January 2012

FEATURED CONTENT

SPECIAL SECTION: APPROACHES TO THEATRE TRAINING

Learning by Lending a Hand

By Eliza Bent

Supporting Roles

By David F. Chapman

Assisting is a rite of passage for many artists. Are they getting ahead—or just getting coffee?

Design Is Not a Private Affair

By Mike Lawler

And it never has been, say pros who relish their assistants’ creativity and appetite for knowledge

I Get a Sidekick Out of You

By Harrison Hill

For one young director, assisting is a tricky balancing act with a great view

On the Job

Theatre pros recall the doors they’ve opened by assisting (including a few better left closed)

The Neutrality Trap

By Joshua Dachs

The great minds of 20th-century theatre wanted to free our thinking about theatre spaces. How did we end up in a black box?

IN PRINT for January 2012

The projection-heavy design of Phaedra Backwards at the McCarter Theatre Center; Houston's Rebecca Udden sails on The Coast of Utopia; Edward Gero's portrait of Rothko in Chicago and D.C.'s Red; José Cruz González journeys to Mexico for The Sun Serpent; Mugwumpin's tricky quest for a San Francisco venue; Elaine Avila finds new meaning in Spanish translation of her plays; the TEAM takes journeys through American history; reviews of The Journals of Spalding Gray and Sondheim's Look, I Made a Hat; 20 questions for Norbert Leo Butz

COVER: Illustration by Monet Cogbill.

ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Christopher W. White, Rami Margron, Misti Boettiger, Joe Estlack and Natalie Greene in Mugwumpin’s Future Motive Power (photo by Pak Han); Andrés Alcalá, Ricky Araiza and Andréa Morales in The Sun Serpent at Childsplay in Tempe, Ariz. (photo by Heather Hill); Heather Christian and Brian Hastert in an early version of the TEAM's Mission Drift at NYC’s Ice Factory (photo by Rachel Chavkin); Edward Gero in Red at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre (photo by Liz Lauren)