How David Henry Hwang Remade Theater in His Own Image

The New York Times: ACT I OF David Henry Hwang’s working day begins with no foreshadowing of the characters or the noise, the drama and the plot twists that may await him. Morning. Any weekday. The ground floor of a brownstone in the leafy, arty Brooklyn enclave known to its residents as Fort Greene. Hwang shares this home with the actress Kathryn Layng, his wife of more than 30 years; they have a grown son, Noah, and daughter, Eva, and a small, intermittently indignant dog, Dumpling.

Debating Identity: Is It Time to Rename Cairo’s Experimental Theater Festival?

The Theatre Times: During the opening ceremony of the 32nd edition of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater (CIFET, 1-8 September), Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Ahmed Fouad Hano, proposed renaming the festival to the Cairo International Theater Festival. The suggestion reignited long-standing debates about the identity and future of one of the Arab world’s most significant cultural events.

Identity-Conscious Casting

HowlRound Theatre Commons: In 2014, Lavina Jadhwani, a text-based director and adaptor in Chicago, wrote a piece for HowlRound about color-conscious casting after directing a production of Duchess of Malfi. In the years since, Lavina has shifted to using the term “identity-conscious casting,” because she believes identity contains multitudes and race is just one part of that. In this conversation, Lavina sits down with Victor Vazquez, founder and casting director of X Casting NYC, to chat about the realities of casting in theatre, moving beyond the concepts of color-blind and color-conscious casting, and more.

Trans Actors Protesting Scarlett Johansson's Trans Role Are Told They're Jealous, Unskilled Whiners

themuse.jezebel.com: Scarlett Johansson, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and whose resumé lists all of these awards, who infamously donned black hair and dark eyes for her role as a Japanese cyborg in 2017 for Ghost in the Shell, remains immune to criticism of for taking a rare role of trans man for a mainstream movie, Rub & Tug. Trans actors are asking why, of all roles, she would choose what, for a trans man, would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.