“The cast was strip-searched before boarding the bus to their show. The leading man was shackled so tightly that he performed with abrasions on his wrists. And the moment the men finished their bows and the house lights came up, they had to slip out of costume and back into green prison uniforms.” – The New York Times
Category: theatre
‘My Actual Goal Is To Be The Anthony Bourdain Of Theatre’: Helen Shaw, New York Magazine’s New Critic
“I want to say to readers: You have no idea that you want to go to this weird corner and eat these spicy noodles, but trust me, you’ll love it. If I could do one millionth of that for theatre, I’d be happy.” (On the other hand: “I love theatre, but I am not a fan. I don’t feel like a fan. And I do get very, very angry at things.”) – American Theatre
Why Theatre In Los Angeles Is Missing Its Potential
Charles McNulty: “What is the distinctive stamp of L.A. theater? In posing this question to myself, I find my answer to be dismayingly similar to what I would have said when I moved to Los Angeles from New York 14 years ago to be The Times’ theater critic. The theater has remained decentralized, widely variable in quality and ambition, and sorely in need of institutional leadership able to meet the self-regard of a city that, long out of New York’s shadow, has come to recognize itself as a global metropolis.” – Los Angeles Times
What Does It Mean To Be An Audience, And How Does An Arts Institution ‘Develop’ It?
The idea of audience development as a solution has taken over everything in arts organizations, but there’s more to it, at least from the audience side. “Being an audience member means being a citizen, customer, community member, and worker. It is a sort of control interface for ruling.” – HowlRound
Your Living Room Is The Stage
Well, what the heck: “Agreeing to host an immersive show when not connected to the company is a daring step. The spaces are not – for obvious reasons – designed for it. The host is not a professional. The address may be anywhere and so guarantees of ticket sales for any given postcode may be complicated. But people came. Strangers came into my home.” – The Stage (UK)
A Seattle Theatre’s Existential Question: What’s The Cost Of Survival?
“Sustainable. It was one of the hot buzzwords in the funding community a few years ago, until some began questioning why it was desirable to enable artistically limp arts organizations be better able to limp along. Sometimes perhaps it’s better to declare victory and acknowledge you’ve said all you needed to say.” – Post Alley
Who’s The Father Of Today’s Black Theater Renaissance? August Wilson? No, It’s Tyler Perry
Wesley Morris: “Maybe it’s not immediately obvious. But it makes sense. He’s the biggest black playwright in America. If you were a kid, teenager or barely an adult in the 2000s, living in a black city and attracted to the stage, it would be hard for Perry not to become someone to revere, reckon with or resist.” – The New York Times Magazine
The Play That Made Me Understand Why ‘Porgy And Bess’ Can Be Stifling
Soraya Nadia McDonald: “Does it still make sense to present an opera written by [four whites] as the opera about black American life? Is it a collection of insulting stereotypes set against gorgeous orchestrations, or something more? Attending a performance of Porgy and Bess helped clarify some of those questions for me. But it was another show altogether that helped me reframe how to think about them: Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor.” – The Undefeated
Helen Shaw Is New Theater Critic At New York Magazine And Vulture
“Shaw was most recently theater critic at Time Out New York and 4Columns.org, and was awarded the 2018 George Jean Nathan Award for theater criticism. (The previous year’s winner was Sara Holdren, her predecessor in the job, who is leaving the magazine to return to full-time directing.)” – New York Magazine
Why Netflix On Broadway Is Good For Both Of Them
The streaming giant is renting the Belasco Theatre in midtown Manhattan for a four-week, eight-shows-a-week Broadway-style run of its latest major feature, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. Howard Sherman explains the benefits that Netflix, the Shubert Organization (owner of the Belasco), and Broadway more generally could get from the unusual arrangement. – The Stage