the Washington Post effectively blew up its arts section today, dismissing its books, TV, music, and theater critics, features writers, and several editors. (I'm also guessing the vacant film critic position will stay that way.) Just an insane loss of talent and a huge self-inflicted wound.

shout-out to @halvorsen.bsky.social, whose newsletter remains indispensable, and is how I learned about at least 3 of these shows.

This week marks 4 years out of the theater industry for me and @halvorsen.bsky.social’s Nothing for the Group hit me hard.

today is the newsletter's official fifth birthday so I wrote some bts content about the recent rebranding process as a treat: open.substack.com/pub/nothingf...

@halvorsen.bsky.social in today’s Nothing For The Group 🔥🔥🔥 nothingforthegroup.substack.com/p/the-week-o...

wrote about the Scott Rudin rehabilitation tour in this week's newsletter: open.substack.com/pub/nothingf...

"I've learned that paying people for their time and labor is how we build the world we want to live in, and the world I want to live in is one where creative work is valued." - @halvorsen.bsky.social, re: 5 years of a must-read newsletter nothingforthegroup.substack.com/p/five-years...

Yo, I didn't realize David Cromer directed of Good Night and Good Luck. I wish I could see it tonight on the livestream but I've got an opera opening (h/t @halvorsen.bsky.social for the link in #NothingForTheGroup) substack.com/redirect/517...

Ticket sales and subscription revenue at the Kennedy Center have fallen sharply since Trump made himself chairman. Single-ticket sales were down roughly 50%. Subscriptions revenue down 82% for theater and 57% for dance. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/a...

Breaking news: Staffers at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts said that they plan to form a union in response to several waves of layoffs and what they describe as a lack of transparency from leaders at the arts institution, which President Donald Trump took over in February.

I subscribe to like a zillion newsletters and pay for almost all of them (indie podcasts, too) and every time I’m like “maybe this has gotten out of hand…” I look at the list and I’m like, no, actually, I value all of these and get my money’s worth out of them.

*please repost or forward* Here’s a sheet where arts orgs can record information about their NEA grant termination. Annie Dorsen is collecting this info as a first step towards coordinating a response docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

seven nominations for John Proctor is the Villain. truly wild & surreal. so thrilled for the whole company. 😭 playbill.com/article/tony...

in all seriousness: go see Julia Masli's ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It's my favorite kind of theatre: weird, communal, droll, ephemeral, delightful

Man, this is a pretty fucking gross move from Amazon, huh? Good on @bookshop.org for not mincing words, though:

Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.

Trans Lifeline is a good place to direct resources if you’re looking to help here fuck everyone involved with this decision

this is straight up eugenics www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

I love that celebration of this article, which is a celebration of @halvorsen.bsky.social's dramaturgy work, has the LMDA Listserv more alive than its been in ages. #dramaturgy #newplays www.tdf.org/on-stage/tdf...

in which @halvorsen.bsky.social gives it to us straight (& not just about the state of American theater) nothingforthegroup.substack.com/p/the-week-o...

my punishment for not planning my JPITV opening night outfit more than three days in advance is now I have to go to a MALL in VIRGINIA on a SATURDAY

entered the delusional stage of life where i think having a paper planner will solve all of my problems

the hotel guests of White Lotus Season 4 better include an undercover reporter

“give yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind about the shape your career, because over time your priorities and desires will shift in ways you cannot anticipate” is the thing I want to scream from the mountain at every single theater professional I still talk to. It is LIFE CHANGING

I'd like to see arts funders ask potential funded orgs what their staff's workloads break down to on an hourly basis as part of the decision process. Because I can tell you, too many orgs are "balancing their budgets" by requiring a shitload of unpaid labor.

I don't live & work in a rural area like Anne, but after spending so much time in NYC for rehearsals & previews lately, I really value the distance I have living in DC, even though we have our own rich theatre scene. NYC theatre is all-consuming like no other, I felt like I lost all sense of time.

this month's anonymous money diary is a real banger -- from a former production shop head & designer who left the theatre industry eight years ago: nothingforthegroup.substack.com/p/bills-bill...

The NYT asked me to give some sage advice for a timeless question: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/a...

finally encountered one of these in the wild

TERRIFIC play I finally got to see tonight, after hearing its dramaturg @halvorsen.bsky.social tweet about it in the beforetimes. JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN, by Kimberly Belflower, dir by Danya Taymor. What a great night at the theatre! #GoSeeAPlay #GoSeeANewPlay

I always appreciate reading @halvorsen.bsky.social , and her dramaturgy of the doings at the Kennedy Center this week is a great example of why. the week of march 28 - april 3, 2025 open.substack.com/pub/nothingf...

in this week's newsletter i wrote about the kennedy center laying off its social impact team and how it aligns with our horror show government's agenda to rewrite our national cultural history: nothingforthegroup.substack.com/p/the-week-o...

The social impact program received permanent funding from a donor last year. It was paying for itself. What a horrific brain drain of some of the smartest, hardest-working artists in DC.

does she need a dramaturg because I know one that just made her Broadway debut www.broadwayworld.com/article/Carl...

always chuckle at how New Yorkers marvel at the Metro's cleanliness and it only takes three seconds on MTA for me to understand why they do

Maria Manuela Goyanes is leaving Woolly Mammoth Theatre to join Lincoln Center. Read @naveenkumarnyc.bsky.social's exit interview www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

the number of times i have googled "when does mercury retrograde end" in the last three days is telling

going to run for office on a platform of abolishing fixed backward seating on Amtrak

over/under on Tracy Letts showing up on a epiode of White Lotus this season

People also need to understand this isn’t federal money, this is DC money collected through DC taxes. They’re openly stealing from the city with the intent to immiserate the people living there because they resent the idea they should be allowed to govern themselves.

Lauren Halvorsen, folks!!! YES.

linkedin post that's going to drive me insane all day: "so it is fine for private sector employees to be laid off, downsized, etc but federal employees cannot? something is very wrong with this scenario" like they are so, so close to getting it

this week's newsletter: the NEA lawsuit, the atlantic & iatse reach a deal, victory gardens returns...with a david mamet play (I have some thoughts on the latter) substack.com/home/post/p-...

The absolute devastation that @chuckschumer.com is about to inflict on D.C. by supporting the GOP’s continuing resolution is hard to overstate. Massive cuts to schools and law enforcement. Teachers laid off en masse. Basic city services may grind to a halt because we *cannot spend our own money.*

schumer needs to lose a primary

made the switch to a kobo a few months ago and zero regrets, opting out of any aspect of the bezos monopoly feels like a win

my parents live in florida and recently went to a dinner where they met some MAGA retirees who were *salivating* when they learned I live in DC, gleefully asking, "did she lose her job??" because they assume everyone here works for the federal government. we're a cruel, callous, atomized country.

Hey you know who else is good at creative writing

downloaded an app that turns my phone into a brick at key moments of the day which today serendipitously lined up with me spinning out with despair over the latest news cycle