Category: theatre

“Even when the report appears to say the obvious, it’s useful to be reminded of the state of play. Particularly that there is a direct connection between supply and demand. Lots of people go to the theatre in London because there are lots of theatres and shows on offer, which are easily accessible in terms of transport links. Underserved parts of the country have seen a drop in attendances, sometimes dramatically, in recent years.”

The profound question being debated here — is consciousness no more than brain tissue and, if so, is altruism merely the product of evolutionary biology? — has brought Stoppard into public colloquies with scientists and philosophers investigating this quintessential 21st century conundrum.

“For most of two decades, Detective Sgt. Jake Gomborow was usually the cop on the aisle. … ‘Acting under instructions, I attended the performance [of a drama titled King Hunger] … on Saturday evening, December 6th, 1924. The acting in the entire play, aside from the few vulgar and sacrilegious remarks, was weird and gruesome, and in my opinion, the average audience in any theatre would have walked out before the show was over. My reason for not stopping the performance was because it is in its first American appearance.”

“The only criterion was that the plays should be around 3 to 5 minutes. By mid-August, 70 short plays had come in from the likes of Lindsey Ferrentino, Neil LaBute, Mia Chung, and Nathan Alan Davis. The plays will be presented in readings around the country … So far more than 40 theatrical institutions and universities nationwide and abroad have signed on.”

“[The projects’ founders] began reaching out to playwrights around the U.S. to see if they would write new short plays to add into the mix, and received dozens, including works from Neil LaBute, Dominique Morisseau, and Lynn Nottage. When [they] decided to put the idea on its feet in Missouri, they found that theatremakers from across the nation were interested in joining in.”

“When Russians were asked [in a survey] what they liked about Americans, they answered, in essence, ‘Not much.’ But when asked what Americans do well, oddly, one of the top answers was ‘musicals.’ (Russians obviously missed Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.) So America’s diplomats looked stageward for help and discovered Broadway Dreams, a decade-old nonprofit that runs week-long master-class programs throughout the United States and internationally.”

“Threats of lawsuits are flying, people have been banned from the theater, and the creative team is fomenting revolt. And it’s all over . . . billing. Don’t laugh. Billing on Broadway is as important as holding territory on the Russian front.”

“Five years ago, the small nonprofit theater company Ars Nova commissioned an up-and-coming composer to write his wacky dream project” – Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. “In a stunning and abrupt severing of an unusually close partnership, the nonprofit and the show’s commercial producers … are suddenly in a bitter battle” over three words in the show’s Playbill.

“The show, [in a staging] by a troupe from St. Petersburg, was to have been staged Nov. 1 in Omsk, Russia’s seventh-most-populous city. But a local group called ‘Family, Love, and Fatherland’ filed a complaint that the musical mocked religious faith.”

“In fact, to be a black writer is one of the most liberating things a person can be. I am black and I write about whatever I want – I always have and I always will. The only thing that makes a black writer feel limited is if others try to force their own definition of what it means to be black and a writer.”