Yes, and it’s because theatres are different venues from comedy clubs. One comedian: “There are some parts of [my show] that are very emotional just for the sake of being open, honest, and vulnerable onstage. … I don’t know that that’s a quality that can fly in a stand-up club that has a two drink minimum, where people are there for a night out to laugh and you have to make them laugh.”
Category: theatre
Theatre, Out Of Its (Scripted) Echo Chamber In The Wake Of Brexit And Trump
Lyn Gardner isn’t cool with the usual suspects thrashing it out on stage without considering their audience. “If the arts, and theatre in particular, wants to genuinely respond and enter into meaningful dialogues with those who feel excluded and disenfranchised, it needs to look outward not inward.”
The Actor Who Just Stepped Into His 100th Role With The Same Theatre Company
In the 50th anniversary of the St. Louis Repertory Theatre, one actor notches his 100th role for the theatre with a few weeks as Marley’s ghost. How the hell did the man do that while playing roles at other theatres around town – and spending eight seasons in Cincinnati? (The answer lies in the name of the company.)
Emma Rice Says Gender Parity In Theatre Shouldn’t Be Hard At All (Of Course, She Said That Before The Globe Let Her Go Early)
The British director says the most American of slogans: “Just do it! You don’t need to agonize about how or why. … It doesn’t need to be a big deal. I think it was Geena Davis who said, ‘How do you get more women in films? Cross out the cast list and make half the names women.'”
Dominic Dromgoole Launches A New Classical Theatre Company
“Former Shakespeare’s Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole has teamed up with producer Nica Burns to launch a theatre company focused on classic playwrights. Called Classic Spring, it will celebrate the work of proscenium playwrights, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, staging their plays in the theatres they wrote for.”
Neo-Futurists Founder Splits With The Company And Blames Trump
“Faced with the pending inauguration, Greg Allen said in his statement, ‘I could no longer stand by and let my most effective artistic vehicle be anything but a machine to fight Fascism.’ His new company ‘will be comprised entirely of people of color, LBTQ+, artist/activist women, and other disenfranchised voices in order to combat the tyranny of censorship and oppression.’ That explanation was received with ire and disbelief by Neo-Futurist company members, current and past, who say the troupe is now more diverse than it’s ever been, and the breakup is not political but personal—rooted in a long-suppressed history of problems between Allen and the theoretically democratic ensemble that he formed.”
Claim: Musicals Are Squeezing Plays Out Of London’s West End
In an interview with The Stage, Wilson was asked if the West End needed a greater variety of theatre sizes. He responded: “Yes we do. And the reason is that the big theatres, progressively the smaller big theatres, are being used for musicals more. Gypsy going in to the Savoy, and Funny Girl… the 800 and 900-seat theatres are being used for musicals, and drama will be squeezed out.”
Are DC’s Big Theaters Hoarding Their Audience Pools Instead Of Sharing Them?
The good news from a decade-long study of the area’s seven major pro companies is that audiences there aren’t tapped out, they’re growing (even subscriptions increased!). But there was one startling finding: “A whopping 85 percent of audiences patronize a single troupe.”
#BoycottHamilton, Eh? The Show Just Sold $3.3M Of Tickets In One Week
“Nothing like a boycott promoted by conservative Republicans to send the Broadway grosses soaring.”
Lynn Nottage, Playwright Of ‘Sweat’, On Getting To Know Locked-Out Middle-Aged White Steelworkers In Reading, PA
“I found that the way in which they spoke was really familiar to me, as an African-American woman who has struggled with marginalization throughout my entire life. For the first time, they were saying, ‘We feel unseen, unheard, frustrated.’ At the end of the meeting, I said, ‘You guys sound like socialists.'” A Q&A with Slate‘s June Thomas.