Welcome to Play Club’s Blog

Written By Krupa Kanaiya

A space for conversation & connection

 

Come on in—the curtain’s rising on a new kind of gathering place for theatre and community.

Welcome to the Play Club blog—our new corner of the internet for theatre lovers, curious minds, and anyone who believes contemporary plays are meant to be talked about, savored, and celebrated.


When I first dreamed up Play Club, we were all locked in pandemic-land. I was missing people, missing conversation and that spark of sharing a play and watching it light up someone else’s mind.


So I sent out an invitation: Want to read plays with me? About 50 brave souls said yes.


In spring 2022, we dove into four wildly different works—Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, Eisa Davis’s Bulrusher, and Ellen McLaughlin’s Iphigenia and Other Daughters—and then we talked with the playwrights themselves. Those conversations? Like live theatre: inspiring, improvised and happily unpredictable.


They joined us from their writing spaces, or wherever they happened to be:

Sarah Zoom in from her Brooklyn writing space, framed by a gold-winged costume from one of her productions;

Lynn got interrupted (in the best way) by her husband walking into her study and proudly offering up a tiny robin’s egg he’d just found;

Eisa checked in while racing through an airport on her way to a TV set;

Ellen transported us to a moonlit mountain in Greece, where she was rehearsing her Antigone with husband Rinde Eckert and a fearless acting troupe preparing to perform in a remote village.

And from that moment on—we were off!

Since then, Play Club members have:

  • read and discussed 36 plays,

  • met 50 celebrated and emerging playwrights and their collaborators,

  • and met up to see productions in Seattle, DC, San Francisco, and New York.


But the best part? You.


The community that’s formed across time zones is nothing short of amazing: theatre lovers, college students, educators, artists, and seekers of meaningful conversation from all walks of life. Together, we’ve discovered that deep, inspiring discussions don’t have to wait until you’re in the same room.

And when we do meet in person? It’s like walking into a party—and someone saved you a seat.

Like Play Club itself, this blog will be a gathering place. We’ll be inviting members to be guest bloggers and share what you’re discovering in the plays we read, reflect on how playwrights are capturing the world around us, and spread the word about theatre worth seeing wherever you are.

Thanks for being here. Curtain’s up—let’s play.

 

Written by:

Amy Wheeler

PlayClub Founder & Playwright

Krupa Kanaiya