Category: theatre

As one crew member says, “It’s the largest theater performance in human history on the longest passenger train in human history.” Camila Domonoske reports.

Of the four nominees for the Tony Award for best new play, three had Off-Broadway runs, and each of them was honored by the Obie judges.

“It’s legal. But is it ethical? Is it fair that contemporary directors should be chained by the views of a writer who died a year ago, especially if those views demand active and explicit racial discrimination?”

Although Brook has the aura of a sage, he rejects the kind of theater in which artists condescend to their audience by assuming superior knowledge. Such “pretension” offends him. It’s the problem he has with Brecht, whose “tremendous scenic talent” has been eclipsed by his theoretical writings. As for the influence of Artaud, Brook classified him with the modernist English theater artist Edward Gordon Craig “as visionaries who gave their life to try to say what meaningful theater could be,” even if they weren’t able to achieve it themselves in performance.

“The Guthrie has become more inclusive than it’s ever been, with game-changing shows like “The Bluest Eye.” That goes into territory once claimed by, say, Penumbra, which still has the deepest expertise in doing African-American fare in the Twin Cities. Inclusiveness means that actors and artists can make a greater living even as it leaves theaters like Mu feeling that they are becoming “feeder companies” for bigger institutions. It’s a complicated issue.”

And its 50th anniversary celebration wasn’t just a big party with a lot of celebrities. Charles McNulty: “The show, which was produced and directed with finesse by Robert H. Egan, reflected on CTG’s legacy not simply to indulge in nostalgia but to sharpen the theater’s mission as it moves into a future that promises to be every bit as impossible — culturally, politically and economically (let’s not even bring up the traffic) — as the past.”

Carol Ann Tan: “When people ask this question, what they’re really saying is that they feel entitled to what I have — that they want my opportunities and successes for themselves. Except they don’t want the part where everyone questions my ability to speak English fluently. They don’t want the part where people avoid socializing with someone who is so culturally divorced from the familiar. They don’t want any of the heartbreak or loneliness that also accompany my identity. In short, they don’t want the experiences that have informed my perspective.”

Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson is Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ first African-American ringmaster, and as the circus runs its last performance on May 20, he’s the circus’ final ringmaster as well. “Ironically enough, I will be the very last voice in the 146-year history of this show, so I will be the last person you hear to speak of ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ — which is a wild little paradox, to be a first and a last at the same time.”

The artistic director of the group’s patron and incubator, ACT: “When they called me in 2011 and said, ‘We want to do the Ring Cycle of Chekhov and take it around the world,’ I was terrified, and told them so. … They loved it. ‘That’s the response we want,’ they said. Eventually, I fell deeply in love with the author—and the company too.”