Lighting designer Paule Constable sums it all up: “Theatre isn’t entertainment alone – it needs to challenge, to bring together, to reflect. There are so many complex issues to grapple with at the moment: diversity, sustainability, Brexit, pressure on resources, gender, representation. We need art to help us to think – to work out a way forward.” – The Stage (UK)
Category: theatre
Actor-Director Hunter Foster, New Artistic Director Of Redhouse In Syracuse
The 49-year-old is a Broadway veteran, with leads in Urinetown and Little Shop of Horrors under his belt, but he didn’t start directing in earnest until five years ago, at Bucks County Playhouse, where he stayed on as artistic associate until this job came up. — The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
For The First Time In A Seven-Decade Career, Rosemary Harris Is A Replacement Actor
The 91-year-old theatre legend talks about stepping in for Diana Rigg as Mrs. Higgins in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. (No, she wasn’t at all insulted, and she found the prospect daunting.) — TheaterMania
“To Kill A Mockingbird” Sets New Broadway Box Office Record
The new Broadway adaptation from Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin made Broadway history for the week ending December 23, taking in $1,586,946 at the box office, shattering the house record at the Shubert Theatre for the highest weekly gross of any Broadway play (non musical) in the Shubert Organization’s 118-year history. – Playbill
Theatre And Critics Are Not On Opposite Sides
The artist–critic war of attrition is boring. It’s a cliché — and if there’s a common enemy that all artists and all critics should share, then cliché is that enemy. When people give me that look upon discovering that I’m a critic and I’m a director — that look that says they’re suddenly not sure where to put me, that I must be a traitor to one camp, and which one is it? — I generally laugh it off, as if to say, Yeah, crazy world isn’t it? But what I really want to tell them is that at heart, criticism and directing are the same. – New York Magazine
When Lin-Manuel Miranda Brought ‘Hamilton’ To Puerto Rico (And Things Got A Bit Complicated)
As rare as it is for touring Broadway shows to visit the island, there was little doubt that Miranda would take his hit to the place where his parents were born and raised and where he visited grandparents every summer. Yet, as Michael Paulson reports, things haven’t gone entirely as expected. — The New York Times
‘Building A More Inclusive American Theater’: The New Director Of The Long Wharf In New Haven
Jacob Padrón: “When I’m thinking about what plays to put on stages I ask: one, does the story reflect the community I am in and, two, is the story in conversation with the world? Those are the two big questions that will guide a lot of my thinking at Long Wharf.” — Connecticut Magazine
In The Broadway Production Of ‘Network’, The Stage Manager Is Part Of The Show
In Ivo van Hove’s multimedia theatrical adaptation, the broadcast control room is a glass booth built into the set, and stage manager Timothy Semon calls the entire show from inside of it, in view of the audience. — The New York Times
NYer Critic Michael Schulman Reflects On This Year’s Best Theatre
“I’ve noticed a common thread. It’s the theme of terra firma not being so firma—of finding cracks in a foundation you thought was rock solid, whether the U.S. Constitution, a time-tested love story, or memory itself. Perhaps I’m projecting: this year (like the year before) was one in which the world felt like an unsafe bet, and America like a bait and switch. Or maybe playwrights and directors are responding to our disorienting era by echoing the uncertainty onstage—and by pulling the rug from under our feet.” – The New Yorker
When Childhood ‘Kitchen Yiddish’ Comes In Really Handy
That time is when you get to play Yente in the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof. “People are so taken by the communication of the story and hearing it in this language.” – NPR