“And that to me is pure theater: the sharing through the imagination of something down to earth and concrete and appealing for the imagination, so that there’s always that sense of “and then what?”—that sense of wonder, which one needs so badly, and one has so little of in everyday life.” – Artforum
Category: theatre
A New National Theatre Company For, And By, The Disabled
“A group of disabled theatre artists have announced the creation of National Disability Theatre, a company that will produce fully accessible live performances. The company will exclusively contract actors, designers, directors, and staff who have disabilities.” — American Theatre
Killing Your Darlings: How Playwrights Decide When To Cut Passages They Love
“As novelist William Faulkner said about writing, but is applicable to all creative endeavours: ‘You must kill all your darlings.’ That said, killing your darlings can be really painful because you love them so dearly.” Lyn Gardner talks to theatre folk who’ve had to do it about why and how. (One groused, “I wonder if auteur directors are asked to kill their darlings. Does anyone ever say to Ivo van Hove: ‘Could you just cut 10 minutes?'”) — The Stage
C’Mon People – Your Behavior In The Theatre Is Dreadful!
Every night there is bad and thoughtless behavior conducted by people who may have spent hundreds of dollars on theater tickets yet seemingly have no idea how to behave in an actual theater. Why should you check that your phone is off, because, gee, that would be way too much trouble. Puleeze, that recorded announcement doesn’t refer to you! An hour later, that ringing sound: Oh, sorry everyone, is that me? Yes, it’s you! Look, you’re in public at the theater! Who knew! – The Daily Beast
90 UK Theatres Announce Plan To Increase Diversity In Non-Stage Staff
“Rather than putting the onus on employers to address this issue alone, we decided to assist them by using the best knowledge we had available – our members’ experiences. We asked reps about the reality of theatre recruitment to establish how it really works.” – The Stage
Ben Jonson Wrote A Play So Scandalous That It Got All London’s Theatres Shut Down And Was Wiped From History
“In 1597, Jonson and Thomas Nashe co-wrote a satirical play called The Isle of Dogs. Not much is known about the plot or contents of the show; what is known is that almost immediately after it took the stage, the British authorities not only banned it from ever being performed again, but they also threw Jonson in jail and shut down the entire London theater scene. While the curtains eventually began to ascend again, the play at the center of the controversy lived on only in whispers.” — The Daily Beast
Wherein I Try To Plug In To The Great American Songbook
“I was now connected directly to the heart of the Great American Songbook. It was like knowing a guy who knew a guy who knew God. If the comparison seems blasphemous, let’s recall the central role of the songbook in this nation’s culture. We don’t call them standards for nothing: they exude the off-the-cuff elegance and colloquial zing that are supposed to be our hallmark. Also, they’re beautiful, and economical enough to break your heart with a single phrase.” – The New Yorker
‘We Are A Country That Has Lost Our Narrative’: What Lynn Nottage Learned In Reading, Pa. When She Was Researching ‘Sweat’
“One of the first questions we asked was, how do you describe your city? People would respond by saying: ‘Reading was … ‘ They were incredibly nostalgic for this glorious imagined past. It nearly broke my heart. I thought this is a city that cannot conceive of itself in the present or future tense. It is a microcosm of what is happening in America today. We are a country that has lost our narrative. We can’t project our future because we don’t know where we are going.” — The Guardian
How Mike Birbiglia Lived Out His Recurring Nightmare On A Broadway Stage
“My recurring nightmare was me, onstage, in this 1,100-seat theater, with no people in it. I’ve had it ever since we even talked about doing the show [The New One] on Broadway. Strangely enough, that became a reality in rehearsal, because it’s just the designers and the crew in the audience. There’s eight people in a room that seats 1,100, and so I do the show from start to finish with no laughter. It’s really empowering to live your nightmare.” — New York Times Magazine
Prepping For A Big Change At Berkeley Rep
As longtime artistic director Tony Taccone leaves and new AD Johanna Pfaelzer comes in, Berkeley Rep’s managing director, Susan Medak, explains how that transition is working. “Part of the culture is undeniably a result of Tony having been here for twenty-two years. … I’ve also been saying, ‘As long as Tony’s here, this is the way it will be. But let’s all remember that when Tony leaves, this may be very, very different.’ That’s been a hard thing for some people to absorb but very easy for others to absorb.”