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How London’s National Theatre Is Surfing A Wave Of Viewers For Its Broadcasts

Basically, the National Theatre has better camerawork than most theatres trying to do broadcasts – and that creates intimacy, the kind of intimacy you might otherwise find only at a life performance. “Partly it’s that the productions are terrific, and wildly varied in style. And partly it’s that the intimate camerawork makes you feel like a collaborator in distinctly theatrical effects. When a callous aunt took the bundle of rags that stood for baby Jane Eyre and violently shook it out, revealing the dress that the actor playing Jane donned to assume her role, I gasped.” – The Atlantic

Cheryl A. Wall, Expert On Zora Neale Hurston And Champion Of Literary Black Women, Has Died At 71

Wall, longtime professor at Rutgers, changed the world of literature. She “championed racial diversity both in the curriculum and the classroom. She encouraged more black students to major in English and pursue postgraduate degrees. And she widened the scope of literary scholarship to include black novelists, poets and nonfiction authors as well as essayists, whom she considered central to the black literary tradition.” – The New York Times

The Stars Of Center Stage Remember What It Was Like Making The Dance Movie

Julie Kent, who played Kathleen: “I do remember talking to Nicholas [Hytner, the film’s director] at the audition about why he wanted to do this movie. . … He said he loved the art form, and the film company had done all this research, and they really felt that this movie was going to speak to an audience of teenage girls and their moms—this was going to be very impactful for a whole generation. Clearly, that was true!” – Dance Spirit

A Traveling Theatre Troupe In Japan, Ground To A Halt By Nothing Ever

Though the troupe has cut back on performances, it’s still going (Japan has encouraged people to stay home, but hasn’t shut down places like theatres – at the time of writing this post): “Gekidan Miyama has been entertaining audiences for over a century, persisting, as Nakamura says, through earthquakes and typhoons, but also managing to come back after a world war.” Can it, will it, survive Covid-19? – Japan Times

A New Apple Family Play, Live, Via Zoom

Richard Nelson introduced the Apples in 2010, and then wrote a whole cycle around them in the early 2000s. He moved on to other families for a while. But “for many who met them at the Public or on tour or on public television, the Apples have come to feel like kin. And in the midst of a pandemic, we could be forgiven for wondering how they were doing. Thoughtfully, Nelson and the Public Theater have arranged a video conference.” – The New York Times