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Acting & Performance

This section contains content on the craft of acting, created by performers of all types.

The Latest

A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights: Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet
Essay
A Lover’s Guide to American Playwrights: Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet
by Todd London
16 May 2024
How Cultural Resistance for Palestine Makes Revolution Irresistible
Essay
How Cultural Resistance for Palestine Makes Revolution Irresistible
by Beto O'Byrne
15 May 2024
On Collaboration
Podcast
On Collaboration
by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Jennifer Goff, Padraic Lillis
14 May 2024
group of musicians posing with their instruments
Living the Dream Podcast # 11
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 11

PigPen Theatre Co., Part 1 of 2

3 December 2015

Today is the first part of a two part interview with three members of the PigPen Theatre Co. (Ryan Melia, Arya Shahi and Dan Weschler). We discuss actual Rat Kings, the ‘tiering’ of Drama Schools and finding your own identity in the actor training process.

Failure
Essay

Failure

Why Taking Risks is Still Essential

2 December 2015

Eli Keel discusses his experience performing in Phillip Dawkins’ play Failure: A Love Story and shares the timely lesson he learned.

Living the Dream Podcast # 10
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 10

Kristolyn Lloyd

19 November 2015

Matthew Gray interviews performer Kristolyn Lloyd about choosing ethics and principles over panic when building your career, the importance of shaping your own education, and developing new work.

O Be Careful, Little Eyes, What You See
Essay

O Be Careful, Little Eyes, What You See

Combatting Censorship as a Christian Theatre Artist

9 November 2015

Playwright Joseph D’Ambrosi advocates the need for Christian theatre artists to reevaluate censoring plays for the sake of faith-based themes.

All Eyes on Me (whether I like it or not)
Essay

All Eyes on Me (whether I like it or not)

Tourette Syndrome in the Theatre

8 November 2015

Actor Gardiner Comfort discusses his experiences as a performer and audience member with Tourette Syndrome, and how it has inspired aspects of his solo show The Elephant in Every Room I Enter.

Impulse and Desire
Essay

Impulse and Desire

Finding Humanity in Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man’s Blues

7 November 2015

Emerson College student Andrew Siañez-De La O writes about RareWork’s Theatre Company’s production of Caridad Svich’s Alchemy of Desire/Dead Mans Blues.

Living the Dream Podcast # 9
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 9

Kara Lindsay

5 November 2015

Today I talk with Kara Lindsay, currently playing Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. We talk Broadway dreams, audition nightmares and coming to terms with the ebbs and flow of the business.

Ad Lib Rescues and Spontaneous Saves
Essay

Ad Lib Rescues and Spontaneous Saves

31 October 2015

Actor Jerine Watson writes about instances in her career where something went wrong, and how the performers managed the moment.

Living the Dream Podcast # 8
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 8

Gretchen Egolf

29 October 2015

Gretchen Egolf and I talk about the cultural differences between the business in the USA and the UK, the difference between acting for cameras and acting onstage and nursing an ongoing displeasure of auditioning…

Circus Arts with Heart
Essay

Circus Arts with Heart

HerSelf Rises (And We Are Lifted)

27 October 2015

Steele Campbell on HerSelf Rising by Girls on Trapeze at Sideshow Fringe Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

Four Actors, Three Years, Two Characters
Essay

Four Actors, Three Years, Two Characters

23 October 2015

Producer Sean Williams talks with the four lead actors in The Honeycomb Trilogy.

Living the Dream Podcast # 7
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 7

Tasso Feldman

22 October 2015

This week I’m speaking to actor Tasso Feldman. We talk about acting books and their traps, the difference between stage and screen acting.

Deafness On Broadway
Essay

Deafness On Broadway

21 October 2015

Chicago-based theatre practitioner and scholar Eli Van Sickel dispells the prevalent notion of Spring Awakening being the first deaf production on Broadway—it’s not.

Are Theatre Artists Hardwired?
Essay

Are Theatre Artists Hardwired?

19 October 2015

Are you born to be a theatre artist? A three-year study on theatre artists compares how this group stands out from the average population.

Acting in Solidarity
Essay

Acting in Solidarity

Working for a Living Wage

16 October 2015

Matthew Sekellick explores what New York’s proposed minimum wage increase would mean for theatre artists.

Studio Theatre Stages a Heroic Chimerica
Essay

Studio Theatre Stages a Heroic Chimerica

15 October 2015

Patricia Davis interviews Ron Menzel, an actor in Studio Theatre's production of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica in Washington, DC.

Living the Dream Podcast # 6
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 6

Cameron Knight

15 October 2015

Actor and teacher Cameron Knight is a force. He is also one of the most important acting teachers in the country.

The Hyphenate
Essay

The Hyphenate

a Rose by Any Other Name(s)?

14 October 2015

Emily Daly writes about being a Hyphenate—someone with multiple artistic identities.

Garden of Inspiration
Essay

Garden of Inspiration

Going Green with Radical Evolution and The Movement Theatre Company

9 October 2015

Katie Naka discusses the Go Green pop-up experience in Harlem and advocates experimenting with urban green spaces as venues.

Living the Dream Podcast # 5
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 5

Bethany Caputo

9 October 2015

Bethany Caputo is a prolific stage and commercial actor, as well as an extraordinary teacher. Today we talk Michael Chekhov, the need to love auditioning, and how “falling off the beam” can sometimes be the very best thing for your career.

From Impulse To Audience
Essay

From Impulse To Audience

Four Days at Toronto’s Theatre Centre

8 October 2015

Raphael Martin on the history, organizational model, current reality, and aspirations of The Theatre Centre in Toronto, Canada.  

Living the Dream Podcast # 4
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 4

Seth Lepore

1 October 2015

In this podcast series, Matthew Gray interviews all kinds of actors to share why they act and how they act, in a world of diminished residuals, rising student loan interest rates, reduced network pick-ups, and a dying regional theatre circuit. Find it in iTunes.

Journal of a Choirboy
Essay

Journal of a Choirboy

Reflections on Performing in The Christians

25 September 2015

Actor Billy McEntee discusses his faith and his experience performing as a choir member in Playwrights Horizons' production of The Christians.

Living the Dream Podcast # 3
Podcast

Living the Dream Podcast # 3

Maurice Emmanuel Parent

24 September 2015

In this podcast series, Matthew Gray interviews all kinds of actors to share why they act and how they act, in a world of diminished residuals, rising student loan interest rates, reduced network pick-ups, and a dying regional theatre circuit. Find it in iTunes.

The Moisture Festival
Essay

The Moisture Festival

Outliers and Oddities

17 September 2015

Susan W. Kemp on The Moisture Festival in Seattle, Washington.