Category: theatre

“It has always struck me as odd that governments understand the necessity to invest in other kinds of industry, but somehow think that creative industries can survive on their own.”

“The union representing cleaners, porters, elevator operators, matrons and other service workers at most Broadway theaters voted Wednesday to authorize a strike, according to reports. The union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, is in a dispute with the Broadway League, primarily over healthcare benefits.”

“After acquiring a new collection of theatre photography, the Victoria & Albert museum has launched a new interactive app that picks out the 100 most influential plays in postwar Britain.”

After making it through an emergency $49,000 fundraising campaign this fall, the Burbank company has a well-gregarded show onstage. “The theater is working toward a larger $500,000 fundraising goal by January … [to] cover the next two productions and reestablish marketing and fundraising.”

“The Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, which won this year’s Tony Award for best regional theater, won another victory on Tuesday – this time in court – and staved off the threat of eviction from its 7th Street home in the Lansburgh building.”

Mark Lawson: “During two new London West End musicals – The Bodyguard and Viva Forever! – a huge whoop came from women in the audience during sequences when an attractive man took off his shirt. … What’s striking about this response is to imagine what would happen if men behaved in this way.”

“Two recent Off Broadway plays and two works produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival are among the five finalists for the new $100,000 theater award established to honor Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his interest in American history.”

“Women buy more theatre tickets than men but are consistently under-represented in English theatre – comprising about a third of actors, writers and artistic directors, and only a quarter of directors – according to research.”

“The research, concentrating on the top 10 subsidised theatres for 2012-13, looked at female representation in a variety of areas from actors employed to the number of playwrights commissioned for the financial year 2011-12. Board of directors, chief executives and creative teams were also examined.”

“He was, of course, writing for all-male companies; and, though he wrote transcendent parts for women, there aren’t very many. … [Until] relatively recently, much of British theatre relied on the repertory system: a company of actors performing a handful of different plays in a season. Shakespeare would frequently sit at the heart of such a company; many new plays would therefore tend to be written for a similar gender balance.”