In 2015, when Angela Merkel announced that Germany would accept the refugees streaming in from the Mideast, she said “Wir schaffen das” (“We can do this”). “What is less well-known,” writes Julia Grime, “is that German theatre, arguably a more directly socio-political beast than most UK theatre, welcomed the million-plus refugees with open-armed, practical help, connecting them with local communities and playing a key role in easing their acceptance into German society.” — Arts Professional
Category: theatre
Broadway ‘Mockingbird’ Shoots Down British ‘Mockingbird’
“A British touring production of [the old Christopher Sergel adaptation of] To Kill a Mockingbird, which was to start next month, has been canceled after Scott Rudin’s company Atticus — the firm behind the Broadway hit [adapted by Aaron Sorkin] — threatened legal action … saying it held worldwide rights for professional stagings of the book.” — The New York Times
How To Create A “Viral” Play (What Is That?)
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour: “Marketing-wise at the time I didn’t have anyone helping me, so I put my email address in the show. I urged people to write to me. I asked a random audience member to keep the script after the show; it’s my way of spreading the word. It was a strategy and it worked.” – American Theatre
How Do You Make ‘Twelve Angry Men’ Relevant In 2019? Cast Six White And Six Black Jurors
Director Sheldon Epps: “There is language in this play that you may have heard in a CNN report the night before. … It’s always been about racial issues; we’re just heightening what [the playwright] wrote about. He was specifically writing about how the American justice system is different for white Americans than it is for Americans of color.” — The Washington Post
Those Who Disagree Are ‘Fearmongering’: Mark Rylance Flogs His Shakespeare-Wasn’t-Shakespeare Theory Again
In his foreword to an upcoming book by a Baconian, the award-winning actor and former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe writes, “I continue to be regularly and passionately attacked … for my doubt about the attribution of the works of Shakespeare to the uneducated man from Stratford-on-Avon. … Time will celebrate those who were not daunted by the fearmongering of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.” — The Observer (UK)
The Next Chapter For Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre
“I think our job as cultural leaders is to empower that conversation, to say ‘Let’s elevate artists’ leadership at this time when we need people to articulate a future that we can all get behind.’” – Toronto Star
What Does It Mean To Be A “National” Theatre?
Put the word “national” in your name and you become a receptacle for a country’s values. In what you do, the nation will seek to see the very definition of itself; a definition perhaps vaguely articulated, but intensely felt. Change your priorities, by being too regal or not regal enough, and you upset the nation’s sense of its own identity. – Irish Times
Lin-Manuel Miranda Chides Audience Member Without Breaking Rap
“LADY FILMING IN THE 4th ROW, PLEASE STOP IT, I gotta holler just to be heard…” he rapped, according to his tweet. The clever diss replaced the line, “The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish,” and then he picked right up with the next verse. – CBS News
The Power Of Theatre: “Hamilton” In Puerto Rico
In bringing “Hamilton” to Puerto Rico, Lin Manuel Miranda called international attention to the island’s progress and also to its daunting obstacles. The island, in return, projected both its hopes and its frustrations onto the show. – The New Yorker
Playwright Ishmael Reed’s Problems With “Hamilton”
It’s a global phenomenon, and people ask me, “Why take on a global phenomenon?” You know what else is a global phenomenon? Gone With the Wind. I think Hamilton is probably the biggest consumer fraud since The Blair Witch Project. – The Observer (UK)