The Hat

@readthehat

Exploring Off Broadway’s craft, people & process. We tell the stories of the people who tell stories. May issue out now 🎩 Founded by @karacut & Colin
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What songs do we carry with us? In Canciones, an immersive theatrical experience staged inside a Flatbush apartment, a Mexican-American family gathers to sing, argue, grieve, dance, and wrestle with a familiar immigrant question: Do you stay close to the people you love, or leave to pursue the life you imagine for yourself? For this week’s Spotlight, Ana María Betancourt Ovalle writes about mariachi music, family reunions, inherited longing, and how dreams can become another form of belonging. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: Ana María Betancourt Ovalle — @anamariabetancourto 
📷: Jody Christopherson #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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1 day ago
The act of looking away sits at the center of James Clements’s unsettling new play, now at @thecelltheatre , about Leni Riefenstahl, the famed Nazi propagandist behind “Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will.” For our latest Spotlight, Joey Sims writes about political theater in a time of exhaustion, dissociation, and mounting daily horrors — and asks what responsibility artists and audiences bear. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: Joey Sims — @joeysims89 
📷: Alexia Haick — @alexia.haick #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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4 days ago
Not every ending is peachy or blue-sky. Read @colm_summers and @murphyderek94 in @readthehat on our distinctly Irish dark comedy dressed as a rom-com.
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9 days ago
“When theater makes me want to call my parents, that’s what I want to see.” ‘Well, I’ll Let You Go’ is now in previews @studioseaview
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11 days ago
Happy Hat day! Our May issue is alive and well! Inside, you’ll find: An in-depth pre-rehearsal conversation between @bubbaweiler and @jackserio about @letyougonyc , Our Town, commercial Off-Broadway, and Jack’s teenage magic career… A look at the new partnership between @bam_brooklyn and @nationaltheatre — including a “young people’s Hamlet” by @jgushuewrites An interview with @thebaddaters director @colm_summers and playwright @murphyderek94 about their dark Irish rom-com at @paradisefactorytheater by @heyjudecramer And an investigation into what theater can learn from game design by @jisoohopeyoon featuring @sourmilk.xyz (hint: we need more play!) Playwright Bubba Weiler drops our cover quote, which feels apt during this boisterous awards season: “For many artists there’s this big iceberg, a submerged iceberg of work and we only ever see the top of it…” Keep building your icebergs, everyone. You can read the issue at the link in bio. 🎩 📷: @emiliomadrid @j_cervantes Myrah Sarwar and @em_kazaryan #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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12 days ago
What do we want from Othello now? In @bedlambedlambedlam ’s new four-actor production, Eric Tucker revisits Shakespeare’s tragedy with a stripped-down approach. For Ryan Quinn, stepping into the title role means entering a long lineage while finding what still feels urgent in the play’s portrait of love, manipulation, and social power. For The Hat, Eben Shapiro talks with @tuckerbent and @ryanallenquinn about staging a difficult classic, doubling roles, and where to go from here. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: @ebenshapiro1 
📷: @ashleygarrettphoto #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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19 days ago
Happy Hat day! Our April issue is here! Take a peek at these glorious stories: An inside look at the sounds, strategies, and long game of @mexodusmusical by @dcorzine An interview with @milo____hi on “No Singing in the Navy” @playwrightshorizons by @itslikegeorgebutwithanie Four brave playwrights — @_kumarde @benne_benjamin , @buffalobailey and @amazongenue — reveal their writing (and life) schedules to @malloryjaneweiss Jade Jones, who’s lighting up @bigfootthemusical , talks to @mx_deziduck — and also drops our cover quote on their vision for a more gender-inclusive theater industry: “At the end of the day, we’re just playing pretend. People are coming to see us tell a story. If you’re telling the story, it shouldn’t matter,” @littyofficial said. “If you’re male or female or nonbinary, it shouldn’t matter. If you can’t sing a high G or whatever, it doesn’t matter. We can change the key.”  Read the issue at the link in bio — and what else are you seeing and creating this month? We’d love to know. 🎩 📷: @curtisbrownphotography @valnovaphotography @marcjfranklin #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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1 month ago
In his stage debut in @mothdaysplay , John Early found himself working alongside Wallace Shawn and André Gregory. “Here are these two theater legends,” @bejohnce says, “who have done these very experimental productions. I didn’t know if they were going to have me rolling around on the floor or what. I was like, ‘Is this going to be terrifying?’ But I was willing to withstand any terror for them.” So what were rehearsals like? The lunch order never changed: salmon niçoise or chicken salad, every day. There were no notes or explanations. But a lot of looking Shawn and Gregory in the eyes, repetition, and patience. For this week’s Spotlight, Georgie McKeon talks with Early about finding the character of Tim, those intimate early rehearsals, and his directorial debut, Maddie’s Secret. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: @itslikegeorgebutwithanie 📷: Julieta Cervantes, Luis Manuel Diaz #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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1 month ago
Anne Kauffman first directed You Got Older in 2014. Now, @cherrylanetheatre , she’s revisiting Clare Barron’s tender portrait of family, illness, and adulthood — this time with new instincts, and a very different stage. For this week’s Spotlight, Douglas Corzine spoke with Kauffman about restaging her own work (x3!), what time changes in a rehearsal room, and which play she wants to revive next… Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: @dcorzine 📷: @emiliomadrid #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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1 month ago
How do you stage a calf scramble? And actually, what *is* a calf scramble? Playwright Libby Carr and director Caitlin Sullivan are turning a Texas rodeo tradition into a dark comedy about girlhood, cruelty, competition, and the bond between humans and animals in “Calf Scramble.” In our latest Spotlight, Billy McEntee talks with @libborate and @caitesull about athleticism, brutality, sweetness — and the physical language behind these characters moooving onstage. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: @billymcentee 📷: James Leynse 📍: @59e59 @primarystages #readthehat #offbroadway #theater #calfscramble #moo
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2 months ago
Henry Darger rarely left his room. Now John Kelly brings us inside that space and the mind of the reclusive janitor whose vast body of drawings and writings was discovered only after his death. Bughouse is at Vineyard Theatre, conceived and directed by Martha Clarke with a script by Beth Henley. In our latest Spotlight, Emily Chackerian talks with @johnkelly.performance about embodying artists, outsider creativity, and finding compassion for Darger’s complicated life. Read the full story at the link in bio. 🎩 📝: @emily.chackerian 📷: Carol Rosegg
📍: @vineyardtheatre #readthehat #offbroadway #theater #downtowntheater
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2 months ago
Happy Hat day! We love this issue. A lot.🎩 Inside: a look at Off-Off-Broadway one year after the NEA cuts — including @jackartsny @herearts @indiespacenyc and @wwtnstheatre — by Ana María Betancourt Ovalle; the great @susannahperkins interviews the great @celiakb @publictheaterny ; Carolina Đỗ reflects on love, art, and the absurdities of the O-1 visa; and Shoshana Greenberg profiles @thebengsons on radical access and making theater for everyone. Spring’s almost here, we swear. Tuck into the issue at the link in bio and we’ll see you at the theater!! 📝: @anamariabetancourto , @susannahperkins , @carolinakaydo , @shoshanacreates 📷: @herearts , @joanmarcus , @vaseli_vaseli , @marmiddletonphoto #readthehat #offbroadway #theater
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2 months ago