It’s more than a rumor that thINKingDANCE (tD) and Theatre Philadelphia (TP) have started seeing each other.
Traditionally, thINKingDANCE only makes forays into theater during the FringeArts Festival or when a writer can make a case for a theater production relying substantially on a movement vocabulary. This boundary had been drawn to keep the publication’s focus on dance.
Mindful of this, both organizations agreed to launch a trial partnership to see what the exchange might provide. ThINKingDANCE’s platform offers a slew of talented writers, strong emphasis on writing training, and a thorough editing process. Some writers have a strong background in theater, including Barbora Příhodová, who offered her perspective on Team Sunshine’s ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! These qualities make tD unique amongst other critical platforms in Philadelphia. Among other things, TP offers broad readership and social media followings to tD’s writers.
Since April, thINKingDANCE has published six reviews of theater productions, with a flurry of five recently posted, including Kat Sullivan’s take on Theatre Exile’s Sing the Body Electric and Lynn Brooks’ experience of PAC’s Maria Marten, or, The Murder in the Red Barn. Earlier this month, Carolyn Merritt covered Orbiter 3’s production of L M Feldman’s The People, the group’s final project before its scheduled obsolescence. New writers Maddie Hopfield and Amelia Rose Estrada reviewed PIFA shows, Taylor Mac’s epic A 24-Decade History of Popular Music and 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s The Fever respectively.
More importantly, perhaps, is what exchanges like this one might offer to Philadelphia’s larger critical landscape.
