StinkyLulu Says

Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) reflects on eight plays in four pairings that together ask what makes a political play, what makes a Pulitzer-worthy play, what makes something performance art and not a play (and vice versa), and what happens when a big new celebrity shows up in your big old play…. Productions discussed in this episode include: the live-streamed Broadway production of Stephen Daly Guirgis’ BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre’s production of Katori Hall’s HOT WING KING; the long-running Broadway revival of Kander & Ebb’s CHICAGO, currently starring drag artist Jinkx Monsoon, and BAM’s buzzy revisitation of Lorraine Hansberry’s THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’s WINDOW, with Oscar Isaac starring as Sidney; TwoRiver Theatre’s production of Mando Alvarado’s LIVING AND BREATHING and Princeton Theater Program’s staging of student Reed Leventis’s immersive and interactive work DISORDER; and Amalia Oliva Rojas’s How to Melt ICE or How the Coyote Fell in Love with the Butterfly who Tried to Be a Lizard — as presented by Boundless Theatre Company in partnership with New Perspectives Theatre at the JuliaDeBurgos Cultural Center in East Harlem —  and Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss by the Wilma Theater in Center City Philadelphia.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) continues this experiment in building a theatre-going audio diary with reflections on how each of the seven shows engaged since our last episode confront particular conventions and expectations of theatrical form. Productions discussed in this episode include two remote performances — Woolly Mammoth’s digital film capture of Madeline Sayet’s WHERE WE BELONG and Bard at the Gate’s enhanced reading of Majkin Holmquist’s TENT REVIVAL; two touring presentations of devised productions — THE APPOINTMENT from the Philadelphia-based devised performance company Lightning Rod Special and BETWEEN TWO KNEES from the indigenous comedy ensemble The1491s; two new musicals — Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel’s CORNELIA STREET and David Lindsay Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s KIMBERLY AKIMBO; and finally one new/ish play, Hansol Jung’s WOLF PLAY. 

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) starts a new year of theatregoing with five very different shows. At center of this episode is an extended discussion of the original immersive theatrical staging of THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS by Langston Hughes, a co-presentation by two Philadelphia theatre companies: EgoPo and Theatre in the X. With brief comment on recent encounters with the Jeffrey L. Page & Diane Paulus revisal of 1776 on Broadway; Bruce Norris’s DOWNSTATE at NYC’s Playwrights Horizons; ClubbedThumb’s WINTERWORKS festival; and Salty Brine’s BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN at Joe’s Pub in NYC.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) reflects on what felt familiar and what felt so very different in what turned out to be a halting return to theatregoing in 2022. With brief comment on recent encounters with Maria Friedman’s production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at New York Theatre Workshop; Lloyd Suh’s THE FAR COUNTRY at NYC’s Atlantic Theatre Company; and Dennis Johnson’s DES MOINES at Theatre for a New Audience.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) reads the full text of “Bad Auditions,” their plenary paper presentation at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Society for Theater Research, while also offering a brief comment on the emergence of “glimmerous” as a new keyword in their research and writing practice.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) gathers some reflective ruminations on how this week's shows theatrically engage traumas of the recent past (and the immanent future) in unexpected, even existential ways. At center of this episode is an extended discussion of the Broadway production of Adrienne Kennedy’s OHIO STATE MURDERS alongside additional glancing observations about this week’s theatergoing, which includes extended asides on LifeJacket Theatre Company’s workshop presentation of THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS, Jordan E. Cooper’s AIN’T NO MO’, Will Arbery’s EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING and DESPARECIDAS by Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca and Georgina Escobar.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) reactivates the podcast with some reflective impressions on the question of horror and haunting in theatre, as well as insights and takeaways from the recent production of Noah Diaz’s YOU WILL GET SICK as staged by NYC’s Roundabout Theatre Company. With additional brief commentary on SEX VARIANTS, Asher Muldoon’s MINE and Lauren Keating’s adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at McCarter.

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Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) welcomes artists/scholars Gwendolyn Alker, Anne García-Romero and Nicole Stodard to join in a reflective conversation about their respective impressions, insights and takeaways from the recent production of María Irene Fornés’s FEFU AND HER FRIENDS as staged by San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre.

Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu)considers the ten-year history of the annual reports from the Asian American Performer’s Action Coalition and asks what happens when a demand goes unheeded, followed by some thoughts on what might be the three “signature” genres of remote theatre: the remote reading, the virtual benefit, and the hand-made puppet show…

Transcripts for Season3 of StinkyLulu Says are typically available within 24-48 hours of each episode's release. Links to those transcripts are available here.

Profe Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) asks what does theatre leadership look like in a time of political, economic and ecological crises and offers some ruminations on the “zoom lecture” as a genre of remote performance. Transcripts for Season3 of StinkyLulu Says are typically available within 24-48 hours of each episode's release. Links to those transcripts are available here.

Professor  Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) considers some questions about the short- and long-term impacts of the shutdown-necessitated "digital turn" in theatrical production, presentation and participation. With brief comment on WHEN THE PARTY'S OVER by Edwin Rosales and some thoughts about what's next for this podcast pedagogy experiment.

Professor Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) ponders why the postponement of the film version of IN THE HEIGHTS threw him for a loop; distills some common threads among  the many contingency plans informing disparate  conversations on what it will take for theatres (and colleges) to reopen; and contemplates the particular current resonances of the world built by Georgina Escobar in AND THEN THEY FORGOT ABOUT THE REST. 

Professor Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) contemplates the complicated uncertainties surrounding the question of when theatres might reopen; notes some questions of form and practice raised by recent experiments in livestreamed performance; and contemplates the relevance of "open drama" as both strategy and style in Caridad Svich's short play, BETTER MAYBE.

Professor Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) considers the buzz of opinion around the question of whether (and how) theatre-makers should make theatre during the shutdown and offers a remembrance of Diane Rodriguez (1951-2020). Plus a quick shoutout to Tony Meneses's THE WOMEN OF PADILLA.

Professor Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) considers the paradoxical status of playwrights in the American theatre and offers some thoughts on A SHERO'S JOURNEY OR WHAT ANACOANA AND YEMAYÁ TAUGHT ME by Guadalís Del Carmen.

Professor Brian Herrera (aka StinkyLulu) introduces the premise of this cycle of episodes as he offers his reflections, first, on the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown on the contemporary US theatre and, then, on the way she spoke, an audioplay by Isaac Gomez.