“Richard Burbage was the go-to leading actor for the greatest playwrights of the 17th century. RSC artistic director Gregory Doran assesses the legacy of the first man to play Hamlet and Lear, four hundred years after his death.” – The Stage
Category: theatre
Air-Safety Kabuki (This Is Not A Metaphor)
“Japan’s largest airline, All Nippon Airways, has taken that literally, with actual kabuki performers in its newest in-flight safety video. … Kabuki actors stow their elegantly lacquered bamboo boxes in the overhead bins and under the seats (not in the aisles, thank you), fasten seat belts over their elaborate kimono and dutifully turn off electronic devices displaying scenes from classic ukiyo-e woodblock prints on their screens.” – Forbes
A Deaf Actor In The RSC’s Mainstage Shakespeare
Charlotte Arrowsmith, who’s played Cassandra in Troilus and Cressida, Curtis in The Taming of the Shrew, and Audrey in As You Like It, writes about integrating sign language into her performances, communicating with her colleagues, and what mainstream theatres need to do to accomodate deaf actors. – Arts Professional
Drunken Audience Member Convicted Of Assaulting Actor In All-Female ‘Othello’
Mike Fox, a 56-year-old comedy promoter in London, was fined a total of £500 and sentenced to 50 hours of community service for shoving one of the actors in a 36-seat-theatre production of the Shakespeare tragedy. The incident began with a shouting match between Fox and the director just after Othello killed Desdemona. – The Times (UK)
The Problem With Kids Theatre? It’s Not Nutritious
Noel Jordan: “I compare commercial work for children with the McDonald’s Happy Meal. They think they want it, they get it, there is a buzz that comes with a little toy, it is all colourful, and then literally one minute after that meal is consumed, there is an emptiness and it is not satisfying or full or wholesome.” – The Stage
A High School Theatre Club Puts On A Terrifyingly Great Adaptation Of ‘Alien’
And the internet is extremely pleased – the photos. The video. The too-real tension. “Also, apparently the entire play was crafted on the cheap out of recycled materials, which is awesome in its own right.” – AV Club
This Broadway Star Would Love To Make Theatre More Affordable
Playing Eliza Doolittle right now on Broadway, Laura Benanti (whom people might know as the actor who has played Melania Trump on The Late Show) says, “If I could wave a magic wand, ticket prices would be affordable so that people could bring their families, and it doesn’t become theatre for a rich audience. It can be more theatre for the masses.” – The Stage (UK)
It Wasn’t Easy Being An Actor In The 19th Century
Just ask Sarah Bernhardt, or her greatest rival. “Technological advantages like the steam locomotive and gas lighting made it possible for acting companies and star performers to reach larger and more varied audiences than they ever had before. At the same time, actors and the playwrights who wrote for them began to move from productions that prized flamboyant gestures and histrionic speeches toward those that championed a more naturalistic and intimate performance style.” – American Theatre
An Argument Against Colorblind Casting
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson got involved with theatre because of a “badass” theatre teacher who let her write her own monologues for acting class, because outside of A Raisin in the Sun there just wasn’t much available for her to perform. This same teacher brought her to see August Wilson debate Robert Brustein at Town Hall in Manhattan. She found herself gravitating to Wilson’s point of view that colorblind casting is lazy and can erase the experiences of different races of people. – American Theatre
Theatre Without Actors? It Can, And Does, Happen
Peter Brook posited that any empty space in which one actor walks as someone else watched could be a theatre. The next year, Samuel Beckett wrote a play with no actors. And onward the idea has gone, from Punchdrunk shows, to Enda Walsh’s Rooms and the Royal Court’s Dismantle This Room, in which 15 audience members do precisely that. – The Guardian