Category: theatre

“David John Birrell was playing Colonel Ricci in the Donmar’s production of Sondheim’s Passion in October 2010, when a replica Colt 1851 Navy revolver misfired during a matinee, shooting debris into his right eye.”

“The playwright accused of lifting material from an iconic 1970s-era television show is winning support to fight what he and many in his community are saying is a violation of his First Amendment rights to fair use.”

“[It’s] hard to dispute the fact that the dominance of Shakespeare does crowd out new writing and other forms of theatre in Britain. So what to do? My suggestion is not that we should stop producing Shakespeare, but that we should have a brief – perhaps two-year – moratorium on funding his work.”

“If you flip the dial around to reality and competition TV shows, you’ll see chefs and restaurant owners commenting on food, fashion designers sitting alongside fashion editors checking out new designs, interior designers celebrating the designs of others, famous models telling wannabe models how to model, etc. In the newspaper, you can read poets’ reviews of new books of poems, and major fiction writers describing the merits of the latest big novel. … Why aren’t more theater practitioners critics?”

The UK’s first vaudeville festival has been rescheduled to May 2013, joining a list of other fests cancelled this summer due to rain and flood fears.

She: “[It’s] healthy, anarchic randomness [mixed with] rational, militaristic-like precision.” He: “[It’s] the marriage of the business and the art, which isn’t necessarily an unhappy marriage. … Because in the end, you want happy audiences. You want people to come and see your shows. No one’s trying –” She: “– to be Grotowski. It’s just guiding the right audience to the right show.” He: “We haven’t quite cracked that yet, but we’re working on it.”

“What I am struck by … is that none of the women are awarded interiority in nearly the same measure as the male characters. No soliloquies of any note, although Cleopatra comes nearest, achieving a Lear-like clarity about her place in the world after the death of Antony. And none of them earn the lengthy scholarly analysis accorded the eponymous heroes of the canon.”

The Nightingale, a new musical “adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story, is set in ancient China but features a multi-ethnic cast of mostly non-Asians. The lead role of a Chinese ruler is played by a white actor.” While artistic director Christopher Ashley is “sympathetic with the need for more Asian Americans in theater, … [he says] Asian Americans have benefited from the company’s use of color-blind casting in the past.”

Scottish theatre has a strong buildings infrastructure but is not creating enough product to fill it, according to a comprehensive review of the sector published by Creative Scotland.

“The idea is to create an experience where you come and you have a great time seeing a play. But, in addition, you then get to pursue that some more, think more about it, learn more about it and feel more about it as you visit Stratford.”