Lydia Howell, Writer

The tenacious human drive for recognition, acceptance, and emotional connection is revealed in a totally unexpected place in Theatre Unbound’s production of Paula Vogel’s play How I Learned To Drive. This family comic-tragedy, which can stand as a contemporary classic with the finest works of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and August Wilson, made Vogel the first female playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize. MORE »

Workhaus Collective kicks off its second season with Forgetting, a play about three grief-scarred women whose sole aim is to block pain. Or is this about one woman’s careening journey, told simultaneously from the perspective of three, seven, and ten years after her brother died? The women’s names resonate as archetypes—Blood, Bone, and Ash—and there appear to be similarities in how their brothers died. To be honest, I’m not sure. This play is like Ingmar Bergman on meth. MORE »

Mainstream media often portray Arab and Muslim people as “other” to Americans. Mizna‘s Fifth Annual Arab Film Festival presents a stunning array of revelations and surprising recognitions. MORE »

Last night’s vice-presidential candidate “debate” was as much spectacle as it was anything to do with choosing the next Administration. Gov. Sarah Palin had most of the style while Senator Joe Biden had the substance. That’s not really surprising. In my view, style and substance tied in the Biden-Palin contest. MORE »

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq grinds into its sixth year and activists address the militarized police response to protests at the Republican National Convention, a remarkable just-published historical document should be required reading. Ed Felien’s Take the Streets! was written in 1972, during and immediately after that year’s tidal wave of Minnesota protests of the Vietnam War. MORE »