Category: theatre

The stealthy stink bomber struck during tryouts for the “Magic Mike” musical at Pearl Studios at 500 Eighth Ave. on Feb. 26, and again on March 6 at the Ripley-Grier space down the block. “There was a lot of disbelief,” said actress Eunice Bae of the first incident, when she saw a show rep slip on something on the floor. – New York Post

Tracy Letts, who was one of the performers in playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s Nassim, didn’t get a rehearsal ahead of time (no actor does), and he was a bit worried he might cry while acting – because, he says, “in the time we’re living in right now, most people I know walk around trying not to cry most of the time. And the show touches on a lot of things — storytelling, language, transcending borders, connection — and connection with anybody is moving.” – The New York Times

Dang, Chicago. Here’s the story’s start, when actors get to the theatre, but the set doesn’t: “The cast arrived at the theater and got into costume. No wrestling ring. It’s 5 p.m. and getting dark. Still no ring. Calabrese and Mayberry started looking for a plan B, and fast. ‘We gotta do something,’ Calabrese said. A U-Haul truck was a rented, a ring was found in Villa Park — delivery not included — about an hour away in evening traffic. In the rain.” (Now wait for the part where the set doesn’t fit into the elevator.) – Chicago Tribune

Well, for one thing, it could encourage actors (stage managers, lighting crew members, etc.) to job-share. Also, with professionals, idea: “We need to make sure we are not rehearsing into the evenings and we don’t need to rehearse every night.” – The Stage (UK)

The show, called The Pinks and the Blues, “developed by the activist troupe Merak, triggered intense scrutiny from local authorities who saw it as a dangerous and subversive activity promoting ‘hatred against men and non-traditional family relations.'” The teens in the theatre troupe were also questioned by police. – Global Voices

“For the past 15 years, [Jason Eagan] has been the remarkably well-connected, stealthily low-profile, principal creative force shaping the innovative Off-Broadway incubator Ars Nova. … He’s the guy who plucked an obscure Billy Eichner out of one Manhattan basement and an unknown Lin-Manuel Miranda out of another; who discovered the alt-cabaret comedian Bridget Everett at midnight at a karaoke bar; who looked upon the glorious excess of Dave Malloy’s nascent War and Peace musical, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, and said, in effect: ‘More.’ ‘Keep going.’ And ‘Yes.'” – The New York Times

“Jewish theatre artists have been central but often unidentified.” (Harold Pinter, Janet Suzman, Antony Sher, David Lan, Tracy Ann Oberman, Nicholas Hytner, …) “Is this an immigrant people’s anxiety around unwelcome attention? ‘We’re a self-effacing community,’ says playwright Samantha Ellis, ‘we’re afraid to put our heads above the parapet.'” – The Guardian

“Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, [Canadian researchers] report how 15 method actors, mainly theatre students, were trained to take on a Shakespeare role – either Romeo or Juliet – in a theatre workshop, and were asked various questions, to which they responded in character. They were then invited into the laboratory, where their brains were scanned in a series of experiments.” – The Guardian