Category: theatre

“I realized if I didn’t support diversity, it wouldn’t necessarily happen. It’s so very easy to find yourself the only one if you’re not careful. I always have diversity in mind. I always am thinking about who’s on my team.”

In June, 90 staff members and 80 freelancers of the Volksbühne sent one to the Berlin House of Representatives expressing deep concern that Dercon will trade long-established artistic standards for “a globally extended consensus culture with uniform presentation and sales patterns.” Volksbühne means “People’s Stage” and was established in 1914 as a working-class theater committed to the experimental.

Company co-founder Jeff Perry: “Our group had an interesting mix of individual ambition, and even hubris, and love of group work. If we had started Steppenwolf in Los Angeles or New York, I don’t think we would have been left alone long enough to put down these roots.”

“‘It’s always hard to put a finger on why something is suddenly in the zeitgeist,’ said [Sarah] Ruhl, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. ‘I don’t know why it is happening with tennis in theater right now. But for me, while researching the Bush dynasty, I realized tennis is such a big part of their lives and a wonderful metaphor for family competition and sibling rivalry.'”

Whenever I have waded into this debate, making the argument that the best solution to the stalemate would be some sort of compromise that would provide a feasible economic path for those institutions that have benefited from the old plan while paving the way for a new era in the city’s theater ecology (one more conducive to institutions being able to pay their artists, compete for new plays and widen their audiences), a few passionate theater folks write to remind me of the state of L.A. theater before there was what used to be known as the “Equity Waiver.”

“While physician-patient encounters may be structured, every interaction is, to some extent, improvised. … Medical schools are increasingly adapting improv tools to enhance patient interviewing, simulate difficult conversations, and facilitate learning in medical teams.”

“Sara Garonzik, who has helmed the Philadelphia Theatre Company from its tentative days as a professional troupe in 1982 to its status as a well-regarded and highly visible anchor for the Avenue of the Arts, has decided to step down from her post as executive producing director.”

“In all, about 40 percent of Cirque’s performers come from artistic, rhythmic and acrobatic gymnastics backgrounds, as well as from trampoline, tumbling, diving and synchronized swimming. At the moment, 21 Olympians – two of them medalists – perform in eight United States-based Cirque du Soleil shows.”