“Pundits use Kabuki as a synonym for ‘posturing.’ … But how did Kabuki, one of Japan’s most revered arts, come to signify loathsome fakery? Kabuki escaped derision only so long as no one had heard of it. The Japanese initially considered it too difficult to export; indeed, seeing a Kabuki play cold is like tuning into Lost midseason.”
Category: theatre
LAByrinth Finds Public Theater Too Expensive To Collaborate With
“One of New York’s most fruitful recent theatrical collaborations has been between the LAByrinth Theater Company and the Public Theater … But with LAByrinth’s last major show at the Public, The Little Flower of East Orange in 2008, costing about $600,000 to mount, LAByrinth leaders concluded that the partnership had become financially unsustainable.”
Anatomizing The Evolution Of A Play
At its Philadelphia opening in January, Terrence McNally’s Golden Age “was obese, indulgent”; at the Kennedy Center in March, it was “shorter by 40 minutes” and “had acquired punch, and charm.” It’s “an example of the way new American theater can evolve when an estimable playwright and a high-level theater company with access to talent and money are involved.”
NYC Theatre Company Borrows A Game Plan From Farming
Stolen Chair Theatre Company’s approach is modeled on a “Community Supported Agriculture program, in which, at the start of growing season, members pay a lump sum to farmers and then, throughout the summer, reap the harvested benefits.” Rather than buying produce, theatregoers pay a fee to fund the development of a play.
South Park, Avenue Q Creators Write A Broadway Musical
“The show is called ‘The Book of Mormon,’ and it will open on Broadway next March. … The musical tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of Uganda.”
Angry About This Year’s Pulitzer For Drama? Don’t Bother
Ben Brantley: “I have never bought a book, read a poem or seen a play because it was by a Pulitzer winner. So any indignation being vented over this year’s Pulitzer Prize in drama leaves me a bit mystified.”
Royal Shakespeare Co. Launches Twitter ‘Romeo & Juliet’
With a message from @julietcap16 last Sunday, the RSC has begun a new adaptation of the star-crossed lovers’ tragedy, “improvised by a cast of six RSC actors from a story grid, taking in audience responses and real events,” played out entirely via Twitter over the course of five weeks. The title of this version is … wait for it … Such Tweet Sorrow.
Objections May Torpedo Laramie Project In East Texas
“We are told the Tyler Civic Theatre received at least three letters from citizens expressing concern about the subject matter of the play. Just days ago, the information on the upcoming play was pulled from the civic theatre’s website.”
Next To Normal Is Surprise Winner Of Drama Pulitzer
“Few observers expected such a seeming downer of a show to survive on Broadway, let alone pack in audiences for more than a year.” (With video.)
How A Company Of Actors Imploded
The Sydney Theatre Company was to be “a company of elite Australian actors to something special and virtually unheard of: they would enjoy a degree of control over their destinies. They would produce fine work, born in a loving and safe rehearsal where every actor’s voice would be listened to.” So far so good. But then…