As a project of The Civilians, Extended Play has evolved over the years from a kind of media archive to a curator of digital community; we published our first EP post on November 20, 2011, an episode of The Civilians’ podcast series Let Me Ascertain You. The episode featured excerpts from our play In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards – and in 2011, the production of In the Footprint was included in year-end Top 10 lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time Out New York. Through the early years of Extended Play, we used the platform to continue sharing episodes of Let Me Ascertain You. For the next few years, Extended Play focused on sharing Let Me Ascertain You episodes of The Civilians’ musicals and cabarets. These posts helped spread our work as well as performances by the many artists we have worked with over the years.
On January 16, 2015, Extended Play published its first full article, beginning its work of “extending the play,” of looking at “theater beyond the theater.” The first full article was an interview between playwright A. Zell Williams and Meghan McClain, former R&D Program Director and Literary Associate for The Civilians. Williams and McClain discussed Williams’ work as a Tow Foundation Emerging Playwright-in-Residence, creating “Sadiddy: the Storytellers’ Podcast”, and his Barrymore Award-winning play Down Past Passyunk. And so began Extended Play’s shift from sharing to engaging by joining the world of theater journalism. Since then, Extended Play has developed its editorial focus, interviewing artists, reviewing productions, discussing issues within the theater industry and society at large with opinion pieces, and used the platform to highlight in-progress work and upcoming theatermakers. At the core of this work has been a pursuit of spotlighting investigative, documentary, and verbatim theater and the engagement with larger issues such work entails.
In 2017, Extended Play published five articles for the “This Is Reading” Series which was a collection of interviews and articles supporting This Is Reading, a performance, video and art installation by Lynn Nottage in Reading, PA. The installation’s primary goal was to give back to the community that was at the center of her research for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sweat. Extended Play published these articles beginning with Nottage’s interview with Frank McCracken while The Civilians shared other media about the production on its other platforms. The result was an in-depth look behind Sweat that connected audiences more directly with Reading, PA and its residents. It was one of Extended Play’s first multi-article series and at the nexus of the work The Civilians and Extended Play is dedicated to.
Another series we publish comes out every spring. “The Civilians’ R&D In Process” series runs every year with article’s by each R&D member and the process behind each project to be presented in the annual Findings series. This series gives an opportunity for each artist to speak about their work-in-progress and connect that work with other theatermakers and the world at large. Facilitating connection became imperative to us as theater grinded to a halt in 2020; Extended Play turned its attention to publishing articles to support artists and causes from profiling The Trickle Up, sharing ways to fight for racial justice, sharing resources to help artists through the pandemic, and continually supporting historically excluded voices and stories alongside views on how we as an industry can and need to evolve in order to be equitable and inclusive. We still recommend those recent articles as we continue to push for progress, and we also invite you to take a trip back through time with a read through one of our ten most popular articles since 2015:
Playwright José Rivera Finds “Another Word for Beauty” by Georgina Escobar
In 2016, Georgina Escobar interviewed playwright José Rivera for Extended Play to discuss his musical Another Word for Beauty which was developed from The Civilians’ investigation into the annual beauty pageant held within El Buen Pastor, the national women’s prison in Bogotá, Colombia. The show premiered at Goodman Theatre in Chicago in January 2016. This article takes a dive into the show, its beginnings, and Rivera’s process.
“That Sh*t’s Global” — Women Taking Theater Behind, and Beyond, Bars by Nora Tjossem
Nora Tjossem spoke with three women — Sarah Woodland, Catrina McHugh, and Anna Zastrow — for Extended Play in 2016 about their work bringing theater to and from incarcerated women in different parts of the world. Each discusses her project and process of working within prisons in three distinct cultures; still, all three theatermakers share a mission to empower incarcerated women through performance and their experiences persevering through the obstacles facing incarcerated women and theater-in-prison programs.
From Muslims in America to Child Soldiers in the Congo: Ping Chong Values Underheard Voices by Amelia Parenteau
Amelia Parenteau interviewed investigative theater pioneer Ping Chong about his career, projects, and methodology. With a nearly 50-year career at the time, Chong has focused creating thought-provoking works that often center on controversial topics such as what it means to grow up and identify as Muslim in a post-9/11 NYC with Beyond Sacred.
Civilians’ R&D In Process: An Interview With Director & Playwright Tylie Shider by Nick Clausen
This article gives an inside look into the development of a project by The Civilians’ 2020-21 R&D group member and playwright Tylie Shider who researched and created this project during the COVID-19 pandemic. From interviews conducted for the R&D play, Shider also developed a docu-drama film called Sign o’ the Times with cinematographer Nick Clausen. Clausen talks with Shider about their film and the R&D play, which were both inspired by the signage art created in protest of the murder of George Floyd, and where wo go from here.
Revolting Activism: The Yes Men Blend Performance and Real-World Action by Andrea Ciannavei
Writer and activist Andrea Ciannavei spoke to Jacques Servin, one of the performers behind the activist performance team The Yes Men, and Laura Nix, a longtime collaborator and director, about their work to galvanize audiences into activism. Ciannavei interviewed Servin and Nix for Extended Play around the time of their third film, The Yes Men Are Revolting, which explores the consequences of the climate crisis, and the launch of their activism-focused organization Action Switchboard. She speaks to them about their beginnings and their processes in this interview from 2015.
Transforming Documentary Film into Live Spectacle: Sam Green on Exploring the Fleeting Nature of Being Alive by Ian Daniel
Extended Play’s Ian Daniel talks with filmmaker Sam Green in this 2015 article about his documentary project “The Measure of All Things” which toured around the United States and England; it was performed at the Sundance Film Festival and the Kitchen in New York City. Daniel interviews Green about his investigative work, his creative process, and the project’s roots in an inspiring old copy of The Guinness Book of World Records.
In Our Words Makes Gay Sex Happen on Stage by Alan Bounville
From Artistic Director of In Our Words Alan Bounville comes this reflection on Adonis Memories, an immersive theater experience about gay sex pre- and post-AIDS. Theater company In Our Words focuses on using real individuals’ stories as source material for its work and Adonis Memories weaves together a collection of stories from people who spent time at the Adonis, a gay porn theater in New York City. Bounville reflects in this 2016 article on the process of developing the play, the experiences reflected in it, and the story of the Adonis theater.
From Plus-sized Porn Princess to Social Media Maven: Catching Up with Kelly Shibari by Ian Daniel
In 2009, The Civilians interviewed plus-sized adult performer Kelly Shibari for developing the musical Pretty Filthy. Extended Play ‘s Ian Daniel caught up with Shibari in 2015 to see how the porn industry had changed and how her life has evolved as she set her sights on a career beyond performing. This article contains NSFW images.
Fusebox 2017: VR, Robots, and Sex Cams, Oh My! by James Carter
James Carter reviews performances from Fusebox 2017 in this article about the festival’s contemporary, multi-disciplinary, and digital programming. Fusebox began the experiment of making the festival free in 2014 with funding coming from grants, sponsorships, and donations. With success, it continued to open up access to the festival in succeeding years with Free Range Art. Carter gives a look into some of the 2017 offerings in all of their interactive, immersive, and virtual glory.
With “10 out of 12,” Anne Washburn and Les Waters Take You Inside Tech Week by James Carter
In 2015, Extended Play’s Editorial Associate James Carter sat down with playwright Anne Washburn, who wrote the hit Mr. Burns which was commissioned and developed by The Civilians, and director Les Waters, artistic director of Actors Theater of Louisville, to discuss their play 10 out of 12. The play documents the long, tedious hours in the darkness associated with the process of a theater’s tech week. Taking its title from the contractual allowance for an all-day actor or crew call, the show puts process on the stage for audiences. Carter learns about Washburn and Waters’ goals and experiences were liking in taking on such a task.
These articles and more have been brought to you by a small team of interns, associates, and featured writers who have been at the heart of developing and evolving Extended Play over the years. Former contributor and playwright James La Bella shared with us his experiences of working on Extended Play during his time at The Civilians: “It can be difficult as an early-early career writer to find platforms of discursive authority that trust or welcome your perspective. This is what I loved about working with The Civilians and writing for Extended Play; I was trusted to have autonomy not only in what I wrote about, but also over the channels of investigation I took and the structures through which I presented my coverage. I believe that by granting this autonomy to independent artists writing coverage and criticism, Extended Play is working to expand our long-outdated structures of theatrical criticism. I hope it’s a platform that’s around for many more years!”
We encourage you to dive into our past articles and explore the many productions, artists, and topics we have spotlighted – but stay tuned! As The Civilians begins its 20th Anniversary season, we will continue to publish our monthly retrospective 20/20 Series in addition to sharing insights into our upcoming productions and other investigative theater work.
Extended Play is a project of The Civilians. To learn more about The Civilians and to access exclusive discounts to shows, visit us and join our email list at TheCivilians.org.
