Category: theatre

When seeing Our Town brought him exactly no solace over the death of his father, Ed Schmidt had a revelation: “If great theater is no use to him in a moment of crisis, then it’s not worth spending his life trying to create it.”

“After pitching a Shakespeare-themed performance – which can be a straight text, an evening of sonnets or a devised piece inspired by Shakespeare – the amateur theatres will be eligible to attend an exchange event, hosted by theatres across the UK. … A selection of the performances will be showcased at the RSC theatres in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2012.”

“The normally staid world of Japanese kabuki theatre is scrambling to salvage its reputation after its most famous exponent was forced to apologise over a drunken brawl that has temporarily halted his career.”

Local urban planners and developers are “counting on the $135 million expansion of the Arena Stage to be the catalyst for an ambitious, approximately $2 billion makeover of the Southwest waterfront and surrounding blocks.”

“If [a theater] company uses tools of journalism and benefits from the authority of real reporting, does it have an increased responsibility to journalistic standards? Is it enough to aim for the essence of truth, or should its artists also be concerned about conflicts of interest or that famously elusive virtue, balance?”

“A last minute campaign to try and halt the refurbishment and upgrade of Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms is gathering support from performers and audiences who have used the iconic Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue over the last 30 years.”

“Mark W. Jones, the former executive director of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., has been appointed president and chief executive of the State Theater in New Brunswick, N.J. … ‘It’s the first job I’ve had in 20 years where I haven’t had to do a financial rescue,’ Mr. Jones said.”

“The playwright Douglas Carter Beane called to say that the female protagonists in the musical Lysistrata Jones, for which he wrote the book, are no longer a squad of college cheerleaders; they are simply the girlfriends of players on the men’s basketball team at the school.”

“The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced a five-year plan to present an annual London season of work at the Roundhouse in Camden.”

“If Spider-Man is going to be a hit, it’ll have to be a giant one, because I can’t see this property making its money back off royalties from high-school productions down the road.”