NYC theater folks: This is a smart, accurate thread about an absurd and offensive attempt to boycott Jonathan Spector's play Birthright. (Warning: This is inside baseball, so if that makes you mad, take a breather and go play some outside baseball.)

The Isaac Who Came In From the Butler@isaacbutler.bsky.social · 4w ago

Of course they are because all the more prominent orgs that actually know what they’re doing realized that Birthright in no way met the qualifications for a boycott under the PACBI rules. T4AC is freelancing and trying to hide that behind a bunch of political weasel words

I wonder if the title of Jonathan Spector’s “Birthright,” at MCC, will be even more freighted tomorrow, given SCOTUS, but: If you thought the play sounded maybe too specific to be for you, or if the 3-hours-plus runtime made you hesitate, reconsider. Teddy Bergman’s production flies. Terrific cast.

Some real covfefe energy on this app tonight.

Eureka Day playwright, @jspector.bsky.social, in the Kenneth Cole Ready Flex Tux and Futurepod Leather Lace-Up Oxford on @thetonyawards.bsky.social red carpet before his win for Best Revival of a Play. 📷: Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions

newrepublic.com/article/1953...

Remarkably, this is the same person four years ago and now. Interestingly, the literal meaning of the Latin term habeas corpus is “you should have the body.”

Heartbroken. And as evidenced by my depressing quotes in this story…feeling pretty grim about the future of our Bay Area theater ecosystem.

Lily Janiak@lilyjaniak.bsky.social · last yr.

Sadness. Just sadness. The kind that hits you in waves. The initial shock. The multiplying implications. The looking through old show photos to tally one fabulous production after another. On Aurora Theatre Company's decision to suspend its season in 2025-26: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

The sequel to the Scopes Monkey trial just dropped.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · last yr.

Y’all — OKLAHOMA is going to require their schools to lie to their kids that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. popular.info/p/new-oklaho...

Eureka Day May 29 – June 28, 2026 at The Huntington Theatre Written by Jonathan Spector Directed by Margot Bordelon

It’s really wild how there is no reason to deport anyone, let alone children and US citizens and LPRs and students and people undergoing cancer treatment etc. it’s all a fake solution to a made up problem enacted by violent racists who are stealing from you

Lots of people I know that were furious about kids having to wear masks are real quiet about a two year old citizen being wrongfully deported

that Schumer believes Republicans will have a change of heart when things get really bad shows he is incapable of understanding how bad they are right now

Sarah Posner@sarahposner.bsky.social · 2y ago

A lot of delusion happening in that Schumer NYT interview, but this gets to the heart of it: he believes his Republican colleagues will come around and everything will be ok. Absolutely delusional. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/m...

This is bone-chilling.

Adam Steinbaugh@adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · 2y ago

In which the Department of Homeland Security struggles to answer a very simple question: "Is any criticism of the United States government a deportable offense?" (From NPR here: www.npr.org/2025/03/13/n...)

One thing you really see every day is the different risk appetites between MAGA-era Republicans and Democrats. Basically compulsive, reckless, dangerous constant risk-seeking, versus almost comical levels of risk-aversion.

Those who know me know I was highly critical of what I saw as some of the rhetorical excesses of the campus protests. Khalil and I wld probably get into a spat immediately. It's all the more important for people who believe as I do to say clearly, the protections of the law are for everyone.

Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 2y ago

A federal judge in NY has blocked any effort by the Trump administration to deport Mahmoud Khalil – whose arrest and imminent deportation Trump celebrated on Turth Social today — until further proceedings play out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

It feels like a metric of something, and not a good one, that at a moment like this virtually no one in the Oscar telecast has said anything remotely political

Probably fitting that Trump quoted Napoleon last week, as his wanton destruction of alliances and our government will likely be looked back on by historians as an instance of catastrophic "F*ck Around and Find Out" to rival Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

playbill.com/article/eure...

Eureka Day Joins Kennedy Center Cancellations Following Trump Takeover

A performance featuring the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C. has also been removed from the organization's schedule, with both productions citing financial circumstances.

playbill.com

Trump and “voters” nominally are the easiest targets for blame and yet to me, I will never not be the most mad at Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats for attempting to “move on” or “do a unity” instead of doing the hard but critical work of securing our government and preventing authoritarianism.

One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.

Friends in NYC, today is the LAST DAY to register as a Democrat online so you can vote in the June primary against Eric Adams! Please do it now!

Greg Pak@gregpak.net · 2y ago

Direct link to the NYC voter registration portal! Register as a DEMOCRAT to vote in the June primary and kick Eric Adams out of office! e-register.vote.nyc

The shortest summary of what we’re witnessing is that the right lost a decades-long ideological battle over the proper size of government, and then, instead of moving on, decided to impose their will criminally.

Might be way off base, but I'm starting to think that stewing the brains of 25-30% of a population in a 24/7 far right propaganda network for 20 years isn't the healthiest thing for a democracy.

Who the f*ck is this for??? The problem isn’t we don’t have laws. The problem is they just ignore them. That won’t be solved with a symbolic vote. Why isn’t Schumer grinding the senate to a halt????

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2y ago

Schumer: "Today Leader Jeffries and I are joining together to push legislation to prevent unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department's payment systems and protect Americans across the country ... we call our legislation, 'stop the steal'"

I think we need to start saying explicitly that we are living through an attempted coup. Everything they are doing is illegal. Every. Single. Fucking. Thing. Doing it anyway is a coup. We still have a chance to make the “attempted” part stick, but the opposition has to fucking do something.

It would be nice to see mainstream media acknowledge that every alarmist in their ranks about Trump and his henchmen has been correct, and every single "Let's all calm down" guy--a posture of blasé detachment that is consistently over-rewarded in legacy media--has called it wrong from day one.

This should be 25th amendment level conduct. The president ordered water to be released from a random dam in California nowhere near the wildfires and then claimed it would help. That’s literally Mad King behavior.

moosky@mooosky.bsky.social · 2y ago

They posted an update confirming it was from Trump's order. sjvwater.org/trumps-emerg...

Response to Wednesday's airplane crash: This is what we should do, from Brian Beutler at Off Message open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Fun article about that strange, glorious scene. The effect of which I still still don't fully understand, even after so many productions. (Though I have theories!).

In ‘Eureka Day,’ a Scene About Vaccines Devolves, Hilariously

In “Eureka Day,” changes were made to a scene because “the laughter was so robust backstage, they couldn’t hear the cues.”

nytimes.com