In the Body of The World Review: Eve Ensler, Fighting Cancer and Injustice, Ranting, Riffing, Raging, Revealing

February 7, 2018 Leave a comment

Perhaps you’d think it chutzpah that in “In The Body of the World,” the latest solo show by Eve Ensler, best known for “The Vagina Monologues,” she merges her story of her fight against uterine cancer with world crises such as mass rape in the Congo and the deadly oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe you’d be squeamish at her graphic storytelling of her illness, treatment and recovery, during which she literally bares her physical scars, and exposes her emotional ones, which are more disturbing. You could well disapprove of her self-defeating and dubious speculation about what might have caused her cancer – from tofu to Tab to bad reviews.

You could grapple with all these reactions to Eve Ensler and her show – I certainly did at one time or another during its 90 minutes – and still find “In The Body of the World” (as I did) eye-opening, entertaining, and one of the most satisfying works of theater so far this year.
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Watch #BroadwaySoWhite? People of Color Panels at BroadwayCon 2018

January 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Speakers at three of the panels at BroadwayCon — Beyond the Heights: Latinx Representation in Theatre; Fan Tan Fantastic: Asian American Representation; and Being A Critic of Color — summarize their discussions.

Filed under activism, cultural sensitivity, Diversity, New York Theater, video

BroadwayCon: Anthony Rapp on Speaking Out. Actors and Activism.

January 26, 2018 Leave a comment

“I wasn’t afraid of the risk; I don’t know why, maybe I’m stupid,” Anthony Rapp said in answer to an audience member’s question about the difficulty of going public with his accusations of sexual misconduct against Kevin Spacey.

Rapp was speaking at the third annual BroadwayCon, a theater convention that he co-founded, in a panel entitled “Actors and Activism,” along with fellow panelists Lisa Kron, Ilana Levine, Arian Moayed, Emily Skeggs, and Britton Smith.

Actors and Activism panel, BroadwayCon 2018.

Anthony Rapp

Lisa Kron

Ilana Levine

Arian Moayed

Emily Skeggs

Britton Smith

#ArtActionDay: Events in NYC

January 20, 2018 Leave a comment

Today, the first anniversary of the inauguration of Donald Trump, is Art Action Day.
The day is organized by The Federation, founded last year to spread the message:

Art is essential to democracy

There are events planned throughout the country. Here are some in New York:

Martin Luther King Jr on The Three Sicknesses of U.S. Society: Racism, Poverty, and War

January 15, 2018 Leave a comment

On Martin Luther King Day, many people read or listen once again to his most famous speech, from August, 1963, I Have a Dream, But today, people are finding King’s speech below, delivered four years later, on August 31, 1967, especially apt. Speaking at the first and only National Conference on New Politics in Chicago, he focused on what he considered the “triple prong sickness” of “racism, excessive materialism and militarism,” and exhorted the listeners:

“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world, declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism.”

He said:

“…on some positions; cowardice asks the question, is it safe; expediency asks the question, is it politic; vanity asks the question, is it popular, but conscience asks the question, is it right?”

King was killed seven months later.

Transcribed excerpts of the speech, with some sentences highlighted, are below the audio of the complete speech.

#WorldAIDSDay: Still Here, Still Affecting the Theater Community

December 1, 2017 Leave a comment

The death from AIDS of theater artist Michael Friedman in September at the age of 41 was a shocking reminder that, yes, people still die from AIDS — and yes it is still affecting the New York theater community, a fact worth repeating on World AIDS Day, which is today.