The musical revue, known for its campy local humor and stupendously extravagant hats, will have its last performance on New Year’s Eve — and the reason is not financial. – San Francisco Chronicle
Category: theatre
The Oresteia In Mosul (Who Says Ancient Greek Tragedy Isn’t Relevant?)
The daring stage director Milo Rau and his Belgian theater comany have adapted the Aeschylus trilogy to the Iraqi city that was occupied and devastated by, then liberated from, ISIS. Said one cast member, “We do not need to act a tragedy. This play is just talking about the reality of Mosul.” – The New York Times
When Theatre Turns Audiences Into Activists
Tita Anntares writes about two recent productions — one depicting a U.S. immigrant’s deportation hearings, another the monologue of the ghost of a young Black Panther shot by Chicago police in 1969 — that actually moved their audiences to into taking actions on those issues. (Having activists on-site as the show ended helped.) – HowlRound
UK Theatre Industry Says It Has A Gender Wage Gap Because There Are So Few Women Doing Tech
“Participating employers” — those with more than 250 employees, among them Ambassador Theatre Group and Delmont Mackintosh as well as the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and the RSC — “identified technical departments as the biggest driver of pay inequality between men and women in the sector, with many pledging to explore flexible working initiatives and offer better support to parents as a way of balancing the workforce.” – The Stage
The Fyre Festival Of Broadway Shows: How The Steve Jobs-Bill Gates Musical Became An Epic Disaster
“The planned 2016 production Nerds has become one of the biggest debacles in New York theater history, spawning a $6 million lawsuit and leaving at least one castmember feeling ‘stranded’ by the experience.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s ‘Fairview’ Wins Pulitzer Prize For Drama
And Vox‘s Constance Grady says the play “made me the most uncomfortable I have ever been inside a theater. In a good way.” – Vox
Researcher Claims To Have Discovered Shakespeare’s Home In London
“The place where Shakespeare lived in London gives us a more profound understanding of the inspirations for his work and life. Within a few years of migrating to London from Stratford, he was living in one of the wealthiest parishes in the city, alongside powerful public figures, wealthy international merchants, society doctors and expert musicians.” – The Stage
Is Brexit Truly Shakespearean, Or Do We All Just Not Understand Shakespeare?
The problem is that “the plays can very easily function as a kind of confirmation bias, where we find exactly what we are looking for. The allure of such topical readings is ultimately narcissistic: Shakespeare is our contemporary, our own world is the most interesting of all, and the plays mirror our own times and our own views. This is an interpretive trap.” – The Guardian (UK)
A Playwright Who’s Been Dead For 80 Years Is At The Heart Of Contemporary German Theatre
Really, why is Odon von Horvath so incredibly popular in Germany right now? Oh: “European directors have rushed to rediscover Horvath, who chronicled the struggles of ordinary people during a time of political menace and social uncertainty.” – The New York Times
Ignore The National Theatre’s Male-Playwright-Only Season
The reality is, the National Theatre is a leader in supporting women in theatre, at least according to one of its lighting designers. “If we want to give voices to women, then we need safe spaces to do so. This is about the direction of travel for our whole cultural sector and, while we can, and should, do better – the NT is a world leader.” – The Stage (UK)