Category: theatre

Comedians from Africa in the Bronx, from China or India in Queens, from Russia or the Arab world in Brooklyn – “In a city where a priest, an imam and a rabbi really could walk into a bar on any given day – along with just about anyone from around the globe – what different cultures laugh at is as diverse as the city itself.”

“The Windham-Campbell Prizes, a new literary award from Yale University, has announced its inaugural roster of winners. Among the nine recipients are three playwrights — Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tarell Alvin McCraney.

“Welcome to the quirky world of nerdlesque, or nerd burlesque, a place where women performers of all shapes and sizes bare their geeky souls, strip down to pasties and panties – and boldly go where no man has gone before.” Show titles include A Super Mario Burlesque and The Burl-X-Files.

“Hale’s done what few other theater companies can do. They get people into the theater who perhaps have never been to a theater before. That said, if their operating budget has grown by $900,000 in one year alone, and in tough economic times, why do they need legislative support?”

“The move, announced Saturday evening, provides a surprisingly quick solution to at least part of the performance-space crisis that cropped up last month when the owner of the Theater! Theatre! building on Southeast Belmont Street decided to convert the two auditoriums there into office and warehouse space for a retail tea business.”

The strike would have affected 41 theatres around the U.K. but could have hit the West End particularly hard.

“Housed in a ground-floor flat once occupied by the apartment block’s doorwoman, the Casa de La Portera is part of a cultural revolution as Spanish theatre, like other arts, finds ways to survive a recession that has seen it sucked dry of what used to be its lifeblood – public subsidies.”

“Cabaret is a form that thrives on conspiratorial collaboration – and low overheads. … Fusing song, poetry, sketches, jazz, dance and theatre, cabaret demolished boundaries between high and low culture, artists and audience.”

“Puppetry has been part of Britain’s cultural landscape for over 600 years and still uses many of its original techniques … but we’re still not bored by it. In fact, whether it’s Anthony Minghella’s sumptuous Madam Butterfly, or the multiple Tony award-winning stage adaptation of War Horse, we seem to love it now more than ever. Why so?”