Never do this, but: “More students wanted in. So we added a crew of dancer-mimes who did a lot of incongruous vogueing and wore comedy/tragedy masks to provide visual commentary, notably as opposing cheering sections during a marital karate battle between Sarah and Harry. An extended nightclub-set dance sequence to the DeBarge classic ‘Rhythm of the Night’ proved a lively lead-in for the brutal Sondheim showstopper, ‘Ladies Who Lunch.'”
Category: theatre
University Of California San Diego Lays Off 21 People From The Department Of Theater And Dance
The university asked them to reapply for their current positions at a pay cut of 25-45 percent. “The laid-off UCSD employees—some of whom have worked at UCSD and the Playhouse for up to 30 years—are concerned for their futures. They say the nine-month arrangement, as well as a demotion in pay grade, will reduce their annual incomes severely, as well as their pension and retirement benefits.”
Dear Theatre People: Now Is The Time To Stand Up
Don’t let the Hamilton cast stand alone, this editorial says: “We can choose in this moment to speak, to use our words and take a stand. And it is not only in our lives as private citizens that this work can be done. Art can be activism. And theatres can take a stand and be leaders in their communities, both modeling equity, diversity, and inclusion and speaking out about it.”
Japan’s Theatre Of Old People – A Golden Perspective Born Of Many Years
Yukio Ninagawa “founded Saitama Gold Theater and held an open audition for people aged 55 and over, from whom he chose 48 for the troupe — there are now 38, with an average age of 77. Although he conceived it to stage one particular work, word of the troupe spread and they soon found themselves doing more shows and earning praise from critics, both domestically and abroad.”
What Mark Rylance, Anne-Marie Duff, Simon Russell Beale, And Michael C. Hall Really Do Backstage
Rylance plays ping-pong; Beale runs through his entire part; Dominic Cooper east lots of cheese; Duff is too superstitious (and embarrassed) to tell us what she does.
Eight Broadway Stars And Directors Give Their Thoughts On Trump’s Tweets And Theater As Safe Space
Susan Stroman: “For somebody like me who’s done The Scottsboro Boys, it’s a space to start a conversation.”
Matthew Broderick: “We’re now talking about yet another nonissue. … It’s like [Trump] flashes a little shiny paper in front of everybody and any bit of bad news gets forgotten.”
Andrea Martin: “‘A safe place.’ Not if Patti LuPone’s onstage!”
In 19th-Century America, Theater Was Anything But A Safe Space
To judge from newspaper reports of the time, audience behavior was more like what you get at a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Yeah, The Theater *Is* A Safe Space, In More Than One Way (But Should It Be?)
Jesse Green considers how theater has been a refuge from generations of high school bullies, the one public setting where he feels safe holding his husband’s hand, and, these days, a place where right-thinking liberals can stay secure in their bubble. However, Green reminds us, Peter Brook did not title his seminal book The Safe Space …
Tim Robbins Has Been Teaching Improv Classes In Prisons For Ten Years – And The Data, Now In, Says It Works
“‘People said, ‘Yeah, yeah, you want to give them crayons. You’ve got acting classes?’ recalls Robbins of the launch of the Actors Gang Prison Project. ‘We’re like, ‘No, we don’t want anyone to be an actor. There’s too much unemployment in that. It’s about changing behavior.'”
Should Theatre Be “Safe” As Mr. Trump Suggests? How About Pushing Political Agendas?
“The very presence of Mr. Pence — whose views on immigration, like those of Mr. Trump, are anything but celebratory — at this particular show (one previously embraced by the Obamas and Clintons) would seem to signal that an unspoken debate was going on that night. In that case, wasn’t Mr. Dixon belaboring the obvious in delivering the statement prepared by him and his associates (including Mr. Miranda)? Was what he said a condescending equivalent of supertitles for the inferentially challenged?”