Jerald Raymond Pierce

1 week ago | americantheatre.org | Jerald Raymond Pierce

When I think of the phrase “spending time wisely,” I get shot back to school, to a teacher checking in on time that should have been spent studying or reading but was instead being spent talking or doodling. “Are you spending your time wisely?” It’s a gentle prod to not let the mind wander, to focus on the task at hand. At least, that was the association I had before participating in Candle House Collective’s immersive, telephonic experience Lennox Mutual.

3 weeks ago | americantheatre.org | Gabriela Furtado Coutinho |Jerald Raymond Pierce

This should be a celebratory time for Chicago theatre. Three of the city’s major institutions are all celebrating significant milestones in their long, illustrious histories. And yet, rather than reveling in celebration, I find myself singing, “one of these things is not like the others.” I feel like I’m looking at the three-headed dragon meme of Chicago theatre: two fierce, steely-eyed legends and one that’s—well, it’s just happy to be there.

4 weeks ago | americantheatre.org | Jerald Raymond Pierce

During the pandemic lockdown, playwright Noga Flaishon spent a lot of time thinking a lot about the intersection of technology and memory. One play she was working on then was Lethe, a cyberpunk story about a woman who gets a chip implanted in her brain that removes all memory of a trauma she experienced. The other, Memoriam, now set for its world premiere at Houston’s Main Street Theater (March 29-April 19), explores the marketability of memories and what we owe to future generations.

1 month ago | americantheatre.org | Jerald Raymond Pierce

Our newest edition spotlights theatre workers in the Denver area. If you would like to recommend a theatre artist (from anywhere) for a future Role Call, fill out our open Google Form here.

2 months ago | americantheatre.org | Jerald Raymond Pierce

In one chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire hunter Van Helsing explains the best ways to defeat the monster in their midst. One key data point: Dracula brought 50 boxes of earth from his home, without which he will die. One obvious method to kill him: Sterilize the earth. That was playwright Ankita Raturi’s inspiration for Fifty Boxes of Earth, a response to Stoker’s novel viewed through the frames of queerness and xenophobia.