084

Pannill, Brian, and Shayoni discuss Wallace Shawn's new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, currently playing at the Greenwich House Theatre, Milo Rau's talk, "The Second Coming," and innovations in live performance supertitles and other technologies that join accessibility and artistry.

Here are links to some of the things we talked about on this episode:

083

On this episode, On TAP emeritae Sarah Bay-Cheng and Kareem Khubchandani join Pannill to discuss Annie Dorsen's essay on generative AI as theatre, Chris Grobe's new essay in Critical Inquiry on imitations of robots or "botface," and the looksmaxxing phenomenon.

Here are links to some of the things we discuss on this episode:

  • Annie Dorsen’s essay, “The Theater of the Unreal”

  • Chris Grobe’s article in Critical Inquiry on “Botface”

  • The NYT article on Clavicular and “looksmaxxing”

On TAP Special: Branislav Jakovljevic and Kimberly Jannarone

Pannill welcomes Branislav Jakovljevic of Stanford University and Kimberly Jannarone of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale to talk about the points of contact between their two new books. Branislav Jakovljevic's book is entitled The Performance Apparatus: On Ideological Production of Behaviors, and Kimberly Jannarone's book is entitled Mass Performance: Systems and Citizens. Both are published by University of Michigan Press.

082

Pannill, Miriam, and Harvey discuss Carla Neuss's Theatre Journal article on gender reveal parties, James Bundy's retirement from leading the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and the PBS stream of The Public Theater's free production of Twelfth Night in Central Park.

Here are links to some of the things we discuss on this video:

  • Carla Neuss’s article in Theatre Journal about gender reveal parties

  • Stories about James Bundy’s retirement from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale

  • The PBS stream of Twelfth Night in Central Park



081

On this episode, Pannill, Brian, and Leticia discuss Patrick McKelvey's new article about seeing-eye-dogs and disability performance, the resurgence of clowns on stage, including Courtney Pauroso's streaming show, Vanessa 5000, and the prospect of AI "actors."

Here are links to some of the things we discuss on this episode:

  • Patrick McKelvey’s article, “Honest Work Done by Honest Dogs”

  • The New York Times piece on clowns

  • Courtney Pauroso’s show Vanessa 5000, on Dropout.tv

  • Some of the coverage of Tilly Norwood, the AI “actor”

080

We welcome special guests Jacob Gallagher-Ross of University of Toronton and Caden Manson of Big Art Group to talk about "interface theater," an emerging genre of works that examine the way contemporary life is mediated by apps, devices, and data. Shayoni, Miriam, and Pannill then take stock of the political attacks on higher education and freedom of expression in recent months.

079

Recorded live at the María Irene Fornés Institute Symposium at Princeton University's Lewis Arts Complex. Brian and Pannill welcome Anne García-Romero to talk about María Irene Fornés in Context, a new book soon to be published by Cambridge University Press; Jaqueline Flores discusses the Latinx Theatre Commons, of which the Fornés Institute is a major initiative; Gwendolyn Alker discusses biographical research on Fornés; Fornés Institute members reflect upon the symposium.

078

Pannill, Jordan, and Leticia discuss Rhaisa Williams' new article about Mamie Till Bradley's NAACP tour and "grief capital," the second Trump administration's efforts to reshape federal arts funding, and the documentary film about Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music.

Here are links to some of the things we discuss in this episode: