Anya Martin

Salt Circles for Sarah and Rebecca

Growing up we were taught that witchcraft was very real and very very freaking scary. Witches and warlocks would sacrifice and torture live animals. They could control the demons always battling just above our heads in unseen spiritual warfare and tell them slip into our souls – if even we left a crack of curiosity…

November 10, 2022
Writers are Witches, Suzan-Lori Parks and Milk

As a writer I often feel like a spilled cup of milk – running in all directions over an uneven floor. I’ve got substance and history and nutrition to honor, and unseen sacrifices of birth and consumption, and I don’t want to waste any of it – but damn it – there’s laundry and kid…

October 22, 2022
Hamilton, Gucci Handbags, and no hope for new plays…?

This article is so right on. I have few answers. (Just lots of commentary which includes curse words and inner crying emojis – not pictured here.) And also more questions. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/12/1127065985/new-play-development-american-regional-theaters-next-stage From the title: Where will the next ‘Hamilton’ come from now that so many playwrights are in TV? Why is Hamilton always the standard?…

October 12, 2022
Hemingway, Me, and the Times again

I started reading Hemingway’s first novel In Our Time in January of 2021 at a cabin overlooking an ancient and remote part of the Allegheny River. (See featured photo of my kids, cabin and the river.) It was the thick of COVID, and I was in the thick of grieving. My Dad had traumatically died…

September 28, 2022
My grandma, Tom Stoppard, and the gray

So this is a big one, and I’m hesitant to even do a blog post on it. Sometimes in order to muster up the courage to even begin a complex conversation – I have to be able to give myself permission to just “scratch the surface.” So here’s my “made from scratch” blog post for…

September 19, 2022
“Write Plays?! I could do that!” 3 Common Thinking Traps – NPR article

This article from NPR was challenging and affirming. The first cognitive bias discussed here is “We overestimate our abilities.” In her class at Yale, Ahn uses an experiment to illustrate this phenomenon with her students. She shows them a dance clip from the song “Boy with Luv” by the K-pop group BTS. After watching six…

September 16, 2022
“Show Me the Money” in professional theatre

I just want to continue to uplift Jesse Green’s recent series in the New York Times. His latest piece “After a Long, Starring Run, Will Racism at Last Get the Hook?” continues to thoughtfully interrogate the many complexities of theatre making in this country. I have so many thoughts on all of it, which include…

September 7, 2022
James Buchanan High School

I graduated from James Buchanan High School in rural Mercersburg Pennsylvania, known to the locals as JB. The namesake of my school is from America’s 15th President, James Buchanan, known until recently as America’s “worst” president, as well as the only one from Pennsylvania. The “Do Nothing President,” as he was known, was America’s only…

August 31, 2022
National TCG Conference

I was proud to be a member of the host committee and contributor with the National TCG Conference held in Pittsburgh this year. Although my work is not highlighted in any way in this article – which is to say – as rosy as this article is – Pittsburgh theatre is all of the wonderful things…

July 8, 2022
My Play Featured in Broadway World

Check out the Broadway World feature for my play “In Our Time” presented for the TCG National Conference in partnership with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. https://www.broadwayworld.com/pittsburgh/article/New-Play-Inspired-By-ICU-Physicians-Interviews-and-Hemingway-IN-OUR-TIME-to-Be-Held-This-Month-20220610

July 8, 2022