Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!
A Limited Series (2009-2012)
This limited series has been a free public resource since 2009.
With TheatreNow!, I have expanded the programming offered by
Hamilton Dramaturgy, my international consulting firm, in order to promote the careers of other theatre women.
TheatreNow! 's purpose is to provide an equal presence of information on women working in the theatre so that any media program or documentarian can readily find female theatre experts to interview and feature. The series is posted on Soundcloud for greater exposure. Please subscribe to the RSS feed below and share this site with your friends. Enjoy!
Anne Hamilton
Producer and Host, Hamilton Dramaturgy's TheatreNow!
Hamilton Dramaturgy's Theatre Now! Staff
Anne Hamilton, Producer and Host
Otto Bost, Sound Designer
Cate Cammarata, US Representative
Walter Byongsok Chon, Asia Representative
Natalie Pandya, UK Representative
Danica Rodriguez, Young Adult Representative
Thais Flaitt Giannoccaro, South America Representative
Nancy Ford, Composer, TheatreNow! Theme
Contact: hamiltonlit@hotmail.com
Podcast Episodes
Season 1
Theatre Now! Season 1, Episode 1: Quiara Alegría Hudes, Playwright and Librettist
Recorded August 31, 2009
Welcome to the inaugural interview in my Theatre Now! podcast series of important contemporary female theatre artists. Season 1, Episode 1 features Quiara Alegría Hudes, a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee (2007, ELLIOT: A SOLDIER’S FUGUE and 2008, Book Writer for IN THE HEIGHTS) and a Tony-Award nominee (2008, IN THE HEIGHTS). In this interview Quiara shares her early artistic influences and artistic process.
Theatre Now! Season 1, Episode 2: Claire Lautier, Actress
Recorded October 23, 2009
This audio interview with Claire Lautier is the second in my Theatre Now! podcast series of important contemporary female theatre artists. Claire Lautier is a classically trained actress who has built a successful career in film, television and in the theatre. She has played leading roles on stages in Canada, New York, across the U.S. and internationally, and can be seen in many television and film appearances. Claire is a fluent French speaker and has worked in many different dialects. She is an honor graduate of both Duke University and the Juilliard School, and the winner of numerous awards for her work.
Theatre Now! Season 1, Episode 3: Ruth Margraff, Musician, Composer, and Playwright
Recorded October 25, 2009
This interview with musican, composer, writer Ruth Margraff is part of my Theatre Now! podcast series of important contemporary female theatre artists.
Ruth Margraff has been called a leader in the new opera movement in America and has toured internationally with her Café Antarsia Ensemble. She has been the recipient of many grants, awards, and honors, and has writing featured in an array of publications. She is currently Associate Professor of writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Theatre Now! Season 1, Episode 4: Kristin Marting, Artistic Director, Playwright, and Director
Recorded April 27, 2010
This episode features theatre artist Kristin Marting. Over the last 20 years, Kristin has constructed 24 works for the stage, including 10 original hybrid works, 8 adaptations of novels and short stories, and 5 classic plays. She works in a collaborative, process-driven way to fuse different disciplines into a cohesive whole. Kristin is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of HERE, where she cultivates artists and programs all events for two performance spaces, including 14 OBIE-award winners for an annual audience of 45,000.
Theatre Now! Season 1 Episode 5: Valentina Fratti, Artistic Director, Producer, and Director
Recorded May 11, 2010
Valentina Fratti is a theatre director and producer who was the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of The Miranda Theatre Company, now m2 productions. On Broadway, she was the Associate Producer of THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, which won the Tony® Award for Best Play. She currently teaches at The New School for Drama.
Theatre Now! Season 1, Episode 6 Part 1 and Part 2: Catherine Filloux, Playwright
Recorded June 3, 2010
Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for the past twenty years. Her plays, and music theater pieces, have been produced in New York and around the world.
Season 1, Episode 7 Part 1 and Part 2: Yvette Heyliger, Producer, Playwright, Director and Yvonne Farrow, Producer, Actor, Choralographer
Recorded May 30, 2010
Theatre Now!’s newest podcast features twin sisters whose artistry encompasses practically every talent needed to succeed in show business. Yvette Heyliger and Yvonne Farrow are founders of Twinbiz, a company whose mission is to write, direct and produce original works for stage, television and film. The interview was recorded on May 30, 2010, a few days after Yvette received her M.F.A. in playwrighting from Queens College in New York City
Yvette Heyliger is a playwright, a director and a producing artist based in New York City. She is currently editing a book of her own plays, entitled, What A Piece of Work Is Man!: Plays for Leading Women. Yvonne Farrow is an actress, writer, filmmaker, model, and choralographer. She is based in Los Angeles. She wrote, produced, co-directed and starred in the award-winning short film I’d Rather Be Dancing.
The twins often collaborate. Yvonne starred in Yvette’s award-winning play WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?, which completed a sold out run at the Billie Holliday Theatre in Brooklyn this Spring. It is a fearless drama which explores the impact of HIV/AIDS on the African-American community.
Season 2
Theatre Now! Season 2 Episode 1: Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director, Director, and Actor
Recorded October 27, 2010
This episode features an interview with Kamilah Forbes, an award winning actress, director, playwright and producer. Voted one of VIBE Magazine’s Top 100 Juiciest People, Kamilah is known for her captivating work and dedication to each of her passions. As a burgeoning actress, director, playwright and producer, her talent casts a vivid and evocative spell on both the national and international stage. In her diverse body of work she is noted for having a strong commitment to the development of creative works by, for and about the Hip-Hop generation.
Theatre Now! Season 2, Episode 2: Laura Maria Censabella, Playwright, Screenwriter, and Educator
Recorded February 8, 2011
Laura Maria Censabella is a playwright, screenwriter, television writer and professor. She has been awarded three grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts; two in playwriting for Abandoned in Queens and Three Italian Women, and The Geri Ashur Award in Screenwriting for her original screenplay Truly Mary. Laura Maria is the Director of The Playwrights Unit of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. In the interview she speaks about her Italian-American upbringing, her studies at Yale, and the way she “gives voice to the voiceless”.
Theatre Now! Season 2, Episode 3: Paule Constable, Lighting Designer
Recorded August 6, 2011
Paule Constable is now lighting three shows at the Metropolitan Opera: new productions of DON GIOVANNI and ANNA BOLENA, and a revivial of Philip Glass’s SATYAGRAHA. She discusses her experience working at the Met and her preparation for her collaboration on WAR HORSE, for which she won the 2011 Tony® Award for Best Lighting for a Play. Paule also gives us a primer on the properties and creative uses of light.
Theatre Now! Season 2, Episode 4: Fran Tarr, Playwright, Filmmaker, and Educator
Recorded September 26, 2011
Fran Tarr is a writer, independent documentary filmmaker, and the Founder and Director of BREAKING WALLS. She was Education Director for the Women’s Project and Productions, and currently serves as the Education Coordinator at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Since 2006, Fran has volunteered leading play-making workshops in Israel, Liberia, and Palestine. She is based in New York City.
Theatre Now! Season 2, Episode 5: Jennifer Tipton, Lighting Designer
Recorded October 29, 2011
Jennifer Tipton is well-known for her work in theatre, dance, and opera. In theatre, her recent work includes AUTUMN SONATA by Ingmar Bergman, directed by Robert Woodruff at Yale Repertory Theatre, and The Wooster Group’s version of Tennessee Williams’ VIEUX CARRÉ. Her recent work in dance includes Alexei Ratmansky’s THE NUTCRACKER for American Ballet Theater and Paul Taylor’s THE UNCOMMITTED. Her recent work in opera includes Gounod’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE directed by Bartlett Sher at La Scala and LA CLEMENZA DI TITO for the Festival in Aix-en-Provence directed by David McVicar. Ms. Tipton teaches lighting at the Yale School of Drama. She received The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2001, the Jerome Robbins Prize in 2003, and in April 2004, the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture in New York City. In 2008, she was made a United States Artist “Gracie” Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow.
Season 3
Theatre Now! Season 3 Episode 1: Kate Valk, Actress, The Wooster Group
Recorded February 18, 2012
We are launching our third season with a conversation with actress Kate Valk. Ms. Valk has been a driving force in The Wooster Group since 1979, appearing in all of its productions, including ROUTE 1 & 9, LSD […JUST THE HIGH POINTS…], THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY, THE EMPEROR JONES, BRACE UP!, THE HAIRY APE, and HOUSE/LIGHTS. EARLY PLAYS, the group’s newest show, opened in February, 2012 at St. Ann’s Warehouse. I had the opportunity to interview her at St. Ann’s Warehouse just before a performance.
Theatre Now! Season 3 Episode 2: Rae Smith, Set and Costume Designer
Recorded January 13, 2012
Rae Smith is an Olivier and OBIE award-winning British designer who works regularly in a wide variety of styles and genres. This diversity has taken her from Slovenia to Broadway. Her theatre designs are frequently seen in Britain in the West End, at the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre de Complicité and in a variety of experimental theatre companies. Rae also works regularly in some of the world’s great opera houses. She won the 2012 Tony® Award for Best Scenic Design of a play for WAR HORSE.
Theatre Now! Season 3, Episode 3: Margo Jefferson, Theatre and Cultural Critic
Recorded June 26, 2012
Margo Jefferson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic who wrote about books, theatre, and the arts for The New York Times for 13 years. Her writing has also appeared in Bookforum, Salon, The Nation, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Vogue, and Newsweek, among other publications. Her book On Michael Jackson was published by Pantheon in 2005 and Vintage in 2006. And the essay she wrote on Michelle Obama, “Movin’ On Up”, was published in Best African American Essays: 2010. She also wrote and performed SIXTY MINUTES IN NEGROLAND at The Cherry Lane Theater and The Culture Project.
Theatre Now! Season 3 Episode 4: Maria Alexandria Beech, Playwright, Bookwriter and Lyricist
Recorded July 10, 2012
Maria Alexandria Beech is a playwright and librettist living in New York. She has written over fifteen full-length plays, several as a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages Theatre, which co-produced her play LITTLE MONSTERS at Brandeis Theatre Company. Her full-length musical titled CLASS, with Karl Michael Johnson, was presented in a reading in May 2012 at NYU.
Maria Alexandria Beech's podcast appearance is available in transcript form only.
Theatre Now! Season 3 Episode 5: Murielle Borst Tarrant, Playwright, Director and Producer
Recorded July 12, 2012
Murielle Borst Tarrant is a member of the Kuna and Rappahannock Nations. She is an author, playwright, director, producer, cultural artist, educator, and human rights activist. She comes from a long line of cultural activism with her family's theater company, the world famous Spiderwoman Theater, located in New York City. For four years she served as the Special Assistant and liaison to Tonya Gonnella Frichner, the North American Regional representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Finally, she is the director of "Safe Harbors" Indigenous Arts/Theatre Collective at La Mama ETC.
Murielle Borst Tarrant's podcast appearance is available in transcript form only.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host, the podcast, or the staff.