Ten reasons to be grateful in another sputtering theatrical year

A year that begins with an insurrection isn’t off to an auspicious start. But it wasn’t until I sat outside in the Fountain Theatre’s parking lot for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “An Octoroon” in June that I truly felt like an audience member again. Fake Friends’ “This American Wife” Fake Friends makes digital theater the way Charles Ludlam might have made it if the force behind the Ridiculous Theatrical Company had survived the AIDS epidemic. Thanks to the discernment of co-founder and artistic director Stephen Sachs, Angelenos got to experience Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “An Octoroon” and Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Children,” two profoundly original works by dramatists forging new paths. Jessie Buckley as Juliet and Josh O’Connor as Romeo in the National Theatre production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” that aired on “Great Performances” on PBS.