Michael Billington’s list, though it limits itself to the western tradition, runs all the way back to Aeschylus (The Persians) and right up to last season (King Charles III). Of course, there’s lots to argue over.
Category: theatre
Royal Shakespeare’s Company’s New App Puts A Hip-Hop Spin On ‘Much Ado’
RSC education director Jacqui O’Hanlon says that the app, designed for students aged 11 to 16, “would act as a ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ to the original work. The app’s rap lyrics are derived from Shakespeare’s insults, and his characters’ amorous exchanges. It challenges users to spot the difference between the Shakespeare rap and those of modern hip-hop artists.”
New Brian Friel Festival Lights Up Ireland – On Both Sides Of The Border
The Lughnasa International Friel Festival – created and directed (on a tiny budget) by Seán Doran, who also founded the Happy Days Festival focused on Beckett – is the first large-scale arts event to be shared between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Is Broadway Due For A Big Market Correction Of Its Own?
“I’m not trying to tell you the sky is falling . . . I’m here to say that what goes up, must come down (or in our case, go flat), and the more we know and understand when these things happen, the more we can be prepared to overcome them, or avoid them altogether.”
‘Hamilton’ Is Not Only A Great Musical But Also A Theatrical Game-Changer
“Within the Broadway spectrum, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop historical musical has less in common with recent smashes than with shows that radically expanded audiences’ perceptions of the kind of stories musicals could tell, and the language and form they could use to tell them.”
What British Dramaturgs Do
“While every major theatre in Germany has a whole department devoted to the function and a practitioner assigned to every production, in British theatre the dramaturg has been a comparatively rare beast. Until recently.”
Who Sets Cell Phone Etiquette In Theatres – And Who Should?
“Theater as a whole desperately needs to keep attracting younger audiences, and yet it doesn’t seem particularly able or willing to educate newer playgoers or accommodate their differing ideas on how culture should be consumed.”
How A Theatre Season Can Come Together To Support – Or Ignore – Diversity
“There are hundreds of priorities to balance in the process of planning a season. The decisions we make reveal the hierarchy of those priorities. It is the season, not the mission statement, that expresses what we believe in, what we fight for, what we privilege right now, in this moment. A season is an expression of our values, both personally (as leaders) and institutionally. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, this is the bottom line. A season does not ‘just come together.'”
Director Accuses Theatre Of “Setting A Dangerous Precedent” By Cancelling ISIS Play
“If a single company gets scared and it is willing to pull work that it has invested time and money and love into… that is a very dangerous precedent.”
Fire Destroys Second City’s Chicago Offices
Second City CEO Andrew Alexander: “It has gutted our two levels of offices. But we’ll fix it. … The theaters are fine. The most important thing is that no one is hurt. Thank the Lord.”