Category: theatre

“In the fall, the four-year-old Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training” – operated by Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company – “and the University of the Arts’ Ira Brind School of Theater Arts will launch one of the country’s only accredited graduate degrees in devised performance, which is created collaboratively by performers rather than written by a playwright. That means, among other things, students can take out federal loans to learn to stage intergalactic gay extravaganzas.”

“Many theater owners like to say they offer an intimate show but only one really means it. That would be Theatre for One – a 4-foot-by-8 foot portable theater that allows one audience member at a time to see one short play performed by a single actor. … This year, new plays were commissioned from Craig Lucas, Will Eno, Lynn Nottage, Jose Rivera, Thomas Bradshaw, Zayd Dohrn and Emily Schwend.”

“The Elementary Particles, a new stage work adapted from [Michel] Houellebecq’s own 1998 novel, was set to play at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in July. … A spokeswoman for the festival confirmed by email that the play was canceled following a ‘risk analysis’ carried out by the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency.”

“It’s the energy of the building that has the potential to bring Shakespeare to life. It’s the shared space, the triple-galleried cockpit, the restless crowd, the direct address. It’s these conditions of performance that create a transformative experience.” Miles Gregory explains why he and colleagues are constructing “a full-scale, temporary, working theatre space that precisely replicates the dimensions of the Globe Theatre. That can quite literally ‘pop-up’ anywhere.”

“This was so fraught with emotion. There was so much investment in all of the work that had gone into both companies. The name needed to reflect what was mutually fertile.”

“When people are trying to save money, if you don’t force them out of that situation they’re going to choose free actors every time.”

“These stars are just the latest wave of big-name actors to appear on the London stage, which can burnish an already glowing reputation, reboot a career or simply provide a challenge like no other.”

Musical theatre accounts for more than half of all box office income despite comprising just 15% of all productions staged, a report has suggested.

Michael Billington: “In fact, Spacey … has done everything possible to restore the fortunes of the Old Vic. He has given the theatre stability and, through his presence as an actor, glamour. He has tirelessly raised funds to ensure its future. He has also done a lot of unheralded work to encourage young people through a scheme with the umbrella title of Old Vic New Voices.”

“I sincerely believed that I was going to be South Africa’s first literary redundancy. But as it is, South Africa caught me by surprise again and just said, ‘No, you’ve got to keep writing, man. There are still stories to tell.’ And, possibly, at this moment in our history, the stories that need telling are more urgent than any of the stories that needed telling during the apartheid years.”