American Theatre

American Theatre magazine stands out as the only general-interest publication in the U.S. dedicated to the world of theatre. Established in 1984 by the innovative arts organization Theatre Communications Group, the magazine debuted with a cover featuring the renowned playwright Sam Shepard, who sported a cowboy hat. Released ten times a year, American Theatre now reaches an estimated audience of 50,000, primarily made up of theatre professionals. The magazine delves into various theatrical trends, events, and profiles of stage artists from diverse backgrounds. It also addresses economic and legislative matters impacting the arts sector. While American Theatre primarily focuses on the extensive network of professional, non-profit theatres in the U.S., it rarely covers commercial, amateur, or university productions. The magazine does not provide reviews of performances but does critique theatre-related literature. International theatre highlights and significant productions, both domestically and abroad, are featured in sections like “Critic’s Notebook,” “Currents,” “First Person,” and “Global Spotlight.” Additionally, five times a year, readers can enjoy complete scripts of major new American plays, paired with thought-provoking interviews with the playwrights.

National

English

Magazine

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Ranking

Global

#556687

United States

#163311

Arts and Entertainment/Performing Arts

#414

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Articles

In New York City, a ‘New Story’ for Irish Playwrights

1 week ago | americantheatre.org | Jim McDermott

New York has long been home to a vibrant community of Irish artists. As early as the 1910s, in fact, three different Irish-focused companies—the Irish Theatre of America, the Celtic Players, and the Irish Players—were producing work. “The community theatre idea has all at once come to life,” reported The New York Times on Feb. 14, 1915, with the announcement of the Irish Theatre of America.
Your Call Is Very Important to ‘Lennox Mutual’

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.
A School Musical Foiled by L.A. Wildfires to Go Up on CTG’s Biggest Stage

2 weeks ago | americantheatre.org | Daniella Ignacio

On Jan. 7, 60 students at California’s Altadena Arts and Eliot Arts magnet schools began rehearsals for their production of Shrek, Jr. That same night, while the young artists were soundly asleep, the Eaton fires began to ravage their region of Los Angeles. In the ensuing week, as the Pacific Palisades fire simultaneously raged in West L.A., the Easton fire destroyed much of their school, including their theatre, which lost its roof.
Questions and Anniversaries

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.
AMERICAN THEATRE | Indie D.C. Theatre Artists Regroup After Capital Fringe Shuttering

3 weeks ago | americantheatre.org

The new festival, created by Pinky Swear Productions, Theatre Prometheus and Nu Sass Productions, aims to promote the power of independent stage voices in the face of political repression.
Post-Grad Life, the Business of Acting, and Catching the Theatre Bug

4 weeks ago | americantheatre.org | Allison Considine

I’m in the process of moving to a new apartment, just three miles away in another Brooklyn neighborhood. But this move feels big—I’ve lived in my current place for 11 years, the longest I’ve lived anywhere. I moved in the same month I started as an editorial assistant at American Theatre magazine. It was my first post-college lease, and like so many other theatre graduates, I felt rudderless after graduation and entirely overwhelmed by the transition to the “real world” in New York City.
Memory Care in Noga Flaishon’s ‘Memoriam’

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.
How the 2 Sides of Lisa D’Amour Are Fused in ‘Frozen Section’

4 weeks ago | americantheatre.org | Rob Weinert-Kendt

In one of the first few scenes of Lisa D’Amour’s wild new play Frozen Section, a nonbinary grocery clerk named Sage chats about their gender nonconformity with a customer who’s more concerned that she may be overcharged at the register. For a moment as I read the play, I thought: trans rights and inflation, check—two issues that supposedly influenced last year’s presidential election outcome.
Athol Fugard Was My Hero

1 month ago | americantheatre.org | Emily Mann

Acclaimed South African playwright Athol Fugard, whose works included The Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, The Island, The Road to Mecca, and “Master Harold”…and the boys, died on March 8. He was 92. Few playwrights have made a greater impact on their countries or the world than Athol Fugard.
Editor’s Note: Our Still-Unfolding Story

1 month ago | americantheatre.org | Rob Weinert-Kendt

This magazine launched in the spring of 1984, amid the reelection campaign of incumbent President Ronald Reagan and the Democratic primary to pick his challenger, Walter Mondale, who would later that year go down to a crushing 525-to-13 electoral college defeat (Mondale won only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia). Among other things, that election resoundingly confirmed the nation’s rightward turn after decades of New Deal and Great Society liberalism.