Category: theatre

“Economic hardship has forced many independent theater groups and artists to shut down or move out of New York City in recent years. The experimental artistic spaces left standing, which have long served as a home and training ground for some of the biggest actors, writers, and directors in Hollywood and on Broadway, face a continuing challenge to make ends meet.” A new fund hopes to address that.

“The Milwuaukee Repertory Theatre announced Thursday that it has created a new large group of more loosely affiliated associate artists, essentially replacements for what was one of the last remaining resident companies of actors in America but nonetheless including the actors who were part of that group.”

“Let’s begin by acknowledging that all actors, especially stage actors, are brave. … But within that courageous profession, there are those who stand out as particularly fearless. They’re the tightrope walkers, the performers who straddle voids without nets or harnesses, who make you hold your breath in terror and release it in an ecstasy of relief.” Ben Brantley nominates Cate Blanchett and asks readers for their choices.

“Already dealing with a boycott from Toronto theatre artists, the board of directors of Factory Theatre may now face a wrongful dismissal suit from fired artistic director Ken Gass … who founded the theatre in 1970 and returned to its helm 15 years ago as it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.”

“When Katarzyna Szustow, head of communications for the Dramatyczny Theatre, was asked about its financial situation, she replied with a single word: tragic. The theatre has been operating since 1949. But in the five years since Szustow joined, the budget, dependent on subsidies from city authorities, has shrunk 30%.”

“David King, 56, received a call from Beijing hours after the £27m spectacular was watched by a global TV audience of over a billion. Contacts in the Chinese capital – where he already stages a hugely successful annual Christmas show – have asked him to bring a new Olympics-style musical by the end of the year.”

For Britain’s ongoing World Shakespeare Festival, National Theatre Wales has set itself up in a former RAF base for a production called Coriolan/us – “an ‘infusion’ of Shakespeare’s study of political and military might with Bertolt Brecht’s Coriolan, his unfinished, heavily leftwing attempt to update the play; translated excerpts will be layered with Shakespeare’s script.”

“During the era of agitprop theatre in the 1960s and 70s, when politically committed companies toured the UK, … no one would have imagined that a passionately leftwing theatre show would one day play to an audience of one billion and have a budget of £27m to spend. But, last Friday night and Saturday morning, that is exactly what happened.”

“How much would you pay for 10 minutes of theatre? £2? £3? Maybe even £5 if the actors ask really nicely? Might you decide to pay nothing at all? These are some of the questions posed by Bush Bazaar, an intriguing interactive show, conceived and produced by the theatre company Theatre Delicatessen.”