BOMB Magazine • 21st February 2023

Eva Doumbia and Chef Alexandre Bella Ola Interviewed

I first met Eva Doumbia while she was on a research trip to New Orleans. I was enthralled by her explanation of the show she was creating which used elements of documentary theater and religious ceremony to address food history, its connections to the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. I was honored when she asked me to translate the show from French into English and produce its United States tour.

Medium • 28th September 2022

A Goat Song for the American Theater

Deliriously jet-lagged, standing at the lip of the Theater of Dionysus on the south slope of the Acropolis hill in Athens, I learned the etymology of the word “tragedy.” To the delight of word nerds everywhere, “tragedy” roughly translates to “goat song.”

Medium • 8th August 2022

The Presumption of Belonging

I've moved a lot. Not for any of the usual reasons, like the military, or my parents getting divorced, or even specifically for work. My parents are still together, still living in the house I grew up in—well, technically the house I did most of my growing up in, from ages 8 through 18.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 21st June 2022

HowlRound Anthology: Essays and Conversations from the First Ten Years

As HowlRound approached its ten-year anniversary in 2021, those of us who steward the platform began thinking about appropriate ways to celebrate a decade of publishing essays, livestreaming events, and bringing theatre practitioners together to amplify progressive and disruptive ideas. How could we offer gratitude within our commons-based frame while reflecting on the immense contributions of so many?

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 13th June 2022

From Awareness to Action: Facilitating Change in the American Theatre

Amelia: We’ve seen radical transformation! That keeps me going. To break it down for people who might not be familiar with our terminology, we are doing anti-racist work, which is assuming a context of white body supremacy culture, yet it’s not just about race. The collective liberation we are steering organizations towards is not about “diversity and inclusion” and filling a quota of how many global majority people you’ve hired at your organization.

AMERICAN THEATRE • 10th March 2022

The Shows That Got Away and/or Found a Way

One of the most important jobs of theatre journalism—some would say its central, even only, job—is to bear witness to and commemorate a fundamentally ephemeral medium in words and pictures. That’s plenty true in normal times, but this documentary mission has become especially urgent in a time of deep uncertainty and constant reshuffling due to an airborne virus, which has disproportionally encroached on art forms and social practices that rely on appointment gathering and shared (indoor) space.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 8th March 2022

Clowning for a Cause: Healthcare Clowns Offer Opportunities for Holistic Healing

Although the mark of countless successful theatrical performers is their passion, it takes a special combination of versatility and compassion to transition theatre skills into a healthcare setting. Tiffany Riley does precisely this work as a healthcare clown and a founder of the Laughter League and North American Federation of Healthcare Clown Organizations (NAFHCO).

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 5th January 2021

Seuls en Scène Festival 2020 / Festival Seuls en Scène 2020

Masse wasn’t interested in simply asking artists for video recordings of the works he had intended to present this year and instead came up with a programmatic mix of video recordings of live performance, “staged” readings, one making-of documentary, and a series of docutheatre works.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 24th November 2020

Hold on Tightly, Let Go Lightly

Pursuing a life in theatre or medicine requires such dedication that it can be hard to imagine a career transition, and yet, as this year has viscerally reminded us, the only constant in life is change. Although the path between theatre and medicine may not be evident at first glance, the specific skill set that both professions require makes the transition more seamless than one might imagine.

AMERICAN THEATRE • 18th February 2020

Into the Woods

The turning point was Katrina, as is so often the case when you’re asking questions in New Orleans, trying to get to the heart of the matter. A Studio in the Woods is located on a plot of land purchased by Lucianne and Joe Carmichael in 1969, comprising 7.66 acres of endangered forest in the Louisiana wetlands.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 13th January 2020

"French and yet never French enough" / « Français, mais jamais assez français »

Any translator worth their salt can tell you the real work of translation is not the literal (painstaking!) rendering of one language into another, but instead the necessary accompanying cultural translation that carries the meaning of the work.

NOBO Commons • 23rd November 2019

The Fortress of Lushington

Amelia Parenteau interviews Bunny Lushington of the Fortress of Lushington, bringing us the second article in a series on theatre and dance venues in New Orleans.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 18th November 2019

The American Theatre Was Killing Me

For those unfamiliar with the term “racialized trauma,” counselor Ayanna Molina of True Love Movement explains: “Trauma is hurtful, emotionally damaging situations that you cannot control. [With my clients], the racialized component is that [they] happen specifically because you are Black.”

NOBO Commons • 10th November 2019

Saturday Night at InFringe

Yesterday was the third day of InFringe Theatre Festival 2019 with shows starting at 1pm and ending at 1am, it was a full day of theatre! As you know, NOBO has recruited some local writers to hit the street and see as many shows as possible, during the festival.

NOBO Commons • 9th November 2019

Friday Night at InFringe

It's crazy that InFringe is already half way over! Last night was the second night of InFringe Theatre Festival 2019 and the streets were filled with audience members and artists running from show to show!

NOBO Commons • 8th November 2019

Thursday Night at InFringe

InFringe Theatre Festival 2019 started in full force last night. New Orleans' only full scale performance art festival, running November 7-10, has over 30 productions stretching across genres: musicals, comedy, drama, burlesque, solo performance, multimedia, dance theatre, immersive theatre, and more. There is so much to see and sooo little time.

NOBO Commons • 29th September 2019

Nostalgia Purgatory: Somewhere Between Immersive Theatre and an Escape Room

The first article in a series on venues in New Orleans. Journalist, Amelia Parenteau interviews Wynn Thorn, the Artistic Director of the new immersive event space and black box theatre, Nostalgia Purgatory.

NOBO Commons • 22nd June 2019

Radical Buffoonery

An interview between Amelia Parenteau and Jon Greene, founder and Artistic director of the Radical Buffoons.

HowlRound Theatre Commons • 23rd May 2019

New to New Orleans / Venant d’arriver à la Nouvelle Orléans

This Carnival, Eva Doumbia and Marie Houdin, two French theatre artists, returned to New Orleans at the height of parade season, each drawing inspiration from the city and forging connections for their upcoming public art projects.

AMERICAN THEATRE • 23rd April 2019

At Europe’s Good Chance Theatre, Refugees Have a Dome and a Home

Good Chance Theatre was started by two Brits, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, when, in 2015, they passed through Calais, France, on their way to Germany and they saw the makeshift refugee camp that had formed there.