Category: theatre

“While some theatres could not be contacted because phone and power service still were absent Tuesday, managers at some of the most seriously affected theatres considered themselves blessed that they avoided the severity of damage suffered by Houston’s Alley Theatre. Forecasters predicted much, much worse, especially in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, which was hammered but escaped with minimal damage.”

The dispute began in 2016, when Mr. Lombardo, a playwright, was preparing to stage “Who’s Holiday!” — a 75-minute, one-woman play that features Cindy Lou Who, the adorable girl from the book who teaches the greedy Grinch the true meaning of Christmas. In Mr. Lombardo’s version, Cindy Lou Who is all grown up. She is now a hard-drinking, prescription-drug-abusing middle-aged woman who lives in a trailer park and served time in prison for killing her husband, the Grinch.

Lyn Gardner: “Too often, an artist – if they are a woman or are from diverse backgrounds – gets only one shot in a high-profile situation and if they don’t triumph, they are out. But it’s only when the opportunities are sustained, and not just one-off tokenism, that a significant and genuine advancement occurs in the diversity of the arts. This is why it’s important that organisations, particularly flagship ones in receipt of large amounts of public funding such as the RSC, lead the way and put policies in place that don’t just encourage diversity but embed it in their way of working.”

“Her play In a Word, in which a child’s disappearance haunts a mother, ran Off Broadway this summer to critical acclaim. … Ms. Yee’s first professionally produced play was Ching Chong Chinaman, in 2010, about a Chinese-American immigrant family, and she has since written several works for Off Broadway, including The Hatmaker’s Wife.”

“‘We’re not a bunch of bloody hippies,’ Mike Shepherd growls by way of introduction. Turns out the last time a journalist paid Kneehigh a visit at its Cornish home, that was the verdict. The time before, the company wound up being compared to a cult, the rehearsal rooms a commune. Its artistic director has had enough.”

“Staff who are understood to have worked at the Hull New Theatre for more than 20 years were told they no longer had jobs at the venue just days before it reopened. Casual workers at the theatre were told they would need to apply for ‘newly created’ casual roles after its £16 million refurbishment.”

“Gurney’s work was never groundbreaking, but it resonated strongly with audiences of many ages, even though it was steeped in the lore of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who had dominated America for many years. From the very start, Gurney was quietly, subtly rebelling against his genteel upbringing, simultaneously taking pleasure in the traditions that had surrounded him growing up while poking fun at them theatrically.”

Director Karin Coonrod writes about the process, from getting set materials to the site by boat and hand-truck to the dilemma of casting Shylock (and her unconventional solution) to reworking the unsatisfying-to-us-in-2017 ending, all in the places where the story would have happened.