Category: theatre

“Except for Honolulu Theatre for Youth (HTY) there is no resident professional theater in Hawaii.” And when one local directeor was doing a fellowship at DC’s Arena Stage and was discussing with colleagues the purpose of theater, he surprised them by saying this: “The purpose of the theater is community service.”

“The 2012-13 fiscal year that ends June 30 is expected to yield the fifth consecutive splash of red ink since mid-2008 for the company that runs the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre.”

“[He] has now had six critical and/or box-office disappointments in a row. So what has happened to Mamet? In one sense, he is indeed carrying on a great tradition: late-period collapse.”

“With the demise of the old Intiman and its 2012 rebirth with a summer “microseason,” the local theater scene has been radically altered.”

“In a small theater on the campus of East Los Angeles College, actor Christopher Gorham was performing a scene from the David Henry Hwang play Yellow Face over and over again as a camera crew went through several set-ups of the dialogue-heavy sequence.”

“While casting minority actors in roles that would traditionally go to white performers has been common for decades, as a way to offer fresh perspectives on a classic or to recognize an actor’s talents (or, yes, to sell tickets), the awards for Ms. Tyson and Ms. Miller helped ensure that these Tonys would be remembered.”

“On 16 May, the NT Live broadcast of This House played to 45,000 people in cinemas around the UK. … Another 20,000 watched overseas. More will follow with encore screenings. Since the first such broadcast in 2009 – when Helen Mirren’s Phèdre was seen by 50,000 people worldwide – NT Live has achieved a total audience of 1.3 million.”

“More than 2,000 people from around the world, including the heads of lighting at prominent venues such as the National Theatre in London and New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, have joined a campaign aimed at protecting the traditional tungsten light bulb in stage productions.”

“Every year, shows that might otherwise have had a chance to run end up folding early because they get lost in the shuffle; the downside of relying on Tony nominations as a primary marketing tool is that if a show doesn’t get a few nods, it’s time to pull the plug. But shows need time to develop an audience, and that comes — sorry, critics — primarily from good word of mouth.”

“If anything could restore faith in the American theater it was Sunday’s exuberant Tony Awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.”