When you hear Princeton, New Jersey, “bastion of French culture” may not be the first thought that comes to mind. (In fact, according to the 2010 US Census, only 618 people were recorded as French speakers in the city, which has a population of 28,572.)

Driving through Tahrir Square at dusk, crammed into a van with other U.S. and European theatremakers, headed to the conference-sponsored hotel, my eyes couldn’t drink it in fast enough: the lights, the people, the gargantuan propaganda billboards and television screens signaling the impending presidential “elections.”

The 7th Edition of Seuls en Scène, Princeton French Theater Festival, presented Doreen, written and directed by David Geselson from Compagnie Lieux-Dits on September 28 and 29, 2018. David Geselson spoke to journalist Amelia Parenteau before leaving Princeton.

As theatre folk know well, sometimes the most meaningful creations are borne out of the fruit of circumstance. To wit, the Lantern Theater Company in Center City, Philadelphia, happens to be located around the corner from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) of Thomas Jefferson University.

This interview with playwright and director Travis Russ and composer/lyricist Priscilla Holbrook was conducted in Parenteau's research and development capacity for the project America is Hard to See...

In 2012, I traveled from Paris, where I was studying, to Arles to see a production of a play I was translating into English, Louise, elle est folle, by Leslie Kaplan, starring and co-created by Elise Vigier...

I first started working with Travis Russ’ Life Jacket Theatre Company in May 2015, by the New York miracle of answering a Playbill ad. Months later, I had read more about sex offenders than I ever thought I would have cared to know...

Amelia and Audrey both attended Sarah Lawrence College, where they were in plays and seminars together. When they each heard about The Associates’ SHEILA, which ran January 12-27, 2018, at A.R.T./New York Theatres...

In Dakar, Senegal, the general refrain is that theatre “doesn’t exist” in the nation’s capital city, the westernmost spot on the continent.

This past October, I had the opportunity to live in residence with the theatre company and students in training at the Village Ki-Yi Mbock, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

To find out more about the practice and implications of documentary theatre, I gathered some of the field’s veterans for a frank conversation about their craft, how it’s changed—and how...

What’s in a name? Of the seven contemporary theatremakers I spoke to for this piece, not one was happy with the term “documentary theatre” to describe their work. All had...

The Great Work truly began in 2018.Theatergoers were #blessed by high-profile Broadway revivals of iconic gay masterworks, controversial lesbian lip-locks, and herstoric trans representation headed in heels by Drag Race darling Peppermint, not to mention innumerable queer scene-stealers sharing New York City’s smaller stages.

People's Light kicks off its 2018/2019 Season with Such Things as Vampires, a highly theatrical folk-punk twist on the Dracula tale. Infused with lilting ballads, rock anthems, and melodious love songs, this concert-theatre event is an irreverent, bloody, and wickedly fun...

A guitarist in blood-red Chelsea boots strums a duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh as a front woman decked in Brit punk plaid struts to the front row and belts out: “We are The Preventers! And we are here to save youuuuuuuu!” The play is “Such Things as Vampires,” a musical adaptation

In a world of chaos, where International alliances have collapsed, everyone has become a refugee fleeing conflict and famine. As border crossing becomes increasingly dangerous, a lucrative commodity emerges in the digital marketplace. Your only hope for safety is a phone app: e.smuggler.com. Follow the stories of three brave women — digital nomads — traversing the landscape in a new dystopian reality.

Life Jacket Theatre Company (“Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey”) introduces us to a strange community that could only be American. The writer-director Travis Russ put together this lovely show...

Making documentary theatre takes great discipline and a touch of innovative genius. The Civilians and Anna Deavere Smith are exemplars of how to do it. With its new work, America Is Hard To See, Life Jacket Theatre has proven itself to be a strong new practitioner in this genre.

(Projection) peels back the layers of a New York millennial apartment, subverting and reinforcing the classic living room play to reveal the universal truths of defining yourself in your 20’s....

February 23 7:00 PM - From Théâtre de l’Albatros in Avignon, France, comes a play that imagines a series of meetings between Coretta Scott King and radio journalist/activist Mumia Abu-Jamal....

Voyage Theater Company/PARTS UNKNOWN Play Reading Series will present a staged reading of acclaimed Turkish playwright Sedef Ecer's e-smuggler.com, in a new English-language translation by Amelia Parenteau, directed by Lisa Rothe, at the 53rd Street New York Public Library (18 W 53 Street, across the street from MOMA), Thur October 18 at 7pm. Admission is FREE and open to the public, but reservations are highly encouraged. Please RSVP here. The performance will run approximately 70 minutes, with

Campbell’s collection presents four plays that constitute a sliver of the breadth of contemporary French theater. As Clare Finburgh writes in her judicious introduction, “[T]oday’s [French] theatrical landscape tends to be characterized...

LIGHTS UP Welcome to Pennsylvania’s death row. Welcome to my six-by-ten-foot cell. Welcome to the hive of shadows where everyday seventy-eight bumblebees stuck in their cells sip the venom and hatred of the State.

I first connected with Alain when I was living in Paris in the winter of 2014, working at my old study abroad program, and I leapt at the chance to...