Category: theatre

Call in the Bard: “You can’t pretend to act Shakespeare without knowing how to breathe, listen, interpret, and pace yourself.”

Playwright Robert Schenkkan “noted that the impetus to write ‘All the Way’ — which was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and premiered in 2012 — came from a long fascination with Lyndon Johnson.”

“Hands down, when you’re in a long-run show, the best thing that happens is there’s turnover in cast.”

“To me the idea of a sort of firewall between artists and critics was arbitrary and foolish. After all, how can you trust a critic if they don’t intimately know the theater process? If you’ve never been in a rehearsal room, how can you separate out the direction, for example, from the acting and set, sound and lighting design?”

“Critical response to art is no longer visceral and real; it’s bought and sold. We are witnessing the rapid erosion in trustworthy discourse from trained, consistent voices to help steer readers toward (subjectively determined) glorious theater, and away from (subjectively determined) chaff.”

Andrei Serban’s production of Tony Kushner’s epic at the Hungarian National Theater “may be the biggest hit ever in Hungarian theater history.” It has also led to the replacement of the house’s artistic director “by a man who has sworn to return the theater to its Hungarian roots and make the National ‘a sacred space’.”

“Tickets for the best seats in the West End have risen to more than £80, with the price of the cheapest falling by nearly £1 to an average of £21.07. … On average, the best seat in the West End has increased from £72.12 in 2012 to £81.05 in 2013.”

“I realized that I was playing with fire. Some neighbors, and indeed some friends, despite their views on the Catholic church itself, still had a deep devotion to Mary as the grieving mother of God … Even in my pages Mary indeed remained an icon. I wished to give her a voice, let her speak, but I had no interest in reducing her or bringing her down to size.”

Lyn Gardner loves it: “Queues for sold-out theatre shows (and to get into Edinburgh venues) are often very friendly places – after all, you’ve a shared interest. In my time I’ve made one lifelong friend … and had interesting conversations with people I’d otherwise never have met. … An added pleasure is that you tend to see the same people you queued with, later the same evening.”

Simon Callow writes about how he came to co-create and star in a solo show titled The Man Jesus.