Gwon

Jen Gushue

Jen Tullock and the World She Left Behind

Jen Gushue

The Severance star draws from her Evangelical past in a daring solo play that confronts trauma, faith, and control.

Jen Gushue

Durra Leung

Zoë Kim on Hunger, Love, and Making Art From Her Own Life

Durra Leung

With her solo show Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) at the Public Theater, the actor-playwright turns personal history into a fearless exploration of family, identity, and community.

Durra Leung

SPOTLIGHTS

Articles

Alexandra Jhamb Burns

Abby Wambaugh Knows How to Begin Again (and Again and Again)

Alexandra Jhamb Burns

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.

Alexandra Jhamb Burns

Douglas Corzine

The Play That Saw Fascism Coming

Douglas Corzine

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.

Douglas Corzine

Articles

Douglas Corzine

In “Jewish Plot,” Torrey Townsend Resists a Tidy Narrative

Douglas Corzine

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.

Douglas Corzine