Category: theatre

The Times Square International Theater Festival, “which will run Jan. 16 to 22, will feature nearly a score of works from three continents at the Times Square Arts Center on West 43rd Street.”

Theatre workers have a code of ethics (a 1945 code, but a code nonetheless). Should playwrights? A list, and lively discussion in the comments, ensues.

“Broadway’s three nonprofit companies … look more like profit-making, Tony-seeking hit factories these days.” Hurray! The theatres aren’t dying. But is this drive for profit harming the creation of new work?

No death by a thousand cuts for the Broadway Theatre – a borough council in London just axed its entire £331,000 grant.

“The plans, which would have seen charging extended until midnight from Monday to Saturday and introduced between 1pm and 6pm on Sundays from January 2012, were deeply unpopular in Theatreland.”

“The Olympics may be some seven months away, but producers in London’s Theatreland are already trying to predict what might happen to their audiences during July and August.”

“Last season’s audience was 65 percent female, 83 percent caucasian, 78 percent college-educated, with an average age of 44 and an average annual household income of $244,100.”

“He’s been stripped naked, dehumanised and denounced as a traitor, yet thousands regard him as the hero of the WikiLeaks saga. Now a new play inspired by Bradley Manning’s years in Wales, which aims to put him in the pantheon of great Welsh radicals, will be staged in his old school.”

“Dwarf actors have been axed from Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre because … after stingy producers replaced professional actors with children as part of [a] cost-cutting measure.” Dwarf actor groups are furious – as are some audience members.

“The so-called Live Theatre Production Tax Credit, long sought by Broadway in Chicago, is designed to support Illinois engagements of pre-Broadway and long-running shows in theaters of 1,200 seats or more. It provides producers with tax credits in return for their spending in the State of Illnois; up to 20% of spending on such things as labor and marketing can be applied.”