books

What might Aeschylus say about the European refugee crisis?

Charles McNulty Los Angeles Times
The Suppliant Maidens by Aeschylus (ca. 460 BC) is an ancient tale about refugees, sanctuary, and moral duty. Charles McNulty argues that the play provides a precedent for helping us think about today's European refugee crisis. "It provides historical depth" to today's refugee crisis, he says, "framing the basic dramatic situation of its asylum seekers in moral, democratic and religious terms."

"The Bullpen" is a Prisoner's Surreal Comic Riff on the Justice System

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop
The Central Park Five - five young African American men were arrested, charged and convicted.- wrongly. News headlines blasted from the press captured the nation's attention. Last June, under Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City agreed to pay the Central Park Five a $41-million settlement - giving the men about $1 million for each year of wrongful imprisonment. "The Bullpen," is a play related to similar experiences in the NYC incarceration system.

The Play “Chavez Ravine”: A Tale of Ongoing Urban Removal

Jimmy Franco, Sr. LatinoPOV
Culture Clash's play about money, manipulation and red-baiting ending with destruction of a closely-knit LA Latino neighborhood over fifty years ago rings true today as the present economic power of developers and the drive to profitably exploit vulnerable communities within the central city and drastically change their ethnic, class and cultural composition continues to steadily displace the long-time residents of many neighborhoods.

"Café Society Swing" is Glorious Jazz and Troubling History

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop
1948, the tenth birthday of Café Society, where great jazz and cabaret in a corner of Greenwich Village clashed with the worst know-nothings of the McCarthy era. But we're over that now, so come to this musical memoir to enjoy the delicious sounds of the 30s and 40s. And recall how evil the thought police of that era were...the vicious House Un-American Activities Committee (the ironically well-named HUAC) goes after the entertainers. Some get scared.(Closes Jan. 4)

Tidbits - December 25, 2014- Holiday edition

Portside
Reader Comments-Colbert Nation; Is It Band Enough Yet; Southern Jim Crow Murder; Cuba; How America's Relationship With Cuba Will Change; We express our condolences - Millions March NYC and Center for Constitutional Rights; Angela Davis on police violence; Youth Shall Lead in struggle against police violence; Political Athletes; "Negro-Jewish Unity" and IWO; torture; FBI; Panama invasion; New resources: On Torture; Staughton Lynd book; Stevie Wonder; theater review

Danny Casolaro Died for You

As “now it can be told” theater, TimeLine’s Chicago premiere, the second coming of this angry work, works equally well as an exercise in conspiracy-theory paranoia, journalistic sleuthing at its most dangerous, and a cumulative plea for transparency in foreign policy, banking, and law enforcement (Edward Snowden anyone?).

Brechtomania

Moira Herbst Al Jazeera
Why Marxist playwright Berthold Brecht is theater’s hottest old name
Subscribe to theater