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Re-Mixing the Ame”R”ican Dream: Sylvia Bofill on LA ERRE

The Civilians

Sylvia Bofill's recent play, La Erre is both a tribute to Puerto Rico's buried history and an offering towards its present and future. Following the story of Teresa, a woman traumatized after her experience of violence in both PR and New York, Bofill weaves a story of familial wounding, colonization, grief and the messy possibility of collective understanding. In the following interview, Bofill di…

Topia: How Does This City Make You Feel?

Environment

Kate Tarker

From 2023 to 2025 I lived in Providence, Rhode Island, and began dreaming up a new play called Topia. Thanks to The Civilians, I was able to do research for my story at Princeton University, where I interviewed scientists to get up to date on climate science. But I also kept closely observing my adopted city. I knew I wanted to ground my play about climate change by telling a hyperlocal story with…

Catharsis and Connection: How Human Connection Can Transform Art

Uncategorized

Dezi Tibbs

I can’t remember the last time I cried in the theater. Or at all, really. I used to fear that I lost the capacity to feel deep enough to cry, but what can I expect when every minute of every day, social media and news outlets bombard me with tragic headlines after tragic headlines? Images and videos that brought me to tears a few years ago now don’t elicit as much as a sharp inhale. Typically, I’d…

OUT OF THE CAULDRON: Exploring Alternative Possibilities

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The Civilians

“Finally, I wished to see what the successful Communists had made of their lives ; what was the effect of communal living upon the character of the individual man and woman ; whether the life had broadened or narrowed them ; and whether assured fortune and pecuniary independence had brought to them a desire for beauty of surroundings and broader intelligence : whether, in brief, the Communist had …

Announcing The Civilians’ 2025-26 R&D Group, Finalists, and Semi-Finalists

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The Civilians

To borrow a phrase from R&D group alum Jackie Sibblies Drury, "we are proud to present" The Civilians’ thirteenth annual R&D Group! Each year, a group of writers, composers, directors, and multi-disciplinary artists put their curiosity to work--and assumptions aside--as they create investigative theater projects. Led by Resident Dramaturg Phoebe Corde, the group meets regularly to shar…

Strange Overtones: Considering Michael Friedman’s “Stranger”

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Faith Zamblé

“If a voice speaks to me, it is still my self who must decide: whether the voice is or is not that of an angel… In making the decision, [one] cannot but feel a certain anguish.” —Jean Paul Sartre This past September has re-introduced many of us to the concept of anguish. Between the political chaos at home, the political chaos abroad, the FCC flirting with fascism, Ezra Klein falling on the …

Seeing in the Dark: An Interview with Jessica Mitrani

James La Bella

Jessica Mitrani is a multidisciplinary artist whose work stretches across performance, video, and installation. I first met her on a workshop of Sex Variants (a project she co-conceived) where she was animating antique medical illustrations of vaginas into a singing choir. Jesscia’s work consistently redefines itself, grounded in an attentive exploration of identity, relation, and narrative. She’s…

To you, my fellow Eco-Playwrights, I propose a Theatrical Unnaturalism

Khristián Méndez Aguirre

Writing about burning forests, only to the blood on the soil. When I set out to work on my R&D Group play, I was interested in using theater to figure out why it was so hard for people in Guatemala (including my family) to agree on what was the cause of the historic 2024 Fire Season in Guatemala. There were a lot of rumors that the fires were started by the newly-elected president to grant …

American Dreams, Immigrant Nightmares

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Francisco Mendoza

I have a recurring dream—and I do mean recurring; I’ve had it for almost ten years now, and as recently as last week. In it, I am back in Brazil, at the bank where I used to work right up until I moved to New York. The plot of the dream varies, but two core elements remain true: a) people there are happy to see me, greeting me with excitement, and b) I am not happy to be there, because it means th…

“Riparian States” — On Creating a Play as Long and Deep as The Nile

Kareem Fahmy

From the start, I knew Riparian States was a big swing: a play about how a massive hydroelectric dam brought two of the world’s oldest civilizations to the brink of war would be anything but small. Despite how excited I was about the idea, I had no sense of how I’d wrestle it into a play. Years after my initial idea, I’m within spitting distance of completing a draft of Riparian States, recipie…