All Writing — Nathan Pugh

Cultural Essays on Theater & Performance

Anonymous Essays: Unnecessary - 2023
Why did the Tony Awards Reward A STRANGE LOOP This Year, But Not SLAVE PLAY Last Year? - 2022
DRIVE MY CAR is the Definitive Theatre Film of 2021 - 2022
To Celebrate SLAVE PLAY, Honor its Black Predecessors that Haven’t Been on Broadway - 2021
- Shared on Twitter by Slave Play Broadway producer Greg Nobile

At the Lincoln Memorial, COME FROM AWAY Commemorates the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 with Triumph and Tears - 2021
- Mentioned in Brian Eugenio Herrera’s #TheatreClique Round Up Newsletter
Road to Nowhere: Discovering My Mixed Race Identity Through Theater During the 2020 Election - 2020
- “It was so beautifully written… thank you for your candor and vulnerability.” - Kuhoo Verma, original cast member of Octet (December 2020 Instagram story)

Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Vision of “Beautiful Disruption” - 2020
Matthew Shepard’s Story Deserves to Be Told. But It Can’t Be the Only Story For the LGBTQ Community - 2019
How “A Strange Loop” Helps Me Negotiate Not Belonging in Musical Theater - 2019
- “This is a really thoughtful review of A Strange Loop.” -Michael R. Jackson, Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright/composer of A Strange Loop, on Twitter (October 15, 2019)

Performance Reviews

BULRUSHER Stages the Dangers of Identification - 2023
‘King of the Yees’ offers metatheatrical humor and sorrow at Signature Theatre - 2023
Politics, Generational Change, and Community in Pearl Cleage’s Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard - 2023, co-written with Mekala Sridhar and Divinia Shorter
In Woolly Mammoth’s INCENDIARY, Dave Harris Doesn’t Pull Any Punches - 2023
2023 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Keys, Wallet, Phone, Dignity’ by Sheldon Scott - 2023
2023 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Nasty White Folx…and other filth’ by Sidney Monroe Williams - 2023
In GOOD BONES, James Ijames Carefully Approaches the Ugliness of Displacement - 2023
Patrick Page Astounds as KING LEAR at Shakespeare Theatre Company - 2023
See Or Skip: Three Shows We Saw At D.C.-Area Theaters This Month - 2023
In Ford Theatre’s SHOUT SISTER SHOUT!, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Asks for More than the Standard Biopic Treatment - 2023
See Or Skip: Four Shows We Saw at D.C.-Area Theaters in February - 2023
See Or Skip: Three Shows We Saw At D.C. Theaters in January - 2023
Arena Stage’s RIDE THE CYCLONE is a Bumpy Yet Exhilarating Ride - 2023
See Or Skip: Three Shows We Saw At D.C. Theater sin December - 2022
See Or Skip: Two Shows We Saw At D.C. Theaters in Early November - 2022
Signature Theatre’s THE COLOR PURPLE Draws on the Musical’s Rich History - 2022
Woolly Mammoth’s AIN’T NO MO’ is a Brilliant Satire of Post-Obama Black America - 2022
2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘My Father, My Martyr, and Me’ by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi - 2022
2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Pretty messy Love’ by Mary Leaphart - 2022
Queer Black Men Forge Spaces of Care in THE HOT WING KING - 2022
Mosaic Theatre’s IN HIS HANDS Stages Tender (and Religious) Queer Intimacy - 2022
The Stunning Reconsiderations of FAIRVIEW at the Wilma Theater - 2022
Heroes are Toppled and Reborn in Studio Theatre’s JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN - 2022
Signature Theatre’s THE UPSTAIRS DEPARTMENT Unpacks the Grief of COVID-19 - 2022
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s OUR TOWN is a Transfixing Production of a Well-Worn Classic - 2022
In Woolly Mammoth’s THERE’S ALWAYS THE HUDSON, Two Survivors Ruthlessly Confront their Pasts - 2022
In IT’S NOT A TRIP IT’S A JOURNEY, Black Femmes Wander into New Worlds - 2022
WE DECLARE YOU A TERRORIST… Makes the Case for Creativity During War - 2022
In Signature Theatre’s DAPHNE’S DIVE, Brokenness is a Gift - 2022
In Arena Stage’s CHANGE AGENT, Women Shape the Past (and Future) of America - 2022
Studio Theatre’s WHITE NOISE is a Blunt Tragedy for Our Times - 2022
Studio Theatre’s FLIGHT Traces a Refugee Odyssey in Miniature - 2022
TEENAGE DICK is a Brutal but Sensitive Portrait of an Unlikely Antihero - 2021
A STRANGE LOOP Stages an Endless Spiral of Identity, and the Rupture my Hometown Needs - 2021
Round House Theatre’s THE GREAT LEAP Offers a Thoughtful Fable for Chinese-American Life - 2021
In Mosaic Theater’s BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, A Daughter and Father Yearn to Connect - 2021
Madeline Sayet Explores WHERE WE BELONG at Woolly Mammoth - 2021
In “The Thanksgiving Play,” Wokeness Erases Indigeneity (Including FastHorse’s Own Voice) - 2021
Shades’ Production of “Salvation” Stages an Existential Fugue in the Afterlife - 2021
Pouring into Myself: Two Performers Dream Alone in “A Milk Kind of Play” - 2020
In Earthling Collective’s Production of “Symp,” Gaslit Nights Fuel Tragicomic Love - 2020
In “Fairview” Drury Puts Performance of Blackness and White Guilt on Stage - 2019
- “@nathanpugh_3's review in the Wesleyan student paper makes me glad I still have #Fairview Google Alerts. If yr in the arts take a minute and actually click the link.” - Adriana Leshko, Publicist for Theater for a New Audience’s 2019 production of “Fairview,” on Twitter
“The Wolves” Offers Narratives of Female Adolescence - 2018
In “They, Themself and Schmerm” Comedian Becca Blackwell Pushes Discomfort Into Vulnerability - 2018
“Angels in America” Offers Hope and Promise - 2018
“Constance and Sinestra” Finds Connection in the Midst of Trauma - 2018
“Mean Girls: The Musical,” Unlike Fetch, Is Definitely Happening - 2018
An Intergenerational Investigation: Sarah Gancher’s “I’ll Get You Back Again” - 2017

Production Profiles / Arts Coverage

Ethan Heard on directing ‘Pacific Overtures’ with an Asian American Lens - 2023
Playwright Martyna Majok on finding hope in impossible situations - 2022
How Black Women-Led Outdoor Productions of Shakespeare Took NYC by Storm This Summer - 2022
Benjamin Benne on queer love and Christian faith in Mosaic’s ‘In His Hands’ - 2022
How ‘A Strange Loop’ fits into Black theater legacies - 2022
- “I’ve been doggedly avoiding reading any reviews, pans or raves of A Strange Loop but I thought this one was pretty thoughtful and hit on some things that haven’t been said before.” -Michael R. Jackson, Putlizer Prize-winning playwright of A Strange Loop, on Twitter.
- Featured on Brian Eugenio Herrera’s #TheatreClique newsletter on June 19, 2022.
Eric Ruffin, Tina Fabrique, and Kim Bey on Mosaic’s MARYS SEACOLE and Black Women Care Work - 2022
SLAVE PLAY’s Devin Kawaoka on Bringing an Asian American Perspective - 2022
Michael Anthony Williams and David Emerson Toney on Arena Stage’s Urgent Production of SEVEN GUITARS - 2021
Lydia R. Diamond on Arena Stage’s TONI STONE and Contradictions in Black Performance - 2021
In “The Unwanted Siblings,” Comedy Prompts Testimony and Transformation for a Chinese Family - 2021
In “Cut Woman,” Dena Igusti and Ray Jordan Achan Explore the Perils and Possibilities of Embodied Writing - 2020, co-written with Sabrina Ladiwala
- “Thank you @nathanpugh_3 and Sabrina Ladiwala for this incredible writeup of CUT WOMAN the book and the choreopoem.” -Dena Igusti, author/performer of Cut Woman, on Instagram

3Views Guest Curating

In February of 2024, Pugh guest curated an issue of 3Views on Theater, covering Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s world premiere production of The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes.

As the site’s inaugural guest curator, Pugh selected the show, hired three contributing writers, edited the writers’ articles, and wrote an editor’s note.

Find all articles published as part of this issue below:

D.C. as a Home for Artists and Writers: An Editor’s Note - Nathan Pugh
Editor’s Note: Introducing Guest Curators - 3Views Team
She Ain’t No Diva: “Class, Bougie, Ratchet” & Exhausted - Tariq O’Meally
The Duality of Homecoming Dreams and Dread - Kayla Randall
Sippin’ on Sea Mink-ettes - Sidney Williams

Cultural Essays on Film & Television

Cultural Essays on Music

To the Top of the World: How “The Chicks” Helped Me Grieve and Define Home - 2020

Look What You Made Me Do: How Taylor Swift is Letting Down the LGBT Community - 2017

Dialogues

Cross Talk: On Jeremy O. Harris’ “Slave Play” and When Processing Isn’t Enough - with Paul McLaren, 2019
- “Even tho @nathanpugh_3 seems very dubious that I wrote this play for myself.... this is my absolute FAVORITE review of @SlavePlayBway and it’s by two undergrads at Wesleyan! Thank you all for taking time with the ideas, structures and theories in the Play. PLEASE READ” - Jeremy O. Harris, Tony-nominated playwright of Slave Play, on Twitter
Cross Talk: Parsing the Legacy of “Transparent” - with Dani Smotrich-Barr, 2019
Cross Talk: Feminism and Wokeness in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” - with Dani-Smotrich Barr and Zoe Kaplan, 2020

Opinions

The Tonys Should Nominate These Featured Actresses of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE and A STRANGE LOOP - 2022
No Matter How You Frame It, Your Vaccine Selfie Might Make Someone Uncomfortable - 2021
Imagining Joe Biden’s “Despacito” Presidency - a satirical short story - 2020
On the Purpose of Student Theater Reviews - with Zoe Kaplan, 2019

List Articles

12 Local Theater Performances We’re Excited For in 2023 - 2023
If You Liked ‘Fire Island,’ Check Out Director Andrew Ahn’s Other Films - 2022
- Shared by Andrew Ahn on Twitter on June 8, 2022, stating “Thank you for this!”