Category: theatre

Laura Collins-Hughes talks to playwright Paula Vogel, director Mark Brokaw, and actors Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse talk about the original 1997 Off-Broadway production and why they’ve always wanted to reunite and return to the play. – The New York Times

No one is arguing that theatre artists don’t deserve to be paid or shouldn’t be treated well. As Susie Medak, managing director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, pointed out, there’s simply a fundamental disconnect between the law and the creative process of theatre. “What concerns me the most is that this law doesn’t take into consideration at all the way creative artists work. It has a desire to codify everyone’s work. The impulse behind AB 5, in making everyone an employee, is that everyone will work according to standard work conditions.” – American Theatre

Jane Alexander, the 80-year-old actress who has starred in Ibsen, Shakespeare, and Chekhov, and, not incidentally, who was head of the NEA during the (first) culture wars, is onstage again, “eliciting raucous laughter” this time. – The New York Times

Carina del Valle Schorske: “If this musical is still our narrative ghetto, then the least we can do is make noise about what it feels like to live in it. In 2020, it feels exhausting.” – The New York Times

Charles McNulty: “I’m going to respect the tacit wishes of Mamet and not review the play as I would if it had had an official press opening. A work that’s still being tinkered with before it’s shipped to New York deserves the chance to evolve in peace even if it’s charging $50 a ticket to L.A. theatergoers. But the experience reminded me of what I admire about Mamet’s talent — the vigor and cunning of voices in all-out attack — and what I have found so off-putting since Oleanna — the stacking of the deck in ideological blood battles.” – Los Angeles Times

” It’s time to get our heads out of our collective asses and wake up to the fact that having a New York zip code does not make you a better actor by default.  Nor does wanting a better quality of life mean you’re less ambitious.  The industry has changed, and it’s time to put those outdated stereotypes to rest.” – Onstage Blog

Yolanda Bonnell isn’t the first artist to say that white critics get away with not knowing the cultural reference points of work outside of their own interests – but doesn’t cutting reviewers from different backgrounds off limit opportunities for learning? “You’re just perpetuating prejudice if you are not going to let people experience other cultures. If she wants more critics of color to review her, fine, invite them. But you shouldn’t stop other people from coming.” – The Guardian

“Indigenous performance has been grossly under-reviewed and while the tide is shifting, the lens with which predominantly white critics view the work has been problematic. The lack of IBPOC voices in the media—at a time when arts’ coverage is shrinking—means white critics are often the gatekeepers of success. There is often a tone along the lines of ‘I don’t understand this, therefore it’s not valid or good art.’ Aspects like style, movement, language, and music are at risk of being dismissed.” – Vice

“This choice might immediately strike some as counterintuitive; it certainly runs against the dominant conventions of criticism, in which theatres offer free tickets to all critics actively reviewing in their market, in exchange for reviews of their shows. Those reviews serve a number of functions including critical evaluation, historical record and support for future funding applications and, more immediately, they help get word out that the shows are happening.” – Toronto Star

“The management may demand in respect to its right to object to any song, speech, dialogue, business, costume or gesture that forms part of the production, that may offend the ticket buyer; which the management may represent. If withdrawal or alteration is not so made, the management reserves the right to refund ticket money at its discretion and to deduct the amount refunded from the settlement figure.”