Virtual theater doesn’t have to suck. Playwright and performer Eliza Bent meditates on embracing a radical new world and creating art in a place that is the seeming antithesis of a theater. Through Karen, I Said (2020), each facet of her changing life coalesced into a celebrated performance on Zoom. Here, she reflects on that work, and leaves readers with some tips on how to create and endure a virtual performance that may not offer where we want to be, but at least we’re there together.

Sibyl Kempson’s sparky presence on stage and page first caught my attention in 2009 with Crime or Emergency, in which Kempson inhabits a myriad of characters and sings some early Bruce Springsteen songs.

Nick Jones may best be known for Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, the quite successful puppet pirate musical. But the “puppet man” is serious about playwriting too. I sat down with the Park Slope resident for a late afternoon sandwich during rehearsals for The Coward which opens Nov. 22 at Lincoln Center’s LCT3.

Consider hits from The Strokes, only imagine them catchier, less faded and with vocals not nearly as strained or affected. Consider that the musicians also make art—like Lansing Dreiden, but without the shroud of mystery or lofty price tags.

In late 2002, I kept having conversations about words and music with fellow artists, mainly playwrights, and how we could create new kinds of lyric texts for the stage

Whatever you do, don’t call Rachel Dickstein’s work ‘physical theatre.’

Young Jean Lee didn’t always imagine herself a playwright. In fact, it was pretty far off her radar until five years ago when she had a bit of a quarter life crisis. Her therapist asked her what she would be if she could do anything in life.

There is a bit of cheeky self-awareness that permeates the theatrical event in The Fever. The monologue play, delivered by Wallace Shawn, asks how a sensitive person can comfortably cope in a world of economic inequity. If you’re not born in the third world, and if you’re not living in a war torn country, how can you sit by enjoying bon bons and chardonnay?