L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse Establishes Residency For Heavyweight Collective Of Black Theatre Talent

The group is called Cast Iron Entertainment, and includes Oscar-winning and Tony-nominated playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney and actors Sterling K. Brown, Glenn Davis, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Michael Hill, and André Holland. They’ll have complete freedom to create and develop projects, with no requirement of an end project committed to the Geffen. – The Hollywood Reporter

How Intimacy Directors Do Their Jobs

No less than dance or fight choreography, intimacy choreography consists of specific, repeatable movements, and intimacy directors find desexualized language to use with actors (as opposed to “More passionate!”) to create the right effect for the audience. Holly L. Derr talks with some of the creators of the practice of intimacy direction about how they developed it and use it. – HowlRound

At Santiago’s Theatre Festival As The Chilean Uprising Continues

“Sometimes comic, sometimes earnest, always indignant, Chilean theatre repeatedly gives voice to the abused, the angry and the dispossessed. … All this is consistent with a festival that has its roots in the underground resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship. Fiercely independent, Santiago a Mil sees itself on the side of the people and has accessibility in its DNA; the three-week festival attracts audiences of 200,000, of whom 150,000 pay nothing.” – The Guardian

The Freelance Theatre Designer Life Isn’t For The Faint Of Heart

Joanna Scotcher trained as a sculptor, but when she started trying to sculpt doorways between spaces and the human interactions in those spaces, one of her professors hinted that she might consider the theatre. But, she notes, “a career in design ‘isn’t financially viable’ for most people, and the opportunities on offer – unpaid work, training schemes, assistant designing – ‘remain the preserve of the privileged few.’ It’s something she is passionate about changing.” – The Stage (UK)

A New, Nationwide Initiative For Asian-American Theater

“The National Asian American Theater Company is starting a partnership with regional theaters across the country, aiming to foster inclusion of more Asian-American theater artists, technicians, administrators and community members through productions, outreach and other programming. The first partner theaters will be New York Theater Workshop, Soho Rep, Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn., and Two River Theater in Red Bank, N.J.” – The New York Times