Performance Critiques
Intersections: A Celebration of Seattle Performance - Comedy, Representation, and Intersectionality!
The DeConstruct team interviews Intersections Festival curators Natasha Ransom, Kinzie Shaw, Jekeva Philips to discuss opportunities to showcase the diversity of the Seattle performance scene.
Playful Rebellion in the Era of Trump: AJNC's Young Manic/I Wanted To Be On Broadway
Laura Chrisman review’s AJnC director and choreographer Amy Lambert’s Young Manic/I Wanted to Be On Broadway, which proves through its diverse and visual absurdity that “you can be an adult and enjoy yourself too.”
Ghostly Historical Knowledge: SCT's The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559
Viewing Seattle Children's Theatre's production of The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Steph Hankinson and the review team remind readers that we can be "challenged (both emotionally and intellectually) by encountering the ugliest, most complicated parts of history" through the powerful tool of performance.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Blood Quantum: Native American Identity in Jihae Park's Peerless
Lydia Heberling and the review team highlight Jihae Park's success at "capturing the complexity of claiming and expressing Indigeneity" in Peerless along with potential decolonial narratives, performing on unceded Duwamish territory.
Politics Again, Politics Otherwise: Lingering Questions from Frost/Nixon
Jenny Van Houdt and the review team query and answer the questions brought up by Strawberry Theatre Workshop's timely production of Frost/Nixon: Why This Play? Why Women? Why Here and Now?
Seattle Repertory Theatre Re-tells the Black Experience in Two Trains Running
Anthony Reynolds and the review team highlight how Juliette Carrillo’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running emphasizes the diverse and positive history of the shared Black experience “without the influence of white perspective to heavily mask their stories.”
Queer Performance in Unsafe Spaces: The Nance Looks Back at New York Theater's Censorious Past
Liz Janssen and the review team provide much-needed additional historical context for ArtsWest's thought-provoking and well-performed production of The Nance.
The Curse of Gender and Empty Promise of Urbanization in Modern-Day China
Kate Forster and the review team uncover the possibilities of the "unrealized potential" in Desdemona Chiang's "puzzling interpretation" of The World of Extreme Happiness.
Exploring the Politics of Fear: The Crucible and Eight Abigails
Laura Chrisman and the review team compare ACT Theatre's failings and Kaitlin McCarthy's successes with their contemporary and concurrent adaptations of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
Claims to Queer Monstrosity in Beware the Terror of Gaylord Manor
Olivia Jean Hernández and Emily George find BenDeLaCreme’s campy production and all-drag cast of Beware the Terror of Gaylord Manor to “effectively destabilize the inherently gendered expectations of horror narratives.”
Why Theatre? Why Now? Latino Theatre Projects and Teatro Útil
Emily George and Steph Hankinson examine how Latino Theatre Projects' "dedication to theatre that challenges its audiences not to be complacent" can be an integral part of the conversation with Ay, Carmela!
Barbecue: An Exploration of Believability, Race, and Drug Abuse
Anthony Reynolds and the review team examine Intiman's Barbecue, an engrossing discussion of what is reality and how it is manufactured.