Ryan Donovan
@ryan-donovan.com
Author | BROADWAY BODIES and QUEER APPROACHES IN MUSICAL THEATRE Assistant Professor of Theater Studies | Duke University ryan-donovan.com
Laurie Metcalf as Barbara in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
Benjamin Dreyer@bcdreyer.social · 10mo agoOK, here's a parlor game. Name a performer you'd've liked to see onstage in a role they never played and for which they were, at some point or other, age-appropriate, that's not Judy Garland as Rose, Mame, or Martha. For instance: Shirley Booth as Big Mama
I love how people can breezily be like “so much that divides people” like it’s a brunch menu when the division is over whether people should be dead or not
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 3mo agoNBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Trump coming to Madison Square Garden "He's welcome to be here. What makes sports so special, especially when there’s so much that divides people, is it’s something that we have in common."
In the last 48 hours, The New School has fired almost two dozen colleagues in humanities and social sciences, many of them tenured faculty of color, and multiple staff members, including in social justice.
This letter is one of my favorite archival finds: Harold Prince explaining that EVITA is not Brechtian (one of the most over-used and least understood adjectives)
Preview of my next book inside!
Ryan Donovan Traces the Physical Costs of Broadway’s Perfection
trinity.duke.edu
not a day goes by that i don't feel insecure about my inability to fix pipes with my wrench that is also a pipe smdh we used to be a country
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 4mo agoThe longer you look at this, the worse it gets
Always worth remembering that Insider Higher Ed is owned by Times Higher Education, a one-time industry publication which has been remade as a data-analytic consultancy AND which is itself owned by Inflexion Private Equity.
Matthew J Kuiper@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 4mo agoThere are some valid points here, especially (only?) if you grant these premises: 1) LMS’s like Canvas are now just too embedded in higher ed; 2) Switching to another LMS won’t help since they’re all vulnerable to cyberattacks; 3) Leaving Canvas will be hard, and doing hard things is costly.
Another among the many, many reasons why we should push back against big tech’s stranglehold on our pedagogical toolkit:
Not to get all gay or anything, but today's the 65th anniversary of Judy's Carnegie Hall concert.
Anyone else notice that a few recent New Yorker profiles border on hagiography?
Hungarians showing how to win big in an unfair election: organize AND protest AND vote AND demand profound change.
Congratulations to our 2026 Alumni Awards Winners! Learn more about the impact of Sophie Maríñez, Gaffar Gailani, Avishan Bodjnoud, Philip Kreniske, Ryan Donovan, Mary Sano, and Frank J. Fabozzi www.gc.cuny.edu/news/announc... @smarinez.bsky.social @ryandonovan.bsky.social @kreniske.bsky.social
Announcing the 2026 Alumni Awards Winners
The Graduate Center will celebrate seven highly accomplished alumni at its Alumni Awards ceremony on April 30.
gc.cuny.edu
Pege Hegseth's chief of staff tried to block the promotion of a black female combat veteran because, as the article notes, "President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events" in Washington DC
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 6mo agoExplicitly, unambiguously racist, and part of a broader pattern. Not only unfair and insulting to these officers, and to all Black people serving the country, especially Black women, but bad for national security as well. Weakening America to prioritize a project of resegregating the government.
Sean Duffy should be impeached and removed from his cabinet post.
John Pfaff@johnpfaff.bsky.social · 6mo agoThere was ONE ATC in the tower at LGA during last night's crash. ONE ATC, at LGA!, dealing w ALL air and ground traffic, including a plane filling w a strange smell and no gate to return to. The Pentagon wants $200B for a vanity war, but our ATC towers are empty. Budgets are moral documents.
A week after American and Israeli forces began their assault on Iran, Pentagon officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that the cost of the war had already exceeded $11.3bn in its first six days. But that figure is only part of the story 🧵
The cost of fresh vegetables is up a stunning FORTY EIGHT PERCENT from February 2025: www.bls.gov/news.release...
New York! I'm giving a talk on my new book-in-progress at The New School on March 23 at 5pm. Come hear about how Broadway turned backbreaking. event.newschool.edu/broadwaybodi...
event.newschool.edu
crickets from the free speech crowd, of course
Allenk_81@allenk81.bsky.social · 7mo agoFAMU can't use the word Black on anything posted around campus related to Black History Month, to stay in compliance with Florida state laws against DEI. Black students can't use the word Black at their Historically Black College during Black History Month.
the Washington Post effectively blew up its arts section today, dismissing its books, TV, music, and theater critics, features writers, and several editors. (I'm also guessing the vacant film critic position will stay that way.) Just an insane loss of talent and a huge self-inflicted wound.
Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton. All former cabinet secretaries. All need to speak up. Why are they silent at this moment? Why is up to ordinary Americans to lead in this crisis?
If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
