“Actors from last year’s failed tour of the musical Copacabana are mounting legal action against the show’s producers for more than £30,000 in unpaid wages. The news comes as it has emerged that planned dates for 2015 have hit further problems.”
Category: theatre
How Do You Make A Stage Comedy About A Kidney Transplant?
Michael Hollinger’s Under the Skin “started with a smirk – at a 2008 New York Times ‘Ethicist’ column, about a pair of siblings vying to supply their aging father with a kidney.” Hollinger ended up exploring a whole new concept: kidney-worthiness.
How Ironic Is It That Our Most Celebrated “Un-Blockbuster” Theatre Composer Has A Hit Movie?
“Stephen Sondheim is the antibody of the blockbuster, the antithesis of mass taste. He writes for questing minds, disdaining sunshine, inhabiting the deep, dark woods of moral ambiguity. At his most challenging, in Sweeney Todd, he elicits our sympathies for cannibalism. At his gloomiest, in Company, he seems to conclude that man’s fate is always to be alone. Sondheim is not an easy date, never a sell-out.”
Is There Really An Anti-Writer Trend In British Theatre?
“There has been a shift of opinion against playwriting, in favour of collective methods of theatre. The very activity of playwriting has been attacked as individualistic, undemocratic and even immoral,” playwright David Edgar recently declared. Lyn Gardner begs to differ: “But even if what Edgar is saying is just a provocation, I’m really not sure that talking about an ‘anti-writer trend’ is either true or helpful.”
English Theatre Closed Due To Statue Hanging From Roof
“Sunderland Empire has cancelled all shows this week after high winds caused the statue on the roof of its building to break loose.”
Theatre Needs Excellent Regional Critics If Plays And Directors Are To Improve
“Newspapers barely cover those theatres now – so building a career regionally is becoming harder than ever. Even with greater funding, until we can resource bloggers and journalists to make those trips and build the national profile for regional work, directors will continue to scrape by in London.”
Will The Brits Win At The Golden Globes Because Of Youth Theatre Schools?
“Tutors at both drama centres have raised their glasses in anticipation on the eve of the ceremony in California and are ready to toast the theatrical tradition that prepares actors to work at the highest level.”
This Is How Theatre Becomes Essential For Local Communities
“First, the theatre-makers must ensure they reflect those communities. Second, they need to be trained to work alongside the communities, to channel their lived experience into art, with skill and authenticity and often for community members themselves to perform. And third, the whole theatre industry needs to be open to members of different communities becoming new theatre artists themselves, and commit to supporting and encouraging that.”
In The UK, Regional Theatre Staff Want A Five Percent Raise
“The claim, submitted last month, sets out to ‘address a steady erosion of pay rates in the sector,’ which BECTU says has seen incomes fall by more than 12% in some cases since 2010.”
Actors Are Narcissistic, But In The Nicest Way Possible
“Theater stages represent ecological niches that provide narcissists with an opportunity to fulfill their desire for admiration.”