Category: theatre

“It took an outsider, a Canadian architect, to break with the usual habits of large civic architecture in the nation’s capital. Bing Thom has managed to design a structure that takes seriously the moral imperatives of contemporary architecture — sustainability, preservation, social transparency and fidelity to the needs of the client — without falling into cliche, empty bombast or hollow functionality.”

“Arena Stage is about to make the most dramatic entrance in its storied, 60-year history, reintroducing itself to the city in a radical new shape, with a $135 million remodeling that seeks to turn it into a gleaming fixture of Southwest Washington and a national center for the presentation, development and study of American theater.”

“Ensconced in apartments overlooking Boston Common, working on campus, [resident professional companies] will invite students and faculty into the process if and as they see fit, and cross paths with members of the local community, who in turn will get to watch the evolution of the work up close. And as that work goes out into the world, ArtsEmerson’s name will go with it.”

“Tourists who visited the theatre last year helped boost the UK’s economy by £2.8 billion, Visit Britain has said. The national tourism agency said that 10% of the 30 million overseas tourists who came to the UK in 2009, went to see a stage show.”

Britain’s trade paper The Stage has launched a reader poll to name “the greatest stage actor of all time.” Of the ten candidates, all are English (though one was born in Ireland), four are dead, only three are female, and only one is under 70.

“Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 hit movie Strictly Ballroom, which starred Paul Mecurio, is to become a multimillion-dollar stage musical, with a world premiere expected in 2013. Luhrmann said yesterday creative workshops would begin in Sydney in November.”

“Montreal’s Centaur Theatre plans a new musical about Schwartz’s deli, the local landmark known for its smoked meat.”

On Ageing, now at London’s Young Vic, “strive[s] to capture the experience of ageing at different stages, drawing on conversations with a wide range of people, from a four-year-old girl who regarded herself as an adult to an 86-year-old woman who insisted on the value of parties.”

“His plays belong to the jazz age, full of the wit, sophistication and, some critics claim, shallowness of the roaring 1920s and decadent 1930s. … Now fans and producers say modern sensibilities are bringing a new appreciation to the full complexity of Coward’s work – often about sexual morality and society’s double standards – that was overlooked at the time.”

“Brown has been a part-time reviewer for the magazine for the last two years, and previously worked at Entertainment Weekly and is concluding his tenure as a columnist for Wired.“