Editor's Note

Editor's Note by Jim O'Quinn

When Heineken recently switched to a new, see-through label on its traditional green bottle, the change was announced with the slogan "Clearly, it's all about the beer." American Theatre feels the same way about the cover-to-cover graphic redesign that's making its debut in the issue you're holding in your hands: It's all about the theatre.

With that clear label, Heineken was saying, you can get a better look at what matters: the product inside the bottle. So it goes with AT. The addition of full color on our inside pages, the introduction of a bolder, simpler typeface, the larger images framed by more white space—all these changes mean that you the reader can get a better look at what matters: the art on stage. And the magazine's visual reinvigoration (masterfully supervised by our art director, Kitty Suen) is being bolstered by editorial revisions designed to make your journey through the pages of each issue more exciting, more challenging, more informative.

What exactly is different? In some cases, the order of things has changed—for example, a lively News in Brief section (formerly Trends & Events) now leads the way into feature coverage; news from TCG has moved primarily to the website and is capsulized on a user-friendly index page; complete play texts have moved to the black-and-white back section of the magazine. Among the new departments you'll discover is a sumptuous spread called Production Notebook, which celebrates the best on American stages with striking visuals and artists' commentaries about them. In terms of content, we're aiming for an ever-stronger focus on artists' voices, the exploration of key issues and controversies, and the showcasing of the richness and diversity of theatre nationally and beyond.

A related word about the arresting photographs of August Wilson that appear on the cover and alongside Suzan-Lori Parks's interview with him: These were among Mr. Wilson's own favorite images of himself, taken by Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg in 2001 at the writer's preferred New York City haunt, the Hotel Edison. The painterly quality of these pictures (the cover pose might have been lit by an Old Master, the moody diner shot is Edward Hopper material) exemplify our goals for American Theatre's new look: artistic expressiveness, a profound engagement with the material we're covering, and a straightforward appreciation of the beautiful—its simplicity, its theatricality, its power to heal and renew. —Jim O'Quinn