Blog: The Great Debate

“People need theater” is the brave – and to my mind, absolutely true – opening to Paul Woodruff’s new book, The Necessity of Theater. I’ve yet to read it, but much in the New York Times review of the book is worthy of note on this blog.

Woodruff’s primary claim, though hardly new (hell, it dates back to Aristotle), is that theater, by promoting empathy, provides the essential underpinning of community. In fact, he says that … Read More >

Did you see the “Theater 101″ article in last Friday’s Tribune? If you ever wanted to see an example of Second City-itis at its most virulent and ridiculous, read Beth Franken’s intro, right on the front page of the On the Town section:

You lucky such-and-so. You just happen to live in the most exciting theater town in the nation. They even know this in the Big Apple, which is why the New York papers write about Chicago … Read More >