On Tap: A Theatre And Performance Studies Podcast

Pannill, Brian, and Shayoni discuss Alisa Zhulina's new book, Theater of Capital, the Wilma Theatre's production of My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion by Sasha Denisova, and the 10th anniversary convening of the Latinx Theatre Commons.

Pannill, Leticia, and Miriam discuss Suhaila Meera's article about "Little Amal," the large scale puppet drawing attention to the plight of displaced children, the trend toward earlier curtain times for theatre, and Faye Driscoll's dance performance work, including Thank You for Coming and Come On In.

Pannill and Brian discuss Eric Mayer-Garcia's recent article, "Theorizing Performance Archives through the Critic's Labor," Alexis Soloski's novel Here in the Dark, and the 2024 musical film Mean Girls.

Pannill, Miriam, and Shayoni discuss Rustom Bharucha's recent book, The Second Wave, about cultural responses to the pandemic, speech and protest on campus regarding the war in Israel and Gaza, and the essay Decomposition Instead of Collapse - Dear Theatre, Be Like Soil.

Recorded in Providence, Rhode Island, site of ASTR 2023, Sarah, Harvey and Pannill discuss “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Commodification,” a forthcoming essay by Annie Dorsen and Sam Gill, the current moment in conservative cultural politics and what it means for theatre makers and scholars in the US, and the legacy of Matthew Perry.

Pannill and Brian welcome Sean Metzger and Laura Edmondson, outgoing and incoming editors of Theatre Journal, to discuss the 75th anniversary of the journal, and the forthcoming special issue commemorating that milestone. We discuss some of the pieces in the anniversary issue, the 1980s as a watershed era for the field, and what we hope the future will bring.

Sarah returns and we welcome Sydney Skybetter to tell us about his soon-to-be-revealed podcast, Dances with Robots, and other matters choreorobotic. We also discuss Anna Watkins Fisher's book, The Play in the System, and revisit the 2014 sci-fi film, Ex Machina.

On this episode, Pannill, Jordan, Leticia, and Miriam talk about Kevin Landis' new book, One Public, about the Oskar Eustis era at The Public Theater, financial difficulties at the Dallas Theater Center, and the recent Guggenheim Fellowships awarded to theatre and performance scholars.

Pannill and Brian welcome Shayoni Mitra to the roster of On TAP regular co-hosts! We talk about Vaibhav Saria's book, Hijras, Brothers, Lovers, the bans on drag performance in US state legislatures, and the wins for Asian-American performers at the Academy Awards.

Pannill talks to Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal and Shane Boyle of Queen Mary University of London about the strikes by academic workers in the United Kingdom.

Pannill, Miriam, and Leticia discuss Patrick Anderson and Patricia Ybarra's article, "Is this Ballroom a Bathhouse?" in the new edition of Theatre Journal, text-generating AI as a performance phenomenon, and a performance of Hamlet done in the video game Grand Theft Auto Online.

Brian and Pannill welcome Madeline Sayet and Bethany Hughes for an episode dedicated to Indigenous Performance. We discuss the notion of sovereignty and its importance to Native Theatre since the 1970s, Stephanie Teves's 2018 article The Theorist and the Theorized, and Sayet's solo show, Where We Belong.

Recorded in New Orleans at the meeting of the American Society for Theatre Research, Pannill, Jordan, Miriam, Brian, and Leticia talk about the recent NPR series of reports on the American regional theatre, the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund's Toolkit for college theatre productions, and the ASTR 2022 conference on the theme of Catastrophe.

Pannill, Brian, and Jordan discuss The City We Make Together, a new book by Mallory Catlett and Aaron Landsman about the participatory theatre piece City Council Meeting, Nathan Fielder's show The Rehearsal, and a recent Wired article about Nordic Larp.

Sarah, Harvey, and Pannill ring in the new academic year with a special edition of the podcast, and some fond farewells. Recording in person on the campus of York University in Toronto, the original co-hosts discuss Nikki Yeboah’s award-winning article, All the Nation’s a Stage, the Jordan Peele movie Nope, and Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert.

In an unusual "two-hander" edition of the podcast, Pannill and Brian discuss Patrick Anderson's recent TJ article, "Dramaturgies of Policing," the meaning of awards in theatre and more broadly, and the Spring Awakening documentary.

Pannill, Harvey, and Sarah are joined by Molly Flynn of Birkbeck, University of London to talk about Ukrainian theatre artists' responses to the ongoing war with Russia. Plus the co-hosts discuss David Savran's ASTR address about the field later published in Theater in 2001, and the TV series Station Eleven.

Sarah, Jen Pierce, and The Daughters of Lorraine discuss the new film version of Macbeth, Esther Kim Lee's talk at Duke on "cosmetic yellowface," and the Immersive Storytelling Lab at National Theater in London.

Pannill, Kareem, and Miriam talk about Vivian L. Huang's article, "Sparking Joy, Serving Mess" in The Journal of Popular Culture, the state of NYC theatre festivals amidst the Omicron wave, and some recent streaming shows, including Addressless at Rattlestick, and gloria rehearsal at the Baryishnikov Arts Center.

On TAP takes on the metaverse! Sarah, Brian, and special guests Ian Garrett and Elizabeth Hunter evaluate the hype regarding facebook's recent announcement on the metaverse, explore the performance studies implications of experimental immersive social media, and discuss its accessibility and equity dimensions. Plus, our first ever bleeped utterance!