Category: theatre

Theatre is a vanishing art – that is, once produced on a stage it recedes into memory, and even a film of a performance can’t truly capture its essence. So how do you produce a TV history of the theatre? “Sir Richard Eyre, doyen of British theatre, has produced a history of 20th-century stagecraft. He says it won’t please everyone. – The Independent (UK)

The $8 million production of “Tantalus” at the Denver Center is the most ambitious production ever mounted by an American regional theatre. Tantalus, a co-production with London’s Royal Shakespeare Company, got mixed reviews nationally, and is only the latest in a line of glitzy high-profile cooperative projects by American regional theatres. Why are non-profit theatres taking on these productions? – Dallas Morning News

“Two South African scientists are about to embark on a series of forensic tests to prove a case that will blow smoke in the eyes of traditional Shakespearean scholarship. They believe that the man who bestrides the classical canon was not just a genius, but a very early pot head.” – The Independent (UK)

A year ago critics were wringing their hands about the absence of new straight plays on Broadway and the fear that musicals might have taken over completely. The fears were unfounded. This fall tells a very different story. – Variety

Hollywood to make a movie out of Steve Martin’s play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” “The play, which preemed at the Steppenwolf Studio Theater in Chicago in 1993 before moving to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, is a comedy about a night in 1904 when Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein meet by chance in a bar.” – Variety

The new musical now in development about the life of Minnesota governor/wrestler Jesse Ventura is full of special needs. As in – “We’ll need to find someone who can sing, act, dance – and wrestle.” – St. Paul Pioneer Press

The actor that LA police shot and killed at a Halloween party Sunday (he was carrying a toy gun) was a longtime much-loved Seattle actor. “For the many in Seattle who knew and admired this charismatic man who left his mark on our theater scene, Lee must be remembered not mainly as the victim of a freak shooting, but as a riveting actor and an extraordinary human being. He deserves that.” – Seattle Times

• The Royal Shakespeare Company was mired in controversy and sagging popularity as recently as two years ago. “But what a difference a couple of years can make. In 1996, [Adrian] Noble took the brave decision to cut London ties in half in favour of retrenchment and more regional touring, and new blood is continuing to revitalise the company.” – The Herald (Scotland)

Canadian theatre is suddenly hot in Washington DC. This fall, four plays and a handful of readings are storming the U.S. capital. “The unprecedented amount of activity is largely due to the Canada Project, a two-year-old Canadian embassy initiative that offers Washington artistic directors free theatre junkets to Canada. The thinking is that if American producers are exposed to Canadian plays, maybe they will catch the bug and pass it along to their fellow Americans.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

A musical about wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is headed for Broadway, its producers say. “It’s like Rocky meets Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, as a musical.” – Theatre.com