In 2005, Signature Theatre, an off-Broadway house on far West 42nd Street, “did a very hard-to-do thing. They convinced a big corporation, Time Warner, to hand the theater $500,000 to try to chip away at the price barrier. Before that grant, tickets to Signature’s shows had cost around $55. After the grant, they cost just $15.” (includes audio)
Category: theatre
Broadway’s First Live-Stream Hits The Web (Why Did It Take So Long?)
“The fairly new online video service BroadwayHD … [on] Thursday night … offers up the first-ever live stream of a Broadway show, the musical revival She Loves Me. And in the process, the start-up hopes to cement its status as the ‘Netflix of Broadway’.” Jonathan Takiff looks at why the Great White Way is so late to the streaming party.
‘Speak The Speech, I Pray You’ – The Multitudes Of Possibility In Shakespeare’s Great Monologues
Michael Billington: “I thought I’d look at five key Shakespearean speeches and see how various actors have handled them. I stress that there is no right or wrong – simply a wealth of differences.” (includes video links)
A “Young” Explains How To Get Young People Into Our Theatres
I’m really a nobody. But I believe that we have arrived in a world where if we want to be relevant, we must “art” as big as we can. We must be overly ambitious, and damn the consequences, because if we aren’t, our souls die for sure, and if we are we may simply fail and hit another mark.
Gender Breakdown: Here’s Who’s Working In America’s LORT Theatres
“Phase two of the LORT designers study continues to collect data on gender of designers, and begins to look at directors and artistic directors, partially in relation to designers.”
Arizona Theatre Company Says It Might Have To Close
“In a memo sent on Monday, June 27, to subscribers and donors, the company said that if it did not meet its fundraising goal by Friday, July 1, it would suspend the upcoming season — which would be its 50th — to give it time to reorganize and revamp its business model, with plans to return in 2017-18.”
‘Angels In America,’ The Oral History – How Tony Kushner’s Play Became The Defining Work Of American Art Of The Past 25 Years
“Twenty-five years ago this summer, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America premiered in the tiny Eureka Theatre in San Francisco’s Mission District. Within two years it had won the Pulitzer Prize … Slate talked to more than 50 actors, directors, playwrights, and critics to tell the story of Angels‘ turbulent ascension into the pantheon of great American storytelling – and to discuss the legacy of a play that feels, in an era in which gay Americans have the right to marry but still in many ways live under siege, as crucial as ever.”
Why Doesn’t Canada Have A National Theatre?
“At a time when many in the arts bemoan shrinking audiences, wonder whether live performance is losing social relevance and even predict the death of theatre, here is a new institution vigorously engaging local and global audiences through national drama. It’s enough to make you ask, why doesn’t Canada have a national theatre?”
Now *This* Is A Theater Company That Knows How To Make Do On A Tiny Budget
“It sounded like your typical aspirational, ‘I want’ musical-theater song. Except for the part where a jaguar, played by Jennifer Lim, roared into the scene and pounced on [Celia] Keenan-Bolger. Also, the horses were cardboard heads on sticks, and the ensemble a team of cardboard cacti (with sad faces drawn in black Sharpie).”
Backstage Drama Bursts Into Public View At Legendary Berlin Theatre
“On Monday, 180 directors, actors and stage designers associated with the Volksbühne published an open letter in which they expressed ‘deep concerns’ about plans for the future of the legendary avant garde theatre, which is due to be headed by Tate Modern’s outgoing director Chris Dercon from early 2017. ‘This is not a friendly takeover,’ they write.”