THOUGHTS ON THEATRE, CULTURE & LIFE

Thinking Cap Theatre

A podcast curated by Thinking Cap Theatre, a professional, non-profit arts organization based in South Florida. Topics discussed will vary by project and season. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support read less
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Episodes

SHAKESPEARE WAS HERE with Stephen Burdman
Mar 28 2024
SHAKESPEARE WAS HERE with Stephen Burdman
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard talks with Stephen Burdman,  founder of New York Classical Theatre about producing and directoring Shakespeare's problematic play The Taming of the Shrew. STEPHENS'S BIO Stephen Burdman founded New York Classical Theatre in 2000 and is the vision behind the creation of Panoramic Theatre. Originally from Los Angeles, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and planned to become a doctor. During college, Stephen auditioned for a production of Hamlet, and discovered his passion for Shakespeare. That experience completely changed the course of his life. Stephen founded NY Classical to give all people the chance to discover classical masterpieces as he did. Stephen has directed nearly half of Shakespeare canon. To date, he has directed 38 productions for NY Classical. Some of his favorites include: Cymbeline (performed by 7 actors), The Importance of Being Earnest (Two-Ways), Romeo & Juliet (6 actors), The Rivals, The Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, The Seagull, A {15-Min!} Christmas Carol, Playing Moliere, Henry V (in The Battery and, via ferry boat, Governors Island), Hamlet, King Lear, Misalliance, Mary Stuart, Scapin, and The Triumph of Love. Stephen attended the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and later received an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of California, Irvine. In 1989, he was selected to participate in the first young theatre artist exchange with the (former) Soviet Union and has been a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society since 1994. Stephen received the 2022 Sidney Berger award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association for outstanding talent and commitment to the works of William Shakespeare. He has also been a panelist with the National Endowment for the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. He lives in Central Harlem with his wife, Adena, and son, Zeke. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Alisa Solomon
Nov 14 2023
The FUTURE is FORNES with Alisa Solomon
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard talks with Alisa Solomon, professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, writer, and dramaturg about Fornes' relationship with Susan Sontag. ALISA SOLOMON'S BIO Alisa Solomon is a teacher, writer, and dramaturg in New York City. She is a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, where she directs the Arts & Culture concentration in the MA program. A theater critic and general reporter for the Village Voice from 1983 to 2004, she has also contributed to The Nation, Jewish Currents, ⁠newyorker.com⁠, The Intercept, The New York Times, American Theater, Howlround.com, TDR, and other publications. Her award-winning books include Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, and Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. Alisa has also edited several books: The Reverend Billy Project: From Rehearsal Hall to Super Mall with the Church of Life After Shopping by Savitri D and Bill Talen; Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (co-edited with Tony Kushner); The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater (co-edited with Framji Minwalla), a special issue of the journal Theater on theater and social change, and a forthcoming volume of plays and essays by and about Robbie McCauley, The Struggle Continues (co-edited with Elin Diamond and Cynthia Carr). As dramaturg, Alisa's most recent projects are Anna Deavere Smith’s Love All and Pipeline Project. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Alice Reagan
May 25 2023
The FUTURE is FORNES with Alice Reagan
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard talks with Alice Reagan, Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Directing at Barnard College and a seasoned director of the plays of Maria Irene Fornes, about her directing practice and her current project, directing Fornes' play Evelyn Brown: A Diary at La Mama (May 19, 2023 - Jun 4, 2023, https://www.lamama.org/shows/evelyn-brown-a-diary-2023) ALICE REAGAN'S BIO Alice Reagan directs new plays, adapted classics, and plays by María Irene Fornés.  Recent directing credits: Pirandello Project at Barnard College, Measure for Measure at Shakespeare & Company, Cherry Orchard with Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, On Loop by Charly Evon Simpson with New Plays at Barnard, No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh by Christina Masciotti at Yocum Institute, Funnyhouse/Movie Star by Adrienne Kennedy at Barnard, Hir by Taylor Mac at Shakespeare & Company, Jeune Terre by Gab Reisman with New Plays at Barnard, Grounded by George Brant at Dobama Theatre, Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek at Boom Arts, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes at Profile Theatre, the musical Promenade by María Irene Fornés and Al Carmines at Barnard, Or, by Liz Duffy Adams at Shakespeare & Company, PHAETON (a diggle of a fragment) by Mac Wellman at Classic Stage Company, Enter THE NIGHT by María Irene Fornés with Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Nomads by Julia Jarcho at Incubator Arts Project, I Came to Look for You on Tuesday by Chiori Miyagawa at La MaMa.   Nominations and awards: NYC Fringe First, Berkshire Theatre Awards, Cleveland Critics Circle.  Recipient of two Foundation of Contemporary Arts Grants, Princess Grace Award, and Princess Grace Special Project Grant.  Alum: Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist Program, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Women’s Project Directors Lab, and the Drama League.  MA, Performance Studies: Tisch/NYU.  MFA, Directing: Columbia.  Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Barnard College.  www.alicereagan.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Stevie Walker-Webb
Apr 27 2023
The FUTURE is FORNES with Stevie Walker-Webb
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard talks with celebrated director Stevie Walker-Webb about all things Fornes, including Stevie's direction of her adaptation of Calderon de la Barca's Life is a Dream at Baltimore Center Stage (May 4 - 21, 2023, https://www.centerstage.org). STEVIE WALKHER-WEBB'S BIO Stevie Walker-Webb is an Obie award winning Director, Playwright, and Cultural Worker who believes in the transformational power of art. He is the founder and Executive Director of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS an arts and advocacy non-profit that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally divergent people and the policies that adversely impact their lives. He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, The Lily Award in honor of Lorraine Hansberry awarded by the Dramatists Guild of America, a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop and a Wellspring Scholar. He’s served as the Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas and has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, and across America. He’s served as the Outreach Coordinator for Theatre of the Oppressed-NYC and holds an MFA from The New School, and a B.S. in Sociology from the University of North Texas. His work has been produced by: The Public Theater, American Civil Liberties Union, The New Group, Cherry Lane, Zara Aina, La Mama, Woolly Mammoth, Baltimore Center Stage, Lincoln Center, and Classic Stage.   Stevie is a regular professor and lecturer at NYU Tisch School of the arts where he teaches acting, ensemble work, and devised theatre. Currently he is a professor and Artist in Residence at Harvard University where he’s teaching a series of courses aimed at “Decolonizing the Creative Process”. The Harvard lectures will culminate in a forthcoming book.Stevie has written and directed two films, We Got Out and the documentary Hundreds of Thousands.Notable Theatrical Productions: Ain’t No Mo’ written by Jordan E. Cooper at The Public Theater (2019), Associate Director for Shakespeare in the Park at The Public Theater Julius Caesar (2017) and Twelfth Night with Oskar Eustis and Shaina Taub (2018), One in Two by Donja Love at the Signature (2019), Black Odyssey by Marcus Gardley at Classic Stage (2023),   Stevie has served as a director for several Audible productions including, Wally Roux Phantom Mechanic written by Nick Carr and starring William Jackson Harper, Hop Tha A by James Anthony Tyler, and Brutal Imagination written by Cornelius Eady, starring Sally Murphy and Joe Morton.He’s a contributing writer on The Ms. Pat Show a new breakout comedy streaming on BET+ and has been commissioned by The Mercury Store for a forthcoming play called Of Mercy And Madness. For more information about Stevie visit steviewalkerwebb.com Podcast Edited by Bree-Anna Obst. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Tom Utsman
Dec 13 2022
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Tom Utsman
Welcome to “From Christmas Tree Farm to Stand,”  Thinking Cap Theatre's Four-Part Podcast Series inspired by interviews and site visits with Christmas Tree Farmers around the state of Florida.  In this episode Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard, Ph.D., talks with Farmer Tom,  from Santa's Christmas Tree Farm in Eustis, Florida. These interviews were used as primary research to create Thinking Cap Theatre's original holiday play with music, O CHRISTMAS TREE.  The play centers on a South Florida family that starts a new tradition and visits a North Florida ’cut-and-choose’ tree farm after the lights on their artificial tree dim. O CHRISTMAS TREE Co-written by Bree-Anna Obst and Nicole Stodard Friday, December 9th, 7:00PM (Opening) Wednesday, December 21st, 7:00PM (Closing) ***Special Talkback*** Following the Sunday, December 11th 1:00PM performance, TCT will host a talkback with distinguished panelist Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at University of Connecticut. He will discuss themes in the play and his latest book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. ***Behind-the-Scenes Talkback***Following the Sunday, December 18th 1:00PM performance, the cast and creative team of O CHRISTMAS TREE will discuss the show’s process and answer questions from the audience. Performance Schedule Wednesdays (December 14 & 21) at 7PM Fridays (December 9 & 16) at 7PM Saturdays (December 10, 17) at 7PM Sundays (December 11, 18) at 1PM and 5PM Ticket Prices $40 (Adults) $20 (17 and under) Ticket Link: http://thinkingcaptheatre.eventbrite.com TCT and MAD Arts Venue Information Theatre Company Website: http://thinkingcaptheatre.org Box Office Phone: 954-610-7263 Venue Address: Mad Arts, 481 S Federal Hwy, Dania Beach, FL 33004 Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities of the National Endowment of the Humanities. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Bo and Karen Salis
Nov 30 2022
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Bo and Karen Salis
Welcome to “From Christmas Tree Farm to Stand,”  Thinking Cap Theatre's Four-Part Podcast Series inspired by interviews and site visits with Christmas Tree Farmers around the state of Florida.  In this episode Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard, Ph.D., talks with husband and wife family farmers, Bo and Karen Salis from A Southern CHRISTmas Tree Farm in Hilliard Florida. These interviews were used as primary research to create Thinking Cap Theatre's original holiday play with music, O CHRISTMAS TREE.  The play centers on a South Florida family that starts a new tradition and visits a North Florida ’cut-and-choose’ tree farm after the lights on their artificial tree dim. O CHRISTMAS TREE Co-written by Bree-Anna Obst and Nicole Stodard Friday, December 9th, 7:00PM (Opening) Wednesday, December 21st, 7:00PM (Closing) ***Special Talkback*** Following the Sunday, December 11th 1:00PM performance, TCT will host a talkback with distinguished panelist Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at University of Connecticut. He will discuss themes in the play and his latest book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. ***Behind-the-Scenes Talkback***Following the Sunday, December 18th 1:00PM performance, the cast and creative team of O CHRISTMAS TREE will discuss the show’s process and answer questions from the audience. Performance Schedule Wednesdays (December 14 & 21) at 7PM Fridays (December 9 & 16) at 7PM Saturdays (December 10, 17) at 7PM Sundays (December 11, 18) at 1PM and 5PM Ticket Prices $40 (Adults) $20 (17 and under) Ticket Link: http://thinkingcaptheatre.eventbrite.com TCT and MAD Arts Venue Information Theatre Company Website: http://thinkingcaptheatre.org Box Office Phone: 954-610-7263 Venue Address: Mad Arts, 481 S Federal Hwy, Dania Beach, FL 33004 Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities of the National Endowment of the Humanities. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Franco and Robert Camacho
Nov 23 2022
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Franco and Robert Camacho
Welcome to “From Christmas Tree Farm to Stand,”  Thinking Cap Theatre's Four-Part Podcast Series inspired by interviews and site visits with Christmas Tree Farmers around the state of Florida.  In this episode Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard, Ph.D., talks with Franco and Robert Camacho, father and son farmers from Bavarian Christmas Tree Farm in Tallahassee, Florida. These interviews were used as primary research to create Thinking Cap Theatre's original holiday play with music, O CHRISTMAS TREE.  The play centers on a South Florida family that starts a new tradition and visits a North Florida ’cut-and-choose’ tree farm after the lights on their artificial tree dim. O CHRISTMAS TREE  Co-written by Bree-Anna Obst and Nicole Stodard Friday, December 9th, 7:00PM (Opening) Wednesday, December 21st, 7:00PM (Closing) ***Special Talkback*** Following the Sunday, December 11th 1:00PM performance, TCT will host a talkback with distinguished panelist Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at University of Connecticut. He will discuss themes in the play and his latest book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. ***Behind-the-Scenes Talkback***Following the Sunday, December 18th 1:00PM performance, the cast and creative team of O CHRISTMAS TREE will discuss the show’s process and answer questions from the audience. Performance Schedule  Wednesdays (December 14 & 21) at 7PM Fridays (December 9 & 16) at 7PM Saturdays (December 10, 17) at 7PM Sundays (December 11, 18) at 1PM and 5PM Ticket Prices  $40 (Adults) $20 (17 and under) Ticket Link: http://thinkingcaptheatre.eventbrite.com TCT and MAD Arts Venue Information Theatre Company Website: http://thinkingcaptheatre.org  Box Office Phone: 954-610-7263  Venue Address: Mad Arts, 481 S Federal Hwy, Dania Beach, FL 33004 Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities of the National Endowment of the Humanities. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Cathryn and John Gregory
Nov 16 2022
FROM CHRISTMAS TREE FARM TO STAND with Cathryn and John Gregory
Welcome to “From Christmas Tree Farm to Stand,”  Thinking Cap Theatre's Four-Part Podcast Series inspired by interviews and site visits with Christmas Tree Farmers around the state of Florida.  In this episode Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard, Ph.D., talks with Cathryn and John Gregory from Unicorn Hill Christmas Tree Farm in Gainesville Florida, a couple who has been in the tree farming business for 38 years.   These interviews were used as primary research to create Thinking Cap Theatre's original holiday play with music, O CHRISTMAS TREE.  The play centers on a South Florida family that starts a new tradition and visits a North Florida ’cut-and-choose’ tree farm after the lights on their artificial tree dim.    O CHRISTMAS TREE Co-written by Bree-Anna Obst and Nicole Stodard Friday, December 9th, 7:00PM (Opening) Wednesday, December 21st, 7:00PM (Closing) ***Special Talkback*** Following the Sunday, December 11th 1:00PM performance, TCT will host a talkback with distinguished panelist Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at University of Connecticut. He will discuss themes in the play and his latest book, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. ***Behind-the-Scenes Talkback***Following the Sunday, December 18th 1:00PM performance, the cast and creative team of O CHRISTMAS TREE will discuss the show’s process and answer questions from the audience. Performance Schedule Wednesdays (December 14 & 21) at 7PM Fridays (December 9 & 16) at 7PM Saturdays (December 10, 17) at 7PM Sundays (December 11, 18) at 1PM and 5PM Ticket Prices $40 (Adults) $20 (17 and under) Ticket Link: http://thinkingcaptheatre.eventbrite.com TCT and MAD Arts Venue Information Theatre Company Website: http://thinkingcaptheatre.org Box Office Phone: 954-610-7263 Venue Address: Mad Arts, 481 S Federal Hwy, Dania Beach, FL 33004 Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities of the National Endowment of the Humanities. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
WILDE'S LEGACY with Matthew Sturgis
Nov 7 2022
WILDE'S LEGACY with Matthew Sturgis
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Matthew Sturgis, author of biography Oscar Wilde: A Life. MATTHEW STURGIS BIO Matthew Sturgis is an historian and biographer, the author of Acclaimed Lives of Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert, as well as Passionate Attitudes, a history of the English Decadence of the 1890s. He has also written a study of Biblical archaeology – It Ain't Necessarily So – and a history of Hampton Court Palace to tie in with a Channel 4 series. He has contributed to the TLS, Daily Telegraph and Independent on Sunday. He is a member of the Oscar Wilde Society and contributes reviews to their journal The Wildean. His major biography of OSCAR WILDE was published by Head of Zeus in 2018. ABOUT THE BOOK The fullest, most textural, most accurate—most human—account of Oscar Wilde's unique and dazzling life—based on extensive new research and newly discovered materials, from Wilde's personal letters and transcripts of his first trial to newly uncovered papers of his early romantic (and dangerous) escapades and the two-year prison term that shattered his soul and his life. "Simply the best modern biography of Wilde." —Evening Standard Drawing on material that has come to light in the past thirty years, including newly discovered letters, documents, first draft notebooks, and the full transcript of the libel trial, Matthew Sturgis meticulously portrays the key events and influences that shaped Oscar Wilde's life, returning the man "to his times, and to the facts," giving us Wilde's own experience as he experienced it. Here, fully and richly portrayed, is Wilde's Irish childhood; a dreamy, aloof boy; a stellar classicist at boarding school; a born entertainer with a talent for comedy and a need for an audience; his years at Oxford, a brilliant undergraduate punctuated by his reckless disregard for authority . . . his arrival in London, in 1878, "already noticeable everywhere" . . . his ten-year marriage to Constance Lloyd, the father of two boys; Constance unwittingly welcoming young men into the household who became Oscar's lovers, and dying in exile at the age of thirty-nine . . . Wilde's development as a playwright. . . becoming the high priest of the aesthetic movement; his successes . . . his celebrity. . . and in later years, his irresistible pull toward another—double—life, in flagrant defiance and disregard of England's strict sodomy laws ("the blackmailer's charter"); the tragic story of his fall that sent him to prison for two years at hard labor, destroying his life and shattering his soul. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Caridad Svich
Aug 1 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Caridad Svich
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Caridad Svich, playwright, songwriter, editor, translator and mentee of Maria Irene Fornes. CARIDAD SVICH'S BIO  As a playwright, songwriter, editor and translator living between many cultures, including inherited ones, the idea of departure has always been not only an actual or metaphorical basis for writing the work, but also an idea made manifest through the enactment of writing, its performance, and my living of it. Born in the US of Cuban-Argentine-Spanish-Croatian parents, I have felt in a strange kind of exile even while growing up as an “American.” This sense of dislocation extends to the fact that as a child and adolescent, I lived in several states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, Utah, New York, and California, not to mention many cross-country road trips in between. The nomadic strain was thus instilled in me and has become an inevitable part of my writing vision. Explorations of wanderlust, dispossession, biculturalism, bilingualism, construction of identity, and the many different emotional terrains that can be inhabited onstage form the basis of my plays and other writing projects. Visions of migration (both physical and spiritual) dominate the plays, which have become, in turn, documents of internal diasporas.As a playwright, songwriter, editor and translator living between many cultures, including inherited ones, the idea of departure has always been not only an actual or metaphorical basis for writing the work. ~Caridad Svich in “Visions of Migration” Performance Research Read the July/August 2009 American Theatre  cover story “Cartography Lessons with Caridad Svich “ Caridad Svich’s recognitions include an OBIE for Lifetime Achievement, Ellen Stewart Career Achievement Award from ATHE, and a Visiting Research Fellowship at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is an Editor at Contemporary Theatre Review. She is published by Intellect, Routledge, Manchester University Press and Methuen Drama, UK. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Vanessa Garcia
Jul 30 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Vanessa Garcia
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard PhD talks with Vanessa Garcia a Miami-based multidisciplinary writer and creator working as a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and journalist. VANESSA GARCIA'S BIO Vanessa Garcia is a multidisciplinary writer and creator working as a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and journalist. She has written for Sesame Street, Caillou, and is a consultant on Dora the Explorer. Her debut novel, White Light, was published in 2015, to critical acclaim. Named one of the Best Books of 2015 by NPR, it also won an International Latino Book Award. Her plays have been produced in Edinburgh, Miami, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities around the world. These include the immersive hit, Amparo(“Miami’s Hottest Ticket,” according to People en Español); The Cuban Spring (a full-length Carbonell Award nominee for Best New Play, 2015), The Crocodile’s Bite (a short included in numerous anthologies such as Smith & Kraus’ Best Ten Minute Plays of 2016; the City Theatre Anthology 2015; and the Writer’s Digest Annual Award Anthology, 2015), and Freek!,a short play for Young Adults (anthologized in The Applause Acting Series’ 5 Minute Plays For Teens). As a journalist, feature writer, and essayist, her pieces have appeared in The LA Times, The Miami Herald, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Narrative.ly, American Theatre Magazine, The Huffington Post, ESPN, and numerous other publications. She holds a PhD from the University of California Irvine in English (with a focus in Creative Nonfiction), an MFA from the University of Miami (in fiction), and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University (English and Art History). Her newly commissioned and autobiographical radio play, Ich Bin Ein Berliner about the fall of the Berlin Wall and her relationship to Cuba premiers in April of 2021 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Lillian Manzor
Jul 21 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Lillian Manzor
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard PhD talks with Lillian Manzor Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies at the University of Miami and Founding Director of the Cuban Theater Digital Archive. LILLIAN MANZOR's BIO Dr. Lillian Manzor is Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies at the University of Miami and Founding Director of the Cuban Theater Digital Archive (www.cubantheater.org). She is series coeditor of Sualos, published by Havana’s Editorial Alarcos and Miami’s CTDA Press. She is widely published in Latin American and Latinx theater and performance studies.  She has coedited Latinas on Stage, Teatro cubano actual: dramaturgia escrita en los Estados Unidos, and coauthored Cuban Theater in Miami: 1960-1980 (http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamitheater/) and El Ciervo Encantado: An Altar in the Mangrove (http://ciervoencantado.tome.press/).  Her book Marginality Beyond Return: US-Cuban Performances and Politics is forthcoming with Routledge July 2022. Her research has been funded the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation. As a community engaged scholar, she has fostered US-Cuba cultural dialogues through theater and performance since 1993. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Migdalia Cruz
Jul 14 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Migdalia Cruz
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard PhD talks with Migdalia Cruz master playwright and mentee of Maria Irene Fornes. MIGDALIA CRUZ's BIO MIGDALIA CRUZ is a Bronx-born, award-winning, multi-platform, playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist of more than 60 works for stage, radio, film, TV, and podcast, performed in 150 venues in 40 cities in 12 countries. An alumna of New Dramatists, her awards include: NEA, McKnight, NYSCA, TCG/Pew, and she was named the 2013 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright. María Irene Fornés nurtured her at INTAR and Latino Chicago gave her a home as their playwright-in residence. She is a master teacher of playwriting with the Fornés Institute and various universities and colleges. She is co-chair of the DGF Playwriting Fellows 2020-21; mentors the NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle; and was recently commissioned by Clubbed Thumb, The Flea, INTAR, and Kitchen Dog (Dallas). 2011-22 productions: Dinner With Dee @Kitchen Dog (Dallas), June 2022; a PlayOnShakespeare translation of Macbeth (Sunderland, England) @TheatreSpaceNorthEast, Aug 2021, and in 2022@USD/Old Globe (San Diego), and is now a podcast @Next Chapter Podcasts; YORICK’S LAST LAUGH @Shakespeare Dallas, 2021. Her translations of Macbeth & Richard III were published by ACMRS Press. Migdalia was featured in “Fifty Key Figures in LatinX and Latin American Theatre,” published by Routledge, February 2022. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Brian Herrera and Anne Garcia-Romero
Jul 7 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Brian Herrera and Anne Garcia-Romero
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Brian Herrera, Associate Professor of Theatre at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and Anne Garcia-Romero, Associate Professor of Theatre in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. BRIAN HERERRA's BIO Brian Herrera is, by turns, a writer, teacher and scholar - presently based in New Jersey, but forever rooted in New Mexico. Brian's work, whether academic or artistic, examines the history of gender, sexuality and race within and through U.S. popular performance. He is author of The Latina/o Theatre Commons 2013 National Convening: A Narrative Report (HowlRound, 2015). His book Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance (Michigan, 2015) was awarded the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and received an Honorable Mention for the John W. Frick Book Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society. With Stephanie Batiste and Robin Bernstein, Brian serves as co-editor of “Performances and American Cultures” series at NYU Press. Also a performer, Brian's autobiographical storywork performances (including I Was the Voice of Democracy and TouchTones) have been presented in venues large and small across the United States, as well as Beirut and Abu Dhabi. Brian is a longstanding contributor to the Fornés Institute, a project committed to preserving and amplifying the legacy of María Irene Fornés. He has also worked closely with ArtEquity, an organization committed to creating and sustaining a culture of equity and inclusion through the arts; with Theatrical Intimacy Education, a group researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy; and with The Sol Project, an initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. He serves on the Director's Council of the DramaLeague and on the boards of Clubbed Thumb and Bard at the Gate. Brian is presently at work on several scholarly book projects: Next! A Brief History of Casting, a historical study of the material practices of casting in US popular performance; Starring Miss Virginia Calhoun, a narrative portrait of a deservedly obscure early 20th century actress/writer/producer; and Fornés in Context, an anthology (co-edited with Anne García Romero and under contract with Cambridge University Press) documenting the life, work and legacy of playwright María Irene Fornés. He also publishes the #TheatreClique Newsletter.  ANNE GARCIA-ROMERO'S BIO Anne García-Romero’s plays include: Staging the Daffy Dame, Lorca in New York, Mary Domingo, Provenance, Paloma, Earthquake Chica, Mary Peabody in Cuba, Desert Longing, Juanita's Statue, Girlus Equinus and Santa Concepción. Her plays have been developed and produced most notably at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Borderlands Theater, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Nevada Repertory Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Kitchen Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. She has also written for Peninsula Films, Elysian Films and Disney Creative Entertainment. Her translation of The Gröholm Method by Jordi Galcerán has been produced in Los Angeles and London. She's been a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis as well as a MacDowell Colony fellow. She is an alumna of Chicago Dramatists and of New Dramatists in New York City. She is a founding member of the Latinx Theatre Commons, where she contributes to The María Irene Fornés Institute. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
The FUTURE is FORNES with Gwendolyn Alker
Jun 11 2022
The FUTURE is FORNES with Gwendolyn Alker
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Gwendolyn Alker Associate Arts Professor and Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama, Tisch/NYU about Fornes' legacy, identity politics, feminism, the landmark play Fefu and Her Friends and Alker's latest work on Fornes' Evelyn Brown. GWENDOLYN ALKER'S BIO Gwendolyn Alker is an Associate Arts Professor and Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama, Tisch/NYU. She is the former Editor of Theatre Topics and the former managing editor of Women & Performance. As a scholar and dramaturg, she has taught and advocated for the work of María Irene Fornés over the last two decades. Dramaturgical credits include the New York Fornés Festival (2010), which she curated and organized, the award-winning documentary The Rest I Make Up by Michelle Memran (2018), and JoAnne Akalaitis’ Maria Irene Fornes Marathon at The Public Theatre (2018). Publications on Fornés include “Teaching Fornes: Preserving Fornesian Techiques in Critical Context” published in Theatre Topics in 2009, as well as “Fornesian Animality: María Irene Fornés’ Challenge to a Politics of Identity” published in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (2020). Most recently, she dramaturged and re-assembled the Fornés lost great work, Evelyn Brown (A Diary) as part of Princeton’s Atelier series during the Fall of 2021. Evelyn Brown will be debuted as part of La Mama’s Spring 2023 season. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support