“We have students presenting their own material, and you’ll see a poem about Phillis Wheatley by a 17-year-old student, and you’ll see a song from Abigail Adams’s perspective. Neither of them are characters in our story, but for some reason they spark for those students. And that’s my hope, that this is just an ignition for something much larger. As a mediocre history major and the brother of a sixth-grade teacher, nothing would make me happier.”
Category: theatre
The Challenges (And Rewards) Of Producing “Cyrano” In Prison
“We just sat in chairs and read the script,” said Mr. Scatamacchia, who is 63 and retired from the music-publishing industry. “‘What are you saying here?’ ‘What does this mean?’ I encouraged them to rewrite their dialogue in modern jargon. These guys are just talking to each other.” Both performances — one for the inmates and another for about 100 outsiders — were well received, despite the periodic interruption of a prison guard’s walkie-talkie. It wasn’t hard to imagine that some of the men were being applauded for the first time in their lives.
Can Boston Re-Establish Itself As The Big Pre-Broadway Tryout Town?
“Composer Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame, used to say he wouldn’t open a can of tomatoes without first bringing it to Boston. … It’s been a long time since the Hub had that kind of clout. But now a major new player, the UK-based Ambassador Theatre Group, and Emerson College are pouring millions of dollars into making the Emerson Colonial Theatre a venue for pre-Broadway tryouts.”
Toronto’s Largest Theatre Suspends Its Training Program Due To ‘Culture Change’
“As [the Soulpepper Theatre Company] reckons with “>sexual-misconduct allegations against one of its founders, the Soulpepper Academy is putting its training program on a one-year hold to conduct a review before admitting a new troupe of artists. Between a costly legal battle, a six-figure deficit and hiccups in government funding, the not-for-profit would seem to be besieged on several fronts.”
“Boys In The Band” Becomes First Broadway Show Of This Season To Recoup Its Investment
Boys in the Band, a revival of Mart Crowley’s 1968 play about a group of New York gay men celebrating – or not – a birthday party, was, as usual, close to SRO, with paid attendance of 6,058 at 98% of capacity, for a total gross of $929,338, 97% of the $957K potential.
Why Are We Condescending To Theatre Newbies? It’s Counterproductive
“The lesson here, if there is any: there is always the type of theatregoer that defines themselves by excluding others. You could write musicals, and they’ll still try to make you feel like you don’t belong. Don’t you dare let ‘em. You love theatre? You belong. Welcome.”
How A Gender-Parity Campaign Led To An Irish Theatre Revolution
There’s no big stick here. The policy shifts have been enthusiastically and widely embraced and have been led by theatre companies themselves, in response to the #WakingTheFeminists movement and its research. WTF was responding to a distinctly male programme for the 2016 Waking the Nation initiative at the Abbey, and it woke a sleeping beast of its own, protesting against the lack of representation of women in theatre, the outcome of which has been real.
Canadian Indigenous Leaders Criticize Another Robert Lepage Production
In an open letter first published by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir Saturday morning, a group of Indigenous actors, writers, activists and artists from across the province said they are fed up “of hearing other people tell our stories.” Lepage’s new production, Kanata, aims to tell “the story of Canada through the prism of relations between whites and Indigenous people.” It is being staged in Paris in December.
Avid Portland Patrons Tell Theatres: If You Don’t Pay Workers Minimum Wage We’re Not Buying Tickets
“Are you putting on a show with your friends, or are you hiring. If you have a company and have one or two people on staff, you cannot not pay other people. What we’re really saying is: Professional theater companies have to honor the law, or else we can’t honor them.”
The Best Augmented Reality I’ve Seen Is This Immersive Theatre Piece
The most fascinating shows are easy to miss. VR companies like Oculus are already trying to take immersive theater to living rooms, but the best experiences still remain low in tech and very site-specific, staged in real-world places, and kept mostly phone-free (I turn off my phone during shows). In a year where I’ve seen a lot of attempts at making augmented reality become a magical thing, this theater piece was probably the best augmented-reality experience of all.