Category: theatre

“At TBA 2011 (Portland’s Time-Based Art festival) raconteur Mike Daisey presented his All the Hours in the Day, a 24-hour monologue. Bloggers emerged the next day babbling as if they’d been touched by a prophet.”

“In 1961, partly inspired by traditional pleasure gardens and working men’s institutes, [Joan Littlewood] tried to build a venue where visitors could enjoy performances, learn practical crafts and skills, watch events on giant screens or just eat and drink.” More than 50 years later, theatres in the UK mounted 120 productions in her honor.

“Theaters are not fast food restaurants and the artists are not minimum wage employees. They are artists trying to create art. We do it for love. We do it to feed our souls. We know we are not going to make our livings doing this work.”

“Martha Lavey, the theater’s artistic director since 1995, said that she will step down from her position at the end of the current 2014-15 season. She will be replaced by Anna D. Shapiro, a longtime artistic associate, ensemble member and director at the theater.”

“The former cult leader who is serving a life sentence in a California prison is still a touchy subject, at least in the U.S. In Germany, a new stage musical about the convicted killer recently opened and provides a glimpse into Manson’s failed music career and his relationship with his followers who became known as the Manson family.”

“The popular company, which specialized in new and contemporary musicals, surprised many in the local arts community — and drew national interest — with a Sept. 24 announcement that it was deep in the red and suspending operations permanently.”

“Factory wants to have a week of previews, then an opening night, and only then, five days after the opening, will they invite the media, at a point when the run is half over. Why? Most other theatres beg the critics to come and review their shows ASAP because they need the publicity.”

Director Andrei Konchalovsky (known for the Russian film epic Siberiade and the Hollywood movies Runaway Train and Tango and Cash) will be staging an updated version of a rock-opera from 30 years ago that was based on Dostoevsky’s novel.

“Regional theatres are playing an increasingly important role in hosting stand-up comics, with the number of comedy events in venues around the UK up 46% since 2009.”

Bordergame, the latest site-specific production by National Theatre Wales, will have live audience members on a train trying to cross illegally from England into “the Autonomous Republic of Cymru” – as online audience members decide their fate in real time.