ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS BEYOND THE NEWS.
It’s a fascinating paradox: how can artists—often dismissed as creating mere luxury items with no practical purpose—be considered threats to the state? The answer lies in art’s unique power to bypass rational defenses and speak directly to people’s hearts and minds.
How the Super Bowl halftime show became a political stage
What this year’s Tony Awards couldn’t show you: the growing
The NEA pulls active grants as the 2026 budget proposes
Editorial team
Performance and politics have never been separate. Every casting decision, every season announcement, every choice about whose story gets told and in which language is already a political act. The pieces gathered here make that argument explicitly: essays and criticism examining how art engages with power, how power shapes what art is permitted to do, and what happens when artists push past the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. These are not comfortable pieces. They are not meant to be.
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Discover 5 AAPI artists who shaped the performing arts—and left
Celebrating 50 years of The Rocky Horror Picture Show—a campy
Explore Frankenstein’s theatrical evolution—from Shelley’s 1818 novel to del Toro’s
Celebrate 10 years of Hamilton’s legacy in theatre, culture & storytelling. A decade after its debut, Hamilton still shapes Broadway, blending hip-hop, history, and diversity.
Scenographer
Every season produces moments that demand a response. Awards that reflect the field’s values back at itself. Controversies that reveal what the industry actually believes beneath what it says. Anniversaries that ask whether the work has held up and what it means now, in a context its creators could not have anticipated when they made it.
The pieces gathered here address those moments directly, situating them within the longer arc of performance history and the current pressures shaping the field. They are not news. They are not reviews. They are the kind of writing that takes a cultural event seriously enough to ask what it is actually saying, and what the field’s response to it reveals about where the performing arts are at a particular moment in time.
Scenographer
Jay Duckworth explores theater’s sacred origins, tracing how performance began as ritual
A powerful reflection on queer resilience, theatre as refuge, and the evolution
What makes an artist “professional”? Natalia Martinez Sagan reflects on creativity, family
A moving reflection on Pride, protest, and the power of LGBTQ+ voices
A reflection on designing The Last Five Years and how revisiting art
Descubre cómo los colectivos teatrales sobreviven a la mercantilización del arte, creando
Explore Edwardian elegance at Buckingham Palace—royal portraits, dazzling fashion, and
A bold reimagining of Tennessee Williams’ early works by The
Discover the art of spun gold in textiles, from ancient
Giorgio Armani’s farewell exhibition at Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera celebrates fifty years of timeless elegance and artistic vision.
Theatre technician
OPINION pieces appear within curated editorial conversations and may rotate over time. Not all published OPINION articles are actively featured. OPINION reflects Skene’s editorial perspective and critical engagement with the field.
Practical career guidance for performing arts artists and makers. Take it with you.
