Category: theatre

The Chicago company is selling a building it own just south of its main campus, where it already has three theaters of various sizes.

“Our industry cannot afford to keep sending the message to its actors that they must suffer in silence, and the change begins in theatre education. How can we train young actors to be advocates for their emotional, physical, and mental well-being? How can we empower students to recognize and respond to their intuition rather than ignoring it? What does it look like to teach self-protection and preservation as part of youth theatre curriculum?”

Are you surprised that these teenage drama nerds are now taking the international stage by storm? I’m not. A theatre class is more than an artistic distraction for students. It can serve as a lightning rod of empowerment for young people. For many teens, the experience of standing in a spotlight on a stage in a play or musical, galvanizing the attention of adults in the audience, is the first time a young person discovers that what they say matters. They learn that words have power, that their voice can move and inspire others.

Critic and scholar Hailey Bachrach on having, for instance, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing played by a woman: “We must think about these things beyond just the blanket assumption that any opportunity for women is narratively good – especially in a play whose embedded gender politics make ‘gender blindness’ more or less impossible.”

It has been reported in IQ Magazine that difficulties selling in the US market has caused the move, but Amazon has not confirmed its reason for ending the service.

For the director who made London’s Donmar Warehouse into a theatrical powerhouse, “the challenge has not only been to accept the magnitude of expectation fans of the movie would bring into the theater … but also to bring to the fore an emotionality better suited to characters in three dimensions.” And the challenge was all the bigger because Grandage had never before directed an original musical or (as with this show) done an out-of-town tryout.

“Billy Bigelow hits Julie Jordan. Henry Higgins molds Eliza Doolittle. Fred tames Lilli. And Edward rescues Vivian. Amid a national reckoning with sexual harassment and misconduct, Broadway is mounting a cluster of musicals this season and next that, some theatergoers already contend, romanticize problematic relationships between women and men.” Michael Paulson looks at how the producers and directors of these shows are dealing with these problems.

Collectively, the cities on this list are responsible for generating more than $112 million in wages for Equity actors and stage managers during the 2016-2017 theatre season. The market leaders are Central Florida – home to roughly 1,000 Equity members, many of whom work on Disney productions on a daily basis – Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Twin Cities, St. Louis, Milwaukee/Madison, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, Houston/Galveston, and Cincinnati/Louisville.

With a new director in place, the financially troubled company decided to take “a year off from producing to get our house in order.” It seems progress has been made: PTC will stage three productions of its own in 2018-19, all by female playwrights, and will present some touring shows and other programs as well.

“If the costs of things like accommodation, subsistence and travel, venue rents and licensing continue to rise then there will come a point where this festival is no longer affordable for the people who give it reason, content, credibility and existence – without whom none of the economic or other impacts would be possible.”