Category: theatre

Knowing that you may never get a response is disheartening. Yet many embrace the uncertainty and even lean into it. For those playwrights, rejections become the most common form of communication with theatres.

Across the entertainment industry, hard battles are being fought for visibility and representation.

The Goodman Theater’s five-and-a-half-hour stage adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s mammoth, seemingly unstageable novel 2666 drew a stream of ardent fans of the Chilean novelist to Chicago in 2016. The scope and technical complexity of the production – which involved five distinct sets, 15 actors playing 80 characters, and an elaborate movie-within-the-play – made subsequent productions difficult. But now those who were unable to make the trip can binge-watch the entire thing online [for free], from a couch anywhere in the world.”

In the season that concluded last night, 33 new shows opened in Broadway houses. But while Broadway is usually spoken of in commercial terms, it’s worth noting that 10 of those shows were produced by the subsidised companies resident at Broadway venues. That’s 30% of this year’s total output.

“Flight, from Glasgow-based theater company Vox Motus, is not exactly theater in the traditional sense. In fact, there are no live performers. The entire story is told via 230 miniature dioramas on a rotating carousel. Audience members sit in private booths along the perimeter of the carousel, listening to a soundtrack through headphones as the tiny scenes pass by and light up, one after the other.” (audio)

A report prepared by the women’s rights organization the Fawcett Society states that “the discrimination, harassment and structural barriers that women face are too prevalent to be overcome without a direct intervention of this kind.”

“Often seen as one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’, the plot centres on Angelo, a puritan hardliner on a mission to clean up the city he is put in charge of, and the sister of a man he sentences to death, Isabella. After pleading for her brother, Angelo offers to save him in return for sex. … The role swap will probably take place about halfway through, with some scenes being replayed, including the key moment when Angelo makes the offer to Isabella.”

Elif Batuman meets some of the actors who play fake family members, the clients who hire them, and the agency entrepreneurs who bring client and erstwhile family together.

“In a news release, the [Little Rock] nonprofit cited ‘inability to reach its projected goals for charitable giving and ticket sales.’ … The Rep described its future as ‘under evaluation.'”