Nancy Bishop is a Chicago native, who writes about things she loves, like theater, film, books, music, art and design. Nancy is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. Nancy is editor and publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review.
What the Constitution Means to Me is partly a lesson in the glories of the 14th Amendment and partly the personal story of domestic abuse against women by the men in playwright […]
The playwright conceived it as a reverse minstrel show, with black actors playing in whiteface. But Douglas Turner Ward’s Day of Absence is a lot more. As staged by Congo Square Theater, […]
Hedda and Nora. The strong female characters in Henrik Ibsen’s two well-known plays—A Doll’s House (currently on stage at Raven Theatre) and Hedda Gabler—established him as a modern playwright of psychological realism. […]
Here’s this week’s podcast for Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall, our radio arts partner. Third Coast Review news and reviews are highlighted and our writers sometimes appear on the Sunday afternoon […]
Yes, this is a play about dogs—dogs portrayed by human actors. And they’re not wearing cutesy animal outfits. They are in fact talented actors who have learned the ways of dogs. For […]
Four men, by turn, tumble onto the scene, thrust, thrown, exploded onto the slick black-and-white skateboard ramp of a set. All is black and white—costumes and set—until the fourth arrives. It’s a […]
At first I was puzzled by the audience reaction to Haven Theatre’s opening night performance of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s goriest play (and possibly his worst). Over and over, there was uproarious laughter […]
It’s the most famous slammed door in theater history. And it’s the most satisfying slammed door for a feminist. It’s 1879 and that exit signifies Nora Helmer’s departure from husband, children and […]
Trap Door Theatre’s latest production is the enchantingly titled Lipstick Lobotomy by playwright Krista Knight, directed by Kate Hendrickson. It’s a half-true, half-imagined story of friendship between John F. Kennedy’s younger sister […]
The Boys in the Band was revolutionary when it was first performed off Broadway in April 1968, in its portrayal of the lives and loves of gay men. The producers had difficulty […]
In the last few months, I’ve seen a lot of plays about racism, sexual identity, immigration, crime, anger and angst. So it was a nice change of pace to see Do You […]
Alabaster is a city in northern Alabama (a suburb of Birmingham actually). It’s also a soft stone, a form of gypsum, that’s translucent, easily carved and often used for decorative objects. After […]
