Category: theatre

“The proposition that not all Shakespeare is Shakespeare-great was put forward by Frank Kermode in his recent book on the bard’s language. Kermode came out and said what most audiences secretly think – a lot of Shakespeare is impossible to understand.”

“The Young Vic was once a crumbling wreck facing closure. Now, after a two-year rebuild, it has been reborn – bigger and better.”

Questions concerning Michael Ritchie’s “artistic vision for the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas — three unique spaces demanding customized leadership — are mounting. Having begun with a promise to make the Ahmanson more a showcase for world premieres, he’s backed off in the new season with a lineup mostly of touring Broadway shows. As for his two other spaces, the message has been murky.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber is defending against charges that the results of the recent reality show to cast a Maria for a new West End Sound of Music were fixed. “We had no idea who was going to win it. I don’t see how you could fix it. I didn’t know until three minutes before the end of the show.”

“The Denver Center Theatre Company opens its 28th season Thursday continuing a strong rebound that began with the hiring of second-year artistic director Kent Thompson. As of Thursday, advance sales were $140,000 ahead of the same date last season.”

Chicago is unquestionably a great theatre town. But is America’s Second City suffering from an undersupply of good downtown venues? “With Friday’s announcement that the Broadway hit Jersey Boys is arriving in Chicago a year from now — with no particular need or inclination to leave — this is hardly the stuff of fantasy. It’s more the stuff of an impending logjam.”

Shakespeare productions in recent decades have tended to draw attention to their staging, their avant-garde settings, even their unconventional costuming. But a new book attempts to delve deeper into what has always made Shakespeare great: his use of language. The author’s aim is to “bring to the reader a lot of what I find to be incredibly exciting controversies over how to speak Shakespeare, how to play Shakespeare, how to listen to Shakespeare, how to watch Shakespeare. Controversies that have scholars at each other’s throats, that have directors and actors pounding the table.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company is launching a major campaign to change the way Shakespeare is taught in schools and tackle the impression amongst young people that the playwright is boring.

One of the original “indie” companies in the now-bustling Twin Cities theatre scene will take its last bows next month. “Fifty Foot Penguin was never afraid to poke a finger in the eye of convention… But, lacking a season subscription base or a cadre of supportive donors, a small theater has to prove itself and its mission with every show.”

“Ever since Bertolt Brecht denounced stage gimmickry in the 1920s, many new theaters have been designed to downplay the make-believe. Stages became open platforms, leaving actors without the refuge of the wings or a curtain. Theater hardware was exposed, so that patrons saw exactly how all the tricks were done. By contrast, the PTC stage includes 20-foot wings. By cocooning its main theater in voluptuous colors and fabrics, the PTC is signaling that it wants patrons to sink into their plush seats and suspend disbelief for the length of the performance.”