Category: theatre

“This is very much the point: to remove young directors from a life of pure theatre (where the only thing that matters is finding plays and putting them on), and expose them instead to the nuts-and-bolts of how buildings run. It’s intended to be mutually beneficial: the trainee gets mentored, while hard-pressed regional artistic directors get another pair of hands.”

“The schools superintendent in Waterbury, Conn., is seeking to shut down a production of one of August Wilson’s great dramas, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, because some of the teenage actors would have to utter the word ‘nigger’ as called for in the script.”

“Of those who go to the pub, 43% said they had already cut spending, compared with only 21% of theatre audiences. In addition, 5% of theatre-goers said they intended to go more, compared to just 1% of pub-goers.”

“That’s why the musical could only have been born here: New York is all these little countries sharing a city. All the different rhythms of those different communities is what made the American musical possible.”

“Fears have been raised about the impact last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review will have on UK amateur theatre, with a poll revealing that half of those involved in the sector feel less optimistic about its future as a result of recent cuts.”

Julie Taymor’s musical, which has not yet officially opened, surpassed “Wicked” in box-office receipts by just $58, according to data released Monday by the Broadway League.

“The Tricycle Theater will present two special performances of The Great Game: Afghanistan, its seven-hour marathon of short plays about Afghanistan’s history of foreign occupations, for the Pentagon on Feb. 10 and 11.”

“Donaldson, known to television audiences as Ian Bowles on the series Emily of New Moon and Reverend Leonard on Road to Avonlea, was an in-demand talent with a strong masculine stage presence who continued to act steadily in Toronto and Stratford, Ont. even as he waged a battle against cancer over the last two years.”

“In an agreement approved this week, 3D will finance and produce Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s entire 2011 season at Fullerton High School’s Plummer Auditorium. The company will assume FCLO’s $570,000 obligation to subscribers by accepting its tickets to the season’s musicals without charging additional fees.”

“If a critic’s job is to assess the total merits of a work of art — or at least a gaudy chunk of entertainment — reason also argues that the entertainment should be allowed to achieve the completed form its creators had envisioned before judgment is rendered.”