Please let me know if I should be concerned.

Hello, Azuka friends & family! And welcome to 2018. The New Year can be an intimidating, but exciting time! To make resolutions, to...um. Alright, it’s...it’s not the New Year. It’s almost Halloween, actually. At least I hope it is, otherwise all of those spider webs around my apartment are real. Anyway! It’s hard not to think of it as a brand new year when it’s the beginning of Azuka’s 2018-2019 season, AGAIN featuring Pay What You Decide for every performance of every production. Our three shows, warplay, Bob: A Life in Five Acts, and Boycott Esther are described in the season brochure (and on this website -- woah. Meta) as such:

Azuka Theatre's 19th Season examines and dissects masculinity - its perils, its pitfalls, indeed its very definition.

We're looking at people on the sidelines - the "also-rans" - beginning with JC Lee's re-imagining of a classic war-time relationship, followed by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's story of a man's journey to become "great," and closing with a world premiere by Philadelphia playwright Emily Acker which considers whether men in power feel entitled to exploit it.

These three plays feature characters alienated, motivated, and warped by the exact same idea, and that's an exciting concept to explore!

“Masculinity”, “toxic masculinity” -- these can sometimes seem to have become nothing more than buzzwords lately, particularly with Hollywood and the White House going through what they are. And as a result, it becomes easy to be dismissive of them, thinking they’re being rather haphazardly thrown around.

But these words and ideas are at a forefront right now for a reason, and in three very unique ways this season explores that.

We begin the season NEXT WEEK with warplay, written by JC Lee and directed by our own intrepid adventurer Kevin Glaccum. I mention this not only to remind you to reserve your PWYD tickets now either online or by calling the office, but to let you know that this speedily-approaching production’s dramaturg, Kristopher Karcher, will be writing a few guest blogs over the coming weeks to provide a different perspective on the rich historical and thematic context of this “poetic and funny re-imagining of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus”. You might remember these lads from Homer’s The Iliad, assuming you haven’t torched your memories of high school as if they were plague-infected clothing. I know I haven’t -- I never even went to high school! Wait...did I? I see glimpses...blurs...a hand, reaching out…

Well, whether or not you’ve been bonfire happy with your bubonic garb, Kris should refresh you.

Don’t just grab it with your bare hands! What are you doing?!

I had the pleasure of walking around Center City the other day doing some marketing distribution for warplay. A cool autumn breeze in the air, the crunching of autumn leaves on the ground, the autumn fact that it’s…autumn. Things are changing. The wheel of time shifts in its cycle, stone cogs revolving. And we can’t wait for you to see what’s coming. (I can’t wait either. I haven’t even seen a rehearsal yet. I’m psyched!)

Stay tuned for more as we prepare for warplay, and reserve your tickets now! Welcome, to the 2018-2019 Azuka season. And enjoy the show.

- Lucas