Category: theatre

In a sudden shift, Asolo Theatre in Florida had to figure out whether to keep going with its education programs even as students and parents were competing for limited Wi-Fi and screen time, and being assaulted with an awful lot of Zooms. “Among the questions they asked themselves … were, ‘What resources do we have? What videos can we make? Who can we interview? What pictures can we take? What archival footage is there? What can we do to continue this conversation with our community so that we as artists can continue to create?'” – American Theatre

In Prague, the opening is going in fits and starts, but theatre companies like the Czech National Theatre are more than ready. “The drive-in theater at Prague’s vegetable market was an ambitious example. To circumvent restrictions on public gatherings, audience members watched plays, concerts and comedy from behind their steering wheels.” – The New York Times

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, whose The Exonerated and Coal Country are powerful documentary theatre, talk about how it all works – and why it works. – Slate

“As most American theaters have pared down their offerings to a mix of Zoom readings, artist conversations, and archival streams, Seacoast Rep, in Portsmouth, N.H., has been web-casting new productions since mid-May and has them planned for every weekend until at least July 5.” Says one of the Rep’s artistic directors, “People in the industry thought ‘no live audience means no live theater.’ We thought we just had to change our delivery system.” – The New York Times

“As part of our ongoing coverage about the crisis theater faces, and the possible ways out of it, [Tim Teeman] spoke to a range of theater professionals, enduring unemployment and hoping one day to create once more: a producer, choreographer, stage manager, lighting designer, and union chief.” – The Daily Beast

Exact performance dates will be announced for each offering throughout the year, along with such “details” as venue (Writers has two stages), and the names of the full casts and creative teams. In addition, patrons are advised, according to the theater’s press release, that “some titles and artists may change as the production schedule shifts for reasons of health and safety.” – WTTW

Charles McNulty: “Stuck indoors with little to distract us from the bewilderment of our metaphysical predicament, we are like one of his immobilized characters, not scrunched into trash cans like Hamm’s elderly parents in Endgame but confined all the same to a narrow loop of existence.” – Los Angeles Times

Saying “I do not think that making everything safe for the audience – although that is important – and leaving the the people on stage to be epidemiological guinea pigs is the right answer,” Equity president Kate Shindle and the union’s public health consultant released a set of four principles on which the reopening of theaters should be based. – Deadline

In 2015, Guy Laliberté sold the Cirque du Soleil to American private equity investment firm TPG Capital, Chinese investment company Fosun and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for a reported US$1.5 billion. In late March, the Montreal-based circus laid off 95 per cent of its staff, close to 4,700 employees, after all of its shows around the world were shuttered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Montreal Gazette