“Only a few months ago, … Lepage would never have thought twice about a nude scene with an actress. But the sexual harassment scandals that have wracked the entertainment industry since the Hollywood mogul’s fall have forced the Québécois master theatremaker to rethink how he works. The fact he was also rehearsing a play, Quills, inspired by the one of the most notorious sexual predators in history – the Marquis de Sade, after whom the word ‘sadism’ was coined – added further fuel for thought.”
Category: theatre
How A Hit Musical Changed The People In Gander, Newfoundland
Many of the 7,000 who unexpectedly landed in Newfoundland that day had their lives altered by the generosity of their hosts, but Come From Away has given a certain celebrity status to those whose stories are told by the musical.
Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Loses Two-Thirds Of Its Federal Funding After Harassment Scandal
“A planned increase in federal funding for Soulpepper Theatre has been voted down by the Canada Council for the Arts’ board of directors. On Thursday, the council’s board voted to rescind an increase of $375,500 the theatre company was set to receive. That was on top of a $184,500 ‘core grant’ which the company will still collect this year and again next year … After four civil suits were launched against former artistic director Albert Schultz in January, the granting agency placed Soulpepper on ‘concerned status’ and conducted a review.”
Bringing James Baldwin Back To Paris
The adapter and director of Harlem Quartet worked on the script for three years, bringing her adaptation to Paris for only three nights before heading out on a tour of France – a tour that, she says, would not have been possible without Raoul Peck’s 2016 movie I Am Not Your Negro.
Bernadette Peters Re-Conquers Broadway In A Classic Role
Generations of Broadway legends have played the role of Dolly, and Peters is (more than) up for it now: “When I took on the role, though, I just — I started from scratch. I read the script, I read The Matchmaker — the play that Mike Stewart wrote [Hello, Dolly!] from — and I found this person, this woman. I found the woman that I would play in it, the Dolly I would play.”
Why Are Theatre Program Books So Useless?
Mark Shenton: “I always apply the test I also use on theatre tickets to assess how useful they are: would I pay ready money to have one? And the answer is hardly ever. Yet theatre programmes have become a habit for many. They are part of the theatregoing ‘experience’ and a happy aide-memoire of the show. But, I often find the information I need just as easily online. A front of house notice will typically list the cast at a particular performance – especially important with long-running shows where substitutions often appear. So I simply take a photograph of it.”
Top Off-Broadway Theater Abruptly Cuts All Ties With Playwright Neil Labute
“MCC Theater, a prestigious Off Broadway company, announced Thursday that it was canceling an upcoming production of Mr. LaBute’s latest play and terminating his tenure as its playwright-in-residence, effective immediately. The theater offered no explanation for its action.”
Audiences Are Livestreaming Theatre. What Could Be Wrong With That?
You can understand the confusion that could arise in an audience member who, aware that theatre performances are now broadcast live to cinemas via NT Live and the like, thinks they are entitled to act as a private broadcast channel to their friends at home. Theatre invites you to be uniquely ‘in the moment’ but, for many, it’s now important also to capture it so that you own it forever.
Theatre’s Mini-Boom In Adaptations Of Movies
The genre has moved far beyond Disney’s screen-to-stage extravaganzas, Hairspray, and The Producers: in London alone, there are currently live-theatre versions of Network, Jubilee, Fanny and Alexander, and The Exorcist. Says director Chris Goode, “I think what has happened over the last 10 years or so is that we’ve stopped having the idea that theater is essentially a literary form.”
Is It Easier To Raise Money In The Theatre? (Compared To Other Arts)
In many ways, fundraising for theatre faces the same patterns and pressures as other nonprofits. But in recent years, numbers have emerged indicating that theatre may be in considerably better shape than other kinds of organizations chasing the same dollars. Zannie Giraud Voss, director of the National Center for Arts Research(NCAR) at Southern Methodist University, gives a sanguine report.