Category: theatre

“Shakespeare’s Globe has been given seven days to avert strike action following a dispute over tour guides’ pay at the venue. Backstage union BECTU has been calling for a pay increase” for guides from £11.24 to £15.16 by November and £18.50 over the following two years.

Michael Billington: “I’d say Hytner has done more than anyone since Peter Brook and Peter Hall in the 1960s and 70s to change the face of British theatre. His advocacy of cheap seats and of live broadcasts will, I believe, be viewed by future historians as a major cultural turning point.”

“The union has expelled Craig Joseph, a member of Motown tribute band the Gillettes, after he lied in court during a case in which he was being supported by Equity, resulting in a costs liability for the union of more than £600,000.”

Jason Zinoman: “My two-week binge at the Annoyance Theater, the first comedy theater in Brooklyn, ended in a pool of sewage.”

Lyn Gardner: “What do we mean by ‘the nation’s theatre’? Think back just 30 or so years and the answer was probably fairly straightforward. It was Shakespeare on our main stages across the country, the big flagship companies such as the NT and the RSC, the state-of-the-nation plays by David Hare, … the loved but often ailing network of regional theatres across the country frequently reviving classic plays and modern classics. Now the answer to the question is far more complex. It is still, at times, many of these things but it is much, much more.”

“Peterson offered the example of the prime-time, one-hour network show: Minimums dictate that a staff writer earns about $3,800 a week—and a fee of more than $36,000 for any episode for which he or she is credited as story and teleplay writer. The first time that episode is rerun, its writer receives an additional $24,000. Members of the writers’ guild also receive health insurance and pensions, benefits bestowed to playwrights only in very rare circumstances.”

“The topics of the day were listed on a white board: ‘Je Suis Charlie’; the governing African National Congress party’s convention in Cape Town; results of the nationwide matric exams, South Africa’s equivalent to the SAT. But the crew remained stuck on the Paris killings, in an animated back and forth about free speech.”

“Despite average cuts of 19%, local authorities in England are still spending around £1.6bn on arts, culture and libraries. They remain one of our biggest investors. Moreover, they often pioneer innovative, affordable ways to support and protect arts and culture.”

“What further distinguishes Hamilton is that it uses rap to tell a story that has no direct connection to any usual rap subjects or characters. This reaches its most remarkable expression when the show presents the debates Hamilton had with his ideological foes as rap battles presided over by George Washington as MC.”