185 stories by "Alaina Johns"
One thing we've been hearing a lot this year is that people are fed up with the media. Are we a lost cause? Not if you invest in the professionals in your community.
When a crisis like cancer hits, it can feel easier to keep it to ourselves. But humans are not meant to cope alone. Vulnerability is where our real strength lies. Alaina Johns shares her exp…
BSR podcaster Darnelle Radford gets BSR staffers Alaina Johns, Kyle V. Hiller, and Neil Bardhan in the virtual studio to talk book, TV, and podcast recs for your 2023 feed.
BSR podcaster Darnelle Radford interviews producer Carlos Armesto and actor Carmen Borlas about creating an immersive show in at Bristol Riverside Theatre, sans sight.
Last week, the BSR team chose not to cross the PMA picket line, and did not attend a preview event for Matisse in the 1930s. We were in the minority, but we weren't alone. Alaina Johns refle…
SPEECH, the latest from Lightning Rod Special, features the company's signature stellar ensemble work, skewering our cultural currents. Alaina Johns reviews.
A wider range of voices would have benefited this production of new short plays, which marks the Philly debut of TheatreXP, a recent transplant from South Florida. Alaina Johns reviews.
Chances are if we missed being in the theater, we also missed meeting up for a bite. Many artists of this year's Fringe are bringing us together over food. Alaina Johns rounds up.
Alaina Johns always admired others' permanent body art, but she didn't think she could ever make the jump to get tattooed herself, even though everyone else in the neighborhood is. This summ…
With her new solo show, Philly performer Lexi Schreiber asks why fat actors have to create and star in their own shows, instead of simply being cast in roles that already exist. Alaina Johns…
Alaina Johns has found that even in pro-choice spaces, the rhetoric around abortion can be hard to separate from the facts. But we all need to sharpen these skills, especially as Pennsylvani…
As an atheist and a divorced woman who supports gender justice, Alaina Johns definitely doesn't belong in the church that raised her. But when the church's more inclusive community members p…
Tiny Dynamite distills six of the English language's best-loved novels"and then some"into this fun, fleet, and heartfelt tribute to Jane Austen. Alaina Johns reviews.
The latest exhibition at the Library Company plumbs the real-life narratives of 19th-century insane asylums, but these institutions never disappeared"they were only reinvented. Alaina Johns …
Another year, another attempt to gut city support for the arts in Philly. As one of our own artists wins a Pulitzer, a major budget cut seems like an especially bad plan. Alaina Johns consid…
As new rulings and lawsuits about mask mandates in Philly and throughout the country roll in this week, Alaina Johns notes what mask mandate arguments are really about: debating accessibilit…
Editor Alaina Johns is taking a few weeks off to focus on treating her bipolar disorder, with the support of the BSR team. Here's why it's important to talk about this.
All eyes are on the Supreme Court this week, taking up cases including one that could overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. What does Philly think about that? Alaina Johns attend…
Brian Feldman's 2021 Fringe entry gathers the audience in a digital space, like many other Covid-era productions, but leaves us with big questions about the nature of the art form. Alaina Jo…
Should you have kids? Is that a personal decision? In The Choice, inFLUX Theatre Collective's 2021 Fringe offering, three women theater artists navigate questions of pregnancy, and ask who e…
In a world that expects everyone to travel in pairs, going out alone is a refreshing and important way to reframe your relationship to yourself"and others. Alaina Johns wanders.
In a world that expects everyone to travel in pairs, going out alone is a refreshing and important way to reframe your relationship to yourself"and others. Alaina Johns wanders.
Most coverage of protests against the Walnut Street Theatre ignores a key fact: the building may be historic, but the theater company there started in the 1980s. Alaina Johns thinks that mat…
Alaina Johns is one of many Philadelphia professionals who got their start in the Walnut Street Theatre's apprenticeship program, and the experience still influences her today.
On June 18, the activists of a newly formed Philly coalition, Protect the Artist, took their message to the streets with a protest outside the Walnut Street Theatre. An Nichols and Alaina Jo…
