Category: theatre

“For 10 years, London’s Globe, an obsessive facsimile overseen by Mark Rylance, has specialised in conjuring a theatrical time-warp. Its latest experimental project in the education of London’s theatre audience is a staging in OP (original pronunciation) of Troilus, starring David Sturzaker and Rylance’s daughter, Juliet, in the title roles. Some will complain that this is a pointless exercise in the pursuit of a will-o’-the-wisp – authenticity – that adds little to our understanding of Shakespeare. In practice, however, there’s no loss of clarity in the switch from RP (received pronunciation) to OP, though it is momentarily disorienting.”

“Now in its 33rd year, Montana’s Bozeman Shakespeare in the Parks theater company was created to bring free productions of such classics to rural, underserved communities that dot the northern Rockies. Since its creation in 1973, the company has traversed more than 250,000 miles of dirt and paved roads and performed before a cumulative audience of more than half a million people.”

Chicago is home to the granddaddy of sketch comedy troupes – Second City. But Improv Olympics, ecelbrating its 225th anniversary, would like some credit too. “So is I.O. a cliquish training camp with too many mediocre shows or a unique, bonafide, overlooked Chicago cultural institution? Maybe all of the above.”

It’s become the hot place where creative teams go to put their plays together. “Every July, seven or eight playwrights, similar numbers of directors and dramaturges, and a few dozen actors, converge on Robert Redford’s rustic, wood-built compound on the lower slopes of 11,750-foot Mt. Timpanogos.”

How do you advertize a Broadway show? “Theater has lagged behind other industries in tapping ways to attract audiences. The reason it is slow is because there’s a ceiling on how much money we can make. The rule of thumb for what a Broadway show should spend each week on advertising is about 10 percent of a production’s weekly potential gross. For “Wicked,” which has a gross potential of more than $1.15 million each week, that would translate into more than $100,000.”

The Theatre Communications Group is coordinating a free night at the theatre in three cities on October 20. One of theatres’ “biggest concerns was how to reach people we can’t now reach. Subscription patterns are at a perilous moment, in part because we don’t live that way anymore. We thought, ‘What can we do collectively to bring in new audiences?’ That’s when someone said, ‘How about a free night of theatre?’ “

Has comedy dumbed-down the Edinburgh Fringe, ruining what used to be a great theatre festival? Stewart Lee (writer of Jerry Springer, The Opera)says not: “Comedy can respond to events with a speed that theatre cannot match. And even apolitical absurdity is an appropriate response to mass panic. We laugh in the face of death.”

The Edinburgh Fringe is full of burlesque shows this year. “One of the problems in Edinburgh is that, with so many burlesque shows, there are simply not enough good artists to go round. Too many performers seem to think that if they have had years of practice taking their clothes off every night before bed, they won’t find it so hard to take them off in front of lots of people and get paid for it. You only have to spend a couple of grisly hours down at the Cave of the Golden Calf at the Royal Scots Club to see that burlesque is an art form in which the talentless feel they can really make their mark.”

“The Fringe broke its own attendance record, selling 44,630 tickets, up slightly from last year’s paid attendance of 44,189. The festival sold 15,465 attendance buttons this year, a fair estimation of the number of people who attended the festival and saw several shows.”

“Theatre in the West Midlands creates £264 million for the local economy every year, more than a tenfold increase on its initial public investment, according to a survey by Arts Council England.”