Category: theatre

“If our media fail us and our school systems refuse to teach true American history, shouldn’t we as theater-makers do something about it? I write about these things to not be a downer, but to urge the theater community to make room for more stories.”

“There is the public contest, where presenters hand out the trophies, packs of producers race for the microphone and creative types make teary speeches. And then there is the hidden one, perhaps more important, which involves jockeying for position in regards to which show comes out best on the televised broadcast.”

The man who produced “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” screwed up again, except worse – this show closed before it even opened.

Director/producer James Cameron is working with Cirque to developing the arena show, which is scheduled to open late next year, before the first of the three planned Avatar sequels hits screens.

“It’s not for a lack of talent or ideas that the theatre is suffering, but rather from a business model that does not serve the interests of the artists, the institutions, or the audience.”

“While articles may be trumpeting record revenues and record attendance, they’re either downplaying, avoiding or ignoring the true breaking of the $100 threshold, preferring to lead with the allure of numbers in the millions (attendance) or billions (dollars). That’s a shame, because in terms of what matters to the average audience member, the average ticket price seems much more essential news.”

“Research revealed that of the 1,700 respondents, 46% made less than £1,000 last year from acting jobs and 30% earned between £1,000 and £5,000. Just 2% earned £20,000 or more.”

She had seen too much of what she calls “really macho theatre” and wanted to write “something simple and gentle”. And then she found an old photo in her grandmother’s brownstone that set her on a binge of historical research.

“Broadway shows grossed $30.9 million last week on sales from 299,090 audience members, the highest dollar amount and best attendance ever recorded for the week leading into Memorial Day … The comparable gross and attendance figures for the same period last year were $25.5 million and 240,878.”

“Harriet Walter is to follow up playing Brutus in Julius Caesar by taking on Henry IV in the second of a trilogy of all-female Shakespeare productions staged by the Donmar Warehouse [in London].”