Category: theatre

Why is political drama so absent from the theatrical stage in America’s political capital? “When it comes to putting politics on its stages, Washington is a pretty buttoned-up town… Not many people enjoy taking their work home with them. It’s been said that Washingtonians don’t like taking it to the theater either.”

Houston’s River Oaks Theatre, the city’s oldest functioning movie house, is in sore need of an overhaul if it is to survive. So how do you revive an old theater? That depends entirely on what you plan to do with it…

John Weidman, president of the Dramatists Guild of America has apologized to Chicago Sun-Times theatre critic Hedy Weiss over her negative reviews of a workshop. “It now turns out that what I was told was untrue. That Weiss believed that the managers of Stages 2006 would be neither surprised nor distressed if she reviewed the eight presentations in question is now clear. I asserted otherwise. For that I apologize.”

Arts groups in New York have begun to despair of ever being granted their promised role at a rebuilt Ground Zero, but one Manhattan theatre company isn’t waiting for the politicians to nix their contribution. “An experimental multimedia and theater company, 3-Legged Dog was located at Fiterman Hall, next to 7 World Trade Center, before the 9/11 attack destroyed its space.” This week, the company opened “the new 3LD Art and Technology Center, a 12,500-square-foot warren of theaters and offices,” just down the block from its old space.

“Following an online poll of more than 1,000 people, made up of cast, crew and theatregoers, The Stage can reveal that a huge majority – 90% of respondents – have had shows that they were either watching or performing in disturbed by a mobile phone going off. Alarmingly, around 10% claimed phones went off every time they visit the theatre.”

“New stage musicals in search of a … showcase-marketplace model have their own clearinghouse: the New York Musical Theatre Festival, a three-week bazaar of 34 new musicals that sprawls through midtown Manhattan next Sunday through Oct. 1. Though only in its third year, the festival has become so entrenched that top theater actors, designers and directors routinely waive fees for the chance to invest in the future of their field. Audiences have apparently been hungry for the chance to sample new work for a mere $20 per show: The festival boasted more than 95 percent capacity both previous years.”

“Why are ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Lear’ so great? And which is the greatest?” Sid Smith asks. “Though it’s ultimately a fatuous exercise — like choosing between the Pieta and the statue of David — my money’s on ‘Lear.’ ‘Hamlet’ is eloquent Sudoku. ‘Lear’ is primal scream.”

“Is it better for an audience to show its disapproval at the end of a show or are they entitled to make abusive remarks while it’s in progress? After a nasty experience at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre on Tuesday night during a performance of Three Sisters, I’ve decided that terminal boos are better than a drizzle of derision.”

“As theater’s foothold in American culture has steadily shrunk over the last 50 years or so, the chance that a play could have any significant influence on social or political discourse has also waned. To be influential a playwright’s voice has to be heard, and it’s become harder to hear the lonely cry of the outraged playwright as the media landscape has been monopolized by more profitable and more easily mass-marketed forms of entertainment.”

The end has finally come for Washington DC’s Souce Theatre. “The company has been in a long coma. Its last full season was five years ago, and a battle royal has been playing out for the past six months over the sale of its building on 14th Street NW. As the dust gradually settles on that process, the once-bustling Source is finally being laid to rest.”