Category: theatre

“There are no steady outlets for an array of modern and historical black scripts. And while black theater certainly can cross over and resonate with nonblack patrons, local stage folk also yearn to attract a larger, more committed black audience for their artistry — even in a city where African Americans make up only 8.4 percent of the total population.”

Broadway has been using a unified marketing approach over the past decade. “Over a turbulent decade when the road business changed, uncertainty after 9/11 shrunk ticket sales, and musicians went on strike, attendance on Broadway increased by almost 27 percent and grosses nearly doubled, to $862 million from $436 million.” But is it really this “destination” ad approach that has made a difference?

“Toronto audiences have simply gotten out of the habit of going to the theatre, a trend far different from periods in the 1990s when audiences were enticed by a number of big, concurrent productions, which then lent extra vitality to mid-sized theatres and the grassroots fringe scene. Theatrical productions, particularly independent shows not included in package theatre subscriptions or unusual cases such as Rings, which needed to attract sell-out crowds to survive, are struggling to get arty, urban audiences to fill the seats.”

In only a year Theatre Aspen (Colorado) has doubled in size. And the growth will be even steeper. “That three-year plan to open a $10 million performing-arts institute for Theatre Aspen has now grown into more of a $50 million project that will include other local arts organizations.”

Dick Devin is leaving after 17 seasons as director of the Colorado Shakespeare Fesival. “Shakespeare may have written only 37 plays, but Devin will have seen 107 stagings and overseen 68 by season’s end. Way back in 1975, the CSF had become only the seventh theater company in the country to complete the entire canon, so repetition is inevitable.”

Retiring Colorado Shakespeare Company director Dick Devin “works in a world of ironies. The number of corporate sponsors has risen to 34 from just a handful a few years ago, but they give less and it costs more for the festival staff to bring in each one. Individual giving, however, is up. ‘We’ve increased the number of people who give almost threefold in the last few years. We value the 1,000 people more (who are giving) because that’s building for the future. Two years from now it’s really gonna pay off’.”

“From Nov. 13, 2002, to Nov. 12, 2003, Suzan-Lori Parks wrote a short play each day. Now comes ‘365 days/365 plays,’ conceived and produced by Parks and Bonnie Metzgar. Billed as the largest theatrical collaboration in U.S. history, hundreds of theater companies around the nation will team to make sure that each play is staged on its fourth birthday — or at least during its birthday week — starting Nov. 13, 2006.”

“As it has for professionals in all fields, the Internet has become an invaluable resource for performers to land jobs and make connections seemingly overnight. The proliferation and popularity of inexpensive Web-only series and “mobisodes” (content created for mobile devices) has been a boon to nonunion actors. The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have also recognized the importance of online media, making negotiations for residuals from content rebroadcast on the Web and mobile phones a priority.”

It’s official: Lord of the Rings is dead in Toronto, where the multi-million dollar show was launched less than a year ago. The show’s director lays the blame for the untimely demise squarely at the feet of the Toronto press, which did not exactly embrace the show. “Calling London the ‘spiritual home’ of The Lord of the Rings, Mr. Wallace argued that the production, which will open in the West End next June, has a distinctively British sensibility that North American critics did not appreciate.”

Emotional ranting aside, it’s unlikely that snarky critics were actually responsible for Lord of the Rings falure to connect with Toronto theatre audiences. “Despite some innovative stagecraft, The Lord of the Rings, in the version critics saw at least, was a hollow, lifeless affair with no real emotional pull to the storytelling, the music or the acting. The story itself proved confusing to anybody not familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy of books. Not even the lengthy synopsis in the program was of much help.”