Curtain Call: Looking Back on a Season of Boston Theater, Community, and Discovery

It's hard to believe that we're wrapping our first season of Scene in Boston!

Our last episode of the season is in your feeds today– Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. (If you're reading this in a browser you'll see an embed of the episode below.)

Producing and co-hosting Scene in Boston has given me the opportunity to see so much more theater this year than I ever have before. In this last episode of the season (but not forever!), Lisa and I looked back on the productions, conversations, and ideas that shaped the first season.

Over ten episodes, we saw everything from deeply serious dramas to pure joy machines like Something Rotten at Lyric Stage, and along the way we learned to say yes to more: more new works, more workshop productions, more chances to be surprised. I discovered the power of just leaving the house (even when I'm grumbly and it’s sleeting) and how deeply a show like Dead as a Dodo or Swept Away can stay with you. Lisa fell hard for ambitious productions like The Hills of California, with its three-story rotating house, and was delighted to find that a big, buzzy show like The Outsiders could completely win her over.

We also learned a lot about how we experience theater—not as experts with the “right” vocabulary, but as people who love stories. For me, that meant letting go of the idea that there was a correct way to talk about a play. What mattered wasn't having the perfect analysis. It was paying attention: noticing what lingered after the lights came up, what conversations followed on the ride home, and what made us eager to tell someone else, “You should see this.”

And that idea, that theater doesn't belong only to critics, artists, or lifelong theater nerds, is at the heart of what we've tried to share with you in this first season.

You can be moved by a performance, fascinated by a design choice, confused by a plot point, or delighted by a joke. Those reactions matter. Theater begins with artists, but it comes alive through audiences, and some of our favorite conversations this season happened when we approached shows with curiosity rather than expertise.

And so we end this first season with an invitation: go see something. Shakespeare on the Common (it's free!), Eureka Day, Black Swan, The Great Gatsby, Paranormal Activity, Oedipus El Rey, The Mystery of Irma Veep, Broad Strokes, Thru Hike, Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune... and so much more.

Take a date, take a friend, take yourself (I discovered the joy of seeing theater on my own this year!) and fall into a story.

Season Two arrives in September. Be sure you've subscribed to this newsletter AND on your podcast platform so that you know when we're back!