About
Isaac Butler is the co-author (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, named by NPR as one of the best books of 2018. His writing has appeared in New York, The Guardian, American Theatre, and other publications.
His new book, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act — a biography of the acting system that originated in Russia and eventually transformed acting in the United States — was published to critical acclaim. Alexandra Schwartz in The New Yorker praised it as an "entertaining, maximally informative" narrative.
Podcasts & Performance
He has written for Slate, where he created and hosted Lend Me Your Ears, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and currently co-hosts Working, a podcast about the creative process.
His work as a director has been seen on stages throughout the United States. He is the co-creator, with Darcy James Argue and Peter Nigrini, of Real Enemies, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche — named one of the best live events of 2015 by The New York Times and adapted into a feature-length film.
Teaching
Butler teaches theater history and performance at The New School and elsewhere, and lives in Brooklyn.