oliviahaller
Theatre as an Agent of Social Change
As a theatre artist, I am still sometimes plagued by the fear that theatre doesn’t have as much of a tangible, concrete impact on societal change as I’d like it to. But then I hear about articles like this one and my fear is assuaged a little bit. The article is from the New York […]
A Response to Over There by Mark Ravenhill
I recently came across a Facebook story that documents how a young woman, Anais, who was adopted from South Korea and grew up in France, ended up finding and reaching out to her twin sister, Samantha, from whom she was separated at birth. A friend alerted Anais to a movie trailer which featured a young […]
Being the Playwright in the Room
I’ve been wanting to post for a little while now about the experience of writing and producing a new play for my senior thesis. It’s probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I wrote the first draft of the play in the first semester of my junior year, took a […]
A Response to the XX PlayLab at Company One
I had the pleasure of attending one of the events in Company One’s XX PlayLab series last week. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Company One describes the XX PlayLab as “a collaborative program of the Boston Center for the Arts and Company One Theatre, designed to propel the work of female playwrights from […]
A Response to Fresh Ink’s Production of Handicapping
I walked into Fresh Ink Theatre Company’s production of Handicapping by James McLindon with an entirely different idea of what it would be than what it was. Since it was called “Handicapping” and I knew it featured a disabled character, I assumed it would be a drama about the experience of being disabled. Before the play […]
A Response to Company One’s The Flick…and Annie Baker in general
One of the first things that struck me about walking into Company One’s production of The Flick was the striking image of an audience facing rows of theater seats. To me, this play perfectly exemplified the idea that people love to see themselves onstage, even the mundane, seemingly un-noteworthy moments that we all recognize. I […]
Rethinking Theatre’s Purpose
I recently became more familiar with Mixed Blood Theatre Company after reading Love Person by Aditi Kapil, who is a resident artist at Mixed Blood and produced the premiere of her play there. I was struck by their awesome commitment to making theatre accessible in their community by offering both a physically accessible space and […]
The Value of the Internship
At college, I usually call my parents once a week to touch base and let them know how things are going. For the past few months, this weekly call has included an update on how my post-grad job search is coming along. After I’ve mentioned another seasonal internship or two that I’ve sent in my […]
Who Has the Right to Tell Which Stories?
I’ve encountered a lot of discussions lately both in my classrooms and in forums for national conversation around this idea of whose right it is to tell certain stories. For example, can a man write a play about the female experience? Can a white person from Virginia write a play about a Chinese person from […]
Forced Empathy?
Ok hold on guys…I have got to talk about this thing I just found. This morning, I read an article on NPR news called Sensory Fiction: Books That Let You Feel What the Characters Do, which announces a new invention that… By combining networked sensors and actuators, the wearable can change lighting, sound, temperature, chest tightness […]
An Eye for Development
In my search to find employment after graduation and establish myself as a working theatre artist, I recently accepted an offer to be a script reader for a local theater. I felt confident that I could take this project on since I had read scripts as a part of my internship at a large regional […]
Where Is Our Theatre Going?
For our first Contemporary Drama class, we were assigned to read the Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan – an epic, seven-hour play with many parts. I felt drawn into the piece and would love to go and see it performed one day, but couldn’t help but think while I was reading it, “Man, I’m glad […]
Rejuvenating the Art
I just…love Mary Zimmerman. I was somewhat familiar with her work before I saw Candide (a musical adaptation of the Voltaire novel by Leonard Bernstein which Zimmerman directed) at the Huntington last fall, but that production really got me interested. To me, that truly seemed like an ensemble show. And not even in the traditional sense […]
One Trope Down?
I recently read an article on Slate about how there seems to be a decline of the trope of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (a term coined 5 years ago by Nathan Rabin) in films and other media, and a rise of criticism and parody videos. For those who are unfamiliar, the trope of the […]
The Importance of Support
Our class was lately assigned to read the Theater Development Fund’s book Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play, which I found extremely eye-opening not only in terms of its findings but what it means for me to do in my career as a theatre artist. There was a point made […]
Enlightenment, Risk, and a Hoopoe: Conference of the Birds at the Folger Theatre
Now reporting from the far field of Thanksgiving break in Washington DC, I relate my recent visit to the Folger Theatre where I saw The Conference of the Birds. This was an adaptation by Jean-Claude Carriere and Peter Brook – a famous figure for theatre artists – of an ancient Sufi poem by Farid Uddi Attar. […]
Actually…What Is High Art?
I recently came upon this article in ArtsJournal that outlines the concepts of “Masscult” and “Midcult,” Masscult being popular culture and Midcult being the entertainment that is still popular but is more readily classified as art. Masscult today would be J Biebs, Kim K, and Fifty Shades of Grey (things in great popular demand), and […]
Art That Transcends Commercial Success
So, in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, I worked at the Arena Stage last summer as an intern. I was lucky enough to be there during the complete run of their production of Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart, and even be involved in the rehearsal process. One of my immediate tasks on the […]
Collaboration & Crossover
Crossover has occurred! With practically every discipline being studied at this university, I often wish there was more interaction between the different colleges than the scant amount that seems to exist currently. However, I was lucky enough (and so were a few other students in this class) to be involved in a show that was […]
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 