New Books Network

About Andy Boyd

Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts.

NBN Episodes hosted by Andy:

Performing Arts February 25, 2021

Maybe the People Would Be the Times

Luc Sante

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Maybe the People Would Be the Times (Verse Chorus Press, 2020) could be described as a memoir in essay form. Collecting pieces from the past two decades, this book covers Luc Sante's …
Performing Arts February 15, 2021

Another Day's Begun

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century

Howard Sherman

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Howard Sherman's Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2021) provides a fascinating tour of contemporary productions of Wilder's great play.  Why does this play from …
Performing Arts February 5, 2021

Afro-Fabulations

The Queer Drama of Black Life

Tavia Nyong'o

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Tavia Nyong’o's Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (NYU Press, 2018), examines a broad range of artists and disciplines, from Adrian Piper to Kara Walker to the meaning of …
Performing Arts February 5, 2021

Fictional Blues

Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White

Kimberly Mack

Hosted by Andy Boyd
The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity, and the violent stereotypes evoked …
Performing Arts January 29, 2021

¡Presente!

The Politics of Presence

Diana Taylor

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Diana Taylor's ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence (Duke University Press, 2020) examines what it means to be presente in the context of protest, theatre, and everyday life. Taylor pays particular …
Performing Arts January 20, 2021

This Is Not My Memoir

André Gregory and Todd London

Hosted by Andy Boyd
André Gregory's not-memoir This Is Not My Memoir (FSG, 2020) is a fascinating trip through theatre history as seen through the eyes of one of its greatest directors. The André we …
Performing Arts January 12, 2021

Sailor Song

The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas

Gerry Smyth

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas (University of Washington Press, 2020) by performer and scholar Gerry Smyth includes lyrics and commentary for dozens of sea shanties, as well …
Performing Arts December 30, 2020

Social Poetics

Mark Nowak

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Mark Nowak's Social Poetics (Coffee House Press, 2020) is a history of the poetry workshop "from below and to the left." Inspired by previous workers' poetry workshops led by writers like …
Performing Arts December 28, 2020

My Autobiography of Carson Mccullers

A Memoir

Jenn Shapland

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Tin House Books, 2020) is a fascinating cross-genre book that combines elements of traditional biography with Shapland's own personal narrative of researching McCullers …
Performing Arts December 22, 2020

Magic Time, a Memoir

Notes on Theatre & Other Entertainment

Edwin Wilson

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Edwin Wilson's book Magic Time, a Memoir: Notes on Theatre & Other Entertainment (Smith & Kraus, 2020) is a spirited memoir of a long and fruitful career in the American theatre …
Performing Arts December 15, 2020

A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre

Noh and Kyōgen from 1300 to 1600

Noel John Pinnington

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Noel Pinnington's A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre: Noh and Kyōgen from 1300 to 1600 (Palgrave, 2019) traces the history of noh and kyōgen, the first major Japanese theatrical arts. Going …
Performing Arts December 11, 2020

Bob Dylan

How the Songs Work

Timothy Hampton

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Timothy Hampton's Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work (Zone Books, 2020) is a fascinating and meticulous study of Bob Dylan's songwriting craft. Hampton discusses how Dylan incorporated and then transcended …
Performing Arts December 2, 2020

Perpetual Motion

Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common

Harmony Bench

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Harmony Bench's Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common (Minnesota UP, 2020) traces the changing ways dance is distributed and created on the internet from the heady early internet …
Performing Arts November 30, 2020

Lot Six

A Memoir

David Adjmi

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lot Six (Harper 2020) is a moving and hilarious memoir from playwright David Adjmi. The book traces Adjmi’s search for his identity, during which he becomes an observant yeshiva student …
Performing Arts November 16, 2020

One Dyke’s Theater

Selected Plays 1975-2014

Terry Baum

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Terry Baum’s book One Dyke’s Theater: Selected Plays 1975-2014 (Exit Press, 2019) collects plays and solo scripts from throughout the career of a “slightly world-renowned lesbian playwright.” The plays range …
Literary Studies November 6, 2020

There Must Be Happy Endings

On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty

Megan Sandberg-Zakian

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Megan Sandberg-Zakian’s There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism & Honesty (3rd Thing Press, 2020) makes a powerful case for “militant optimism” in an age of chaos …
Performing Arts October 28, 2020

The Great White Way

Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd Edition

Warren Hoffman

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Warren Hoffman’s The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020) explores the ways that race and racism have shaped the American musical from Show …
Literature October 23, 2020

Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues

Three Plays

Lisa B. Thompson

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lisa B. Thompson is equally renowned as a scholar of African and African-American studies and as a playwright. Her latest book Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues: Three Plays (Northwestern University …
Literary Studies October 21, 2020

Against Demagogues

What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy

Robert Bartlett

Hosted by Andy Boyd
With Against Demagogues: What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy (University of California Press, 2020) Robert Bartlett provides a stirring argument for …
Film October 14, 2020

Revisions

Essays by Apollo Musagète, Yvonne Rainer, and Others

Yvonne Rainer

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Yvonne Rainer is one of the most influential living choreographers. After studying with Merce Cunningham she co-founded the Judson Dance Theater, a center of post-modern dance whose influence far outlasted …
Art October 8, 2020

The Fury Archives

Female Citizenship, Human Rights, and the International Avant-Gardes

Jill Richards

Hosted by Andy Boyd
In The Fury Archives: Female Citizenship, Human Rights, and the International Avant-Gardes (Columbia UP 2020), Jill Richards radically rewrites our understanding of first-wave feminism by demonstrating its proximity to international …
Performing Arts October 2, 2020

After the Party

A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life

Joshua Chambers-Letson

Hosted by Andy Boyd
In After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life (NYU Press, 2018) Joshua Chambers-Letson invites you to a party featuring Eiko, Nina Simone, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Danh Vō …
Literature September 22, 2020

Barrio Dreams

Selected Plays

Silviana Wood

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Silviana Wood is a legend of Chicano theatre. Through her involvement with Teatro Libertad, Teatro Chicano, and El Teatro Nacional de Atzlán she has created plays where working class Chicanos …
Performing Arts September 15, 2020

The Fornes Frame

Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of Maria Irene Fornes

Anne García-Romero

Hosted by Andy Boyd
In The Fornes Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of Maria Irene Fornes (University of Arizona Press, 2016) playwright and theatre scholar Anne García-Romero traces the career and legacy …