Category: theatre

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society will offer an online hub with workshops and panel discussions as well as a guide to the streamed performances offered by independent Fringe venues; Fringe Pick ‘n’ Mix, where viewers can choose among 60-second videos uploaded by performers; and “Fringe on a Friday, a 60-minute independently curated variety show that will be ticketed and streamed, presenting the best of the festival across a range of genres.” – The Guardian

Let’s be honest about LA’s Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings, say BIPOC comedians: “The self-perpetuating white power structure fostered by these institutions led to the belittling and marginalizing of diverse voices, racial bias in voting for team members, and lip service to the concept of inclusion while providing little mentorship or paths for advancement to Black, Indigenous or other people of color.” – Los Angeles Times

The group “We See You, White American Theater” released a 29-page letter of demands that “would amount to a sweeping restructuring of the theater ecosystem in America.” Indeed, they say, it’s time for everything from ending contracts with the stagehands’ union until that union diversifies to the idea that BIPOC be “the majority of writers, directors and designers onstage for the foreseeable future.” – The New York Times

Thomas Kail, Hamilton director (both on stage and screen): “I remember it was important for me to have a moment at the end of the show where the music and lyrics are resolving that extended past, that reached somewhere else. Pippa is so thorough and so intelligent and so precise, that it was a really fun conversation to have.” – Los Angeles Times

Comedians are desperate to get back on stage, said Kai Humphries, and to hear the roar of laughter rather than car horns. He found that he had slipped into a familiar rhythm on stage, timing his gags around the honks signifying his audience’s laughter. “It was strange to adjust because the sound of a car horn usually has a negative connotation,” he laughed. “When I was driving back from the gig, another driver honked their horn at someone and I got a feeling of warmth from it.” – The Guardian

“The show, The Under Presents: Tempest, is a technological first: a live, scripted, participatory play that you attend, from home, using a virtual reality headset. After buying a $14.99 ticket (an in-app purchase inside an esoteric virtual reality game, The Under Presents), and powering up at a set time, you arrive in a virtual theater lobby, with your avatar clad in a black cloak and glowing mask. You can’t speak, but you can gesture. A live actor … leads you and six or seven other audience members to a firepit in the Hollywood Hills, then to Prospero’s island, then back to the firepit for marshmallows and a dance party. … Live actors and live audience members meeting in a shared space at precisely timed intervals. [It] sounds like theater. Sometimes, it even feels like theater. Is this a brave new world for live performance? Or just another app?” – The New York Times

“This is theater of the mind, you know?” Wild says. “We do so much vocal work in the program, so much text work, so much breaking down a scene — What is this character doing? What do they want? What are they after? How do we portray that? — and it all transfers to radio.” – Washington Post