Category: theatre

“Having arrived in 1971 for what was supposed to be a one-year stage-managing job, James Haire stayed on to become ACT’s production manager in 1985 and producing director in 1994, working with all three of its artistic directors, founder William Ball, Edward Hastings and Carey Perloff.”

How to explain the sticky allure of a show that has been mocked not once but twice on “Saturday Night Live”? Don’t discount the NASCAR factor: There is a reasonable possibility of seeing a crash.

“Intiman Theatre has nearly met its urgent March 31 fundraising goal of $500,000. The Seattle Center company has also retained the services of veteran Seattle arts administrator and consultant Susan Trapnell, and announced that its interim manager, Melaine Bennett, is leaving the theater.”

Playwright Christopher Shinn: “After premiering plays on both sides of the Atlantic, I’ve realised that from ticket prices to timing, London and New York audiences demand very different things from theatre.”

“In 1984, Time proclaimed that with the Olympic Arts Festival, in which the best of the best of world theater strutted on our stages, Los Angeles theater had finally come of age. It hadn’t. The energy and the money slowly dissipated, revealing, at best, the subtlest of changes. Jaded local observers are quick to point out our cyclical tendency toward overenthused hyperbole. Will the summer of ’11 reiterate or end that cycle?”

“Just as everything about certain high street shops is designed to discourage middle-aged frumps such as myself from darkening their doors, so theatre-makers constantly send out messages about their work that will encourage particular audiences to book.”

“The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is a paradox. It generates a return of more than $20 million [Aus] over four weeks as Australia’s largest ticketed arts and cultural event, yet is seeking to increase its support from the state government by nearly a third.”

This week the Montreal folkmusic/comedy duo Bowser and Blue is opening a musical about Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen, one of the city’s (and Canada’s) culinary landmarks. And yes, the show includes an interloper from Toronto and a singing pickle.

“If you haven’t heard much about it, there could be a reason. The Westwood theater’s ads have been refused, kicked over into the online ghetto of adults-only advertising, or forced to be toned-down and run without the name of the play. Google banner ads featuring the naked blow up dolls seen here were rejected, as were ads without the faux nudity and showing just the dolls’ faces.”

“[In] the 1930s, as part of the Works Project Administration and under the aegis of the Federal Theater Project, the Living Newspaper came into being and codified the genre [of modern docu-drama], drawing on techniques first introduced by Bolshevik artists and the Italian futurists.”