The collapse of the organization came quickly, just a few weeks after a group of former students accused longtime artistic director Burgess Clark of inappropriate behavior. The explosive allegations, including accusations by some students of touching and kissing during private lessons or while they were at his second home in Vermont, rocked the theater group and has triggered an investigation by police. No charges have been filed. – Boston Globe
Category: theatre
The People Behind The Puppets At The Revived Bob Baker Marionette Theater In LA
The puppeteers, volunteers, board and donors all got together to save the Marionette Theater after Baker died in 2014 – and after the theater was evicted from its space in 2018. Now, explains one of the puppeteers, when the show goes up in the revamped theatre, she’ll be “worried about the manipulations of the puppet in hand, but my fear goes away when I see the audience’s reaction. Everything becomes muscle memory. All you hear is your own breathing and comments from the audience, and you feel the warmth of the lights.” – LAist
The Business End Of U.S. Theatres’ Reliance On ‘A Christmas Carol’
Sure, it’s an almost guaranteed moneymaker, but it’s also “a community builder, a gateway drug, and a holiday tradition.” – American Theatre
Aleshea Harris Is A Young Playwright Fiercely Confronting U.S. Audiences On Race, History, And Power
Playwright Aleshea Harris, who won the Obie Award in 2018 for Is God Is, “is part of a vanguard of young, African American playwrights boring into questions of race and history through humor, drama, absurdity and tragedy. Their works reveal how the legacy of slavery continues to twist through the American consciousness.” – Los Angeles Times
What’s Happening On Broadway After Dark
Broadway is … people, of course, and despite how touristy some of the shows can get, “there’s still a weird, gritty New York patina in there somewhere,” says one of four photographers sent to find out more about the Broadway that isn’t just on stage. – The New York Times
Study Refutes Longstanding Claim That Molière Didn’t Write The Plays Attributed To Him
“The late blooming of Molière’s talent, his purported lack of education and culture, his busy agenda, and the lack of manuscripts are among the arguments that triggered a century-long debate. Systematic objections to these assertions have been provided. Yet, the sparsity of available archives has so far prevented the debate from ending,” the pair write in their paper Why Molière Most Likely Did Write His Plays, published on Wednesday in the open-access journal Science Advances. – The Guardian
Audible Is Becoming A Serious Theatre Company
“It’s not that plays are new to recordings, or that corporations never before invested in the stage. What is novel is how this company is commissioning dramatists to write plays for its global listener base and at the same time curating them for a narrower market of theatergoers. You might say that Audible is assembling a digital repertory company, with platforms both on air and on legs.” – The Washington Post
‘Star Wars’ Saga As Kabuki, Literally
“Star Wars Kabuki-Rennosuke and The Three Light Sabers, which are being staged in Tokyo, will combine plots from each of the franchise’s latest trilogy, substituting plots drawn from the days of feudal clan rivalry with drama from a galaxy far, far away. Ichikawa Ebizo XI, Japan’s pre-eminent kabuki actor, will take to the stage as Kylo Ren … in front of 50 winners of an online lottery.” (The performance will be live-streamed for the rest of us.) – The Guardian
The American Theatre Was Killing Me: Healing from Racialized Trauma in an Art Workspace
“In the following conversation, theatremaker Lauren E. Turner recounts her courageous healing journey from the depths of sustained racialized trauma working in a New Orleans theatre to the launching of her own theatre company, No Dream Deferred, into its first season this fall. Given the persistence of racialized trauma in white theatre institutions, we interrogate how — and if — people of color feel they have a place within them.” – HowlRound
This Year’s Evening Standard Theatre Award Winners
Andrew Scott was awarded for his role in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at the Old Vic, while Maggie Smith took the trophy for one-woman play A German Life at the Bridge. Lynn Nottage’s Sweat was named Best Play, following a successful run at the Donmar and in the West End. – London Evening Standard