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 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, a club kid, a fashionista, a film nerd, a teenage Nietzschean, and finally a playwright. It is a memoir about feeling like the world is against you, yet simultaneously yearning to fit in. Adjmi’s memoir also traces his evolving relationship …
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 …
Literary Studies September 10, 2020

Gothic Queer Culture

Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma

Laura Westengard

Hosted by Andy Boyd
In Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma (University of Nebraska Press), Laura Westengard examines the intersection of queerness and the gothic. Westengard’s scope is broad …