The Wife of Willesden will be a monologue giving Smith’s modern spin on The Wife of Bath’s Tale from Canterbury Tales. The piece will premiere next year in her home neighborhood, the northwest London borough of Brent, as part of its programming as London’s Borough of Culture. – The Guardian
Category: theatre
Seeing Broadway While Brown
“I’ve written for every reputable publication in town. For as long as I’ve been attending theater in the city, my name and brown skin have made me the target of bullies and racists. I’ve been asked if I’m with the catering staff at theater critics events, been chastised by angry ushers to turn my cell phone off, even if I have never taken my device out of my pocket during a performance, and often been asked if I’m sure I belong in the orchestra, as ushers point me to the mezzanine. My skin has become so thickened by the mistreatment and rudeness of theater employees that I might as well be a walking callus.” – Broadway News
Seattle’s Intiman Theatre May Be Pulling Itself Away From The Edge Of The Cliff
“Shortly after a fundraising gala-brunch on Saturday, Nov. 2, Intiman announced it had raised $130,000 in one month (including the brunch), putting the theater close to its year-end goal of $200,000. Meeting that goal would leave the organization, which has operated with a roughly $1 million budget in recent years, with $150,000 cash on hand going into 2020.” – The Seattle Times
French Theatre That Kids Find More Compelling Than Their Screens
In an era of limitless on-demand entertainment, the timeworn art of French marionette theater continues to capture minds and hearts in this country in ways that smartphones, video games and the most seducing technologies can’t. – The New York Times
Lauren Gunderson On Giving (And Getting) Voice In The Theatre
Becoming the first woman to top the list of most-produced playwrights (in the 2017-18 U.S. season) was a feat, and this year’s return to the No. 1 spot might be even more impressive. But the 37-year-old writer’s quiet rise to the top of her profession isn’t just a personal victory, because she has built her success on telling women’s stories — and providing more (and more challenging) roles to female actors. – Arizona Republic
Broadway Is Becoming A Place For Chummy Nights With Actors And Their Fanbases
Seriously, it seems to be almost a new genre. “These performances were rendered with a disarming, self-interrupting casualness, suggesting a happy ham at home among friends. And they often directly involved the audience. ‘Do you want it? Do you want it?’ [Kristin] Chenoweth shouted to the audience, before she hit a high D in concluding a song. [Ian] McKellen, in his show’s second act, asked theatergoers to yell out names of plays by Shakespeare, to cue whatever he did next.” – The New York Times
The Greta Thunberg Of The Theatre
Isabella Madrigal, a tribally enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians in California, and a 17-year-old, figured out, as she had a hard time finding good roles, that she could shape her own narrative. She explains, “if there is a lack of Native actors, it’s because there’s a lack of Indigenous storytellers. This lack of representation goes beyond just not seeing a Native face in the media. That’s certainly part of the issue, but it’s not the entire thing because our defining stories are also missing from the national narrative.” – The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)
The Guardian’s New Chief Theatre Critic Is Neither White Nor Male
Arifa Akbar, who will succeed Michael Billington in the new year, has been a contributing reviewer and reporter for The Guardian for several years; she’s currently arts editor at Tortoise Media and spent 15 years at The Independent as news reporter, arts writer and literary editor. – The Guardian
American Theatre Depends On European State Investment
The box-office receipts of commercial theater are not solely attributable to private entrepreneurs and fierce capitalist competition. Broadway producers are buying an artistic sensibility and a talent for provocation honed in state-funded theatrical laboratories across Europe, plus expertise that is the product of working relationships stretching back decades. – The Atlantic
‘Slave Play’ Author Jeremy O. Harris Has Made For Himself A ‘For Colored Girls’-Style ‘Choreopoem’
“The new work, Black Exhibition” — which he developed under the pseudonym @GaryXXXFisher — “is described in the script as an attempt ‘to look at a queer black male psyche through the lens of its literary influences'” — those being, among others, Kathy Acker, Samuel R. Delany and Yukio Mishima. – The New York Times