In the theatre world, it’s rare to find a professional who didn’t start out as a fan. Personally, my childhood bedroom is home to several signed playbills from my teenage years (and somewhere there’s a picture of me in double-polo shirts, both collars popped, giddily grinning next to Audra McDonald at the 110 in the …

As I start to write this, I find myself with absolutely no motivation to do so, other than an understanding that anniversaries have some sort of meaning—even if this is the anniversary of something that I’d prefer not to celebrate. A year ago I was onstage for the last time. I remember going through the …

photo credit: Ruthie Stephens At a time when most theatre folks are looking for ways to fill their days, Joanna Carpenter has been busy. She’s meeting me between meetings as the grassroots organization she started last year continues to evolve. “We’re kind of off to the races this year,” she tells me. “We are going …

I’d like to start this article by thanking everybody who’s been following along—and to apologize for taking a month-long hiatus from this project. A lot happened last month, most notably an insurrection against American democracy…and in the wake of that, it felt crude and tone-deaf to ask people to read my blog, so I took …

Originally from Albany, New York, Cathryn Wake has been on Broadway, television, and—as of the last few months—Twitch. The actor/singer/musician/gamer is talking to me via FaceTime from her apartment in New York. “I really got interested in theatre through my public school drama club,” she says, “and also through the robust community theatre scene in …

Every weekend, musical theatre fans can tune their radios (or their web browsers) to WERS, Emerson College’s award-winning radio station, to listen to Standing Room Only: Boston’s only musical theatre radio show. Hosted by a theatre-loving, radio-savvy student, it’s a wildly popular program in an entertainment form that, against the odds, has stood the test …

Season’s Greetings from Simahk Writes! I wrote this little poem years ago, after a shift at the restaurant where I was working at the time. It’s a dramatized telling of a true story, and I believe it’s still relevant, even in this crazy year that’s so different than any year any of us has ever …

Wearing glasses, a scally cap, and a charming smile, Paul Aguirre appears on my computer screen. He’s at his house in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he lives with his boyfriend and their pets. “We have two fur-children,” he tells me: “a dog and a cat.” Having grown up in upstate New York, he’s not too far …