Last month the Public Theater in New York became a national bulls-eye for Trump supporters over their modernized production of Julius Ceasar. The outrage resulted in protests and even audience members storming the stage during the show. 

Rather than stand by the theatre and support artistic expression, two major sponsors decided to pull their financial support, Delta Airlines and Bank of America. Both companies stated how the actions depicted in the show went against their company's philosophies, which seemed newly adopted with the election of President Trump. 

As a creative person, I am extremely interested in the health and well-being benefits of creativity & the arts. After my degree, I am looking into going into the art therapy world and one day hope to own my own art therapy center. To further my knowledge of this area, I did a presentation at university, exploring the benefits of four main areas: dance, creative writing, music and drama.

To the Actors at the Stage Door,

Thank you. 

Far often you are not thanked for the simple task of being you.  

As a fan of the theatre and all the magnificent traditions it holds, I have been able to witness countless performers blow out their voices on a Sunday night, fight through illnesses and personal hardships, and give their everything to eight shows a week. And yet, we still see them after each performance with a smile on their face.

There is no doubt that live theatre can make hearts aflutter. Whether it's the opening chords of "Hamilton" or seeing Elphaba fly for the first time, it's an easy to assume that the heartbeats in the theatre are going just a bit fast. 

Now a theatre in England wants to see just how much. 

No, before you get your knickers in a bunch. This is not an article telling you that you shouldn’t have religious stories or allegories in Theatre. In fact, anyone out there that tells you whether or not you need to have religion in whatever you do needs to shut up and walk away. Theatre is a medium that anyone can reflect humanity through any lens and should never be restricted in its attempts. However, we are going to be discussing the role it can play and when it might perhaps go too far. Or whether it even can or not.

The past six months have left me, as well as much of America, confused and struggling to find their footing. I know I’m not alone when I say that, as a young woman in her 20s, the climate of our country threw me for a loop. My place of refuge and solace became Broadway and what cemented that was the Public Theatre’s production of “Joan of Arc: Into the Fire”.

Now, my college friends know how obsessed I am with this musical (David Byrne—where is the cast album???) but not many out there may realize how impactful this show was for a variety of reasons and how it has, in my perspective, added to the transformation of modern musical theatre.

Seldom does a week go by where I don't see message boards light up with rage if a certain performer of a certain show doesn't come out to greet the fans by the stage door, after the show. 

While I understand the disappointment they may feel not being able to get an autograph or selfie with their favorite performer, I'll never understand the hateful comments towards those who don't grace the stage door audience with their presence. 

2016 was the year of white-washing, yellow-facing, and an all-around ordeal for Asian American representation. Asian-Americans reacted in different ways. So people created hashtags, some people created podcasts, and some people made a brilliant variety show.

No one else was going to clean up this mess. The actors were not going to fix the uneven lights anymore than the lighting designer and electricians were going to fix the actors’ stumbles. The director and set/props designer were never going to agree 100% on the look of the play. The playwright was not going to stop hounding the sound designer about the clarity of the lines and volume of the music and the sound designer was never going to talk to anybody, which meant that Tina had to squeeze the information she needed out of him like the juice from shreds of potato that were destined to become a latke.

Because Tina was the Stage Manager; all messes were her messes to clean up.

Indisputably, the most-heard song at auditions for about a decade and a half has been "Gimme Gimme", by Dick Scanlan and Jeanine Tesori from the Broadway hit, Thoroughly Modern Millie. There are reasons why it’s so popular. And there’s a ton of reasons why nobody – and I mean nobody – should be auditioning with this song. I’ll go into those in a moment. But, since nothing I say is going to stop the steady parade of role-seekers essaying this epic, I thought I’d talk about how it could be done better.