Category: theatre

The Bush Administration’s war on terror may not have uncovered any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction or succeeded in wiping out Al Qaeda, but it does seem to have galvanized the British theater scene. From companies which already skewed political to national theaters which are more familiar with King Lear than Kushner, American foreign policy is now the topic of choice. “Theatre has put the war on terror on stage not only because it can but because it must. It is the closest we have to a moral medium.”

What’s behind Sharon Ott’s sudden resignation as head of Seattle Repertory Theatre? “Was Ott too steeped in the “new and controversial” for Seattle? Or did audiences simply not warm to her particular programming choices, in an increasingly competitive arts environment? One thing is clear. Since taking the helm at the Rep from her respected 17-year predecessor, Daniel Sullivan, Ott has shaken up Seattle’s flagship playhouse and steered it in a new direction. Now the question arises: Will the Rep stay the course Ott charted? Or is a different course needed in these uncertain waters?”

Ticket sales at Toronto theatres are soft, and producers are worried that the summer tourist season will be a disappointment. “Although theatres everywhere are reporting a dramatic shift in the buying habits of consumers — instead of booking seats two or three months in advance, they now order weeks or even days ahead of time — the Toronto situation is exacerbated by several other factors. Local officials are loath to concede the point, but the reality is that the city is still suffering the aftershocks of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which drove a sharp spike into tourism revenues.”

Broadway saw a little bounce at the box office in the week after the Tony awards. “Paid-attendance numbers came to 239,489, which was one of Broadway’s better mid-June perfs — down only 5,000 from 2000.”

The Adirondack Theatre in upstate New York began as a summer operation renting space in an old Woolworth’s store (the owners of the store were trying to lease it as a mini-mall). The theatre kept coming back to town for the next several summers until the town realized a theatre was just what it needed.

New Haven Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre got a stunning surprise from the state, in the form of major capital funding for a new home. The “$30 million to Long Wharf on the day of its 40th anniversary gala stunned even the most seasoned arts leader. It’s not just that the figure is the largest singular grant to a capital arts project in state history (as best that anyone can determine anyway). It’s that the state subsidy is expected to make up about two-thirds of the capital project. Estimates for the new theater has it costing anywhere from $35 million to $45 million, depending on the year the question was asked. The final price is yet to be determined.”

“Theatre is a social contract between actors and audience, the interval an essential point of meltdown in the stalls, a respite from the artistic effort where those addressed shuffle about among themselves and consider the effect. This process, unconsciously undertaken, surely completes the essential circle of the theatre experience. We get to know each other.”

Workshop Hell is “an all-too-crowded netherworld where shows are not quite produced but also not quite forgotten. Pretty much any playwright or composer trying to make a living in the American theater knows about the labyrinthine system of table readings, staged readings and fully rehearsed workshops by which scripts can bounce from theater to theater, spending years being rewritten and pruned and focus-grouped and test-marketed and audience-critiqued — all without ever getting performed as they were meant to be.”

Seattle Repertory Theatre director Sharon Ott surprised the Seattle theatre world this week by resigning. “She said it’s been difficult running a theater in the current economy and that the past theater season has been entirely draining, both emotionally and physically.”

Puppetry is getting a lot of fresh attention. “For decades puppetry was learned by way of most traditional crafts through master and apprenticeship. Now, there are a handful of university programs offering degrees in puppet arts. Meanwhile, the industry has continued to garner more attention from high-profile productions.”