After decades living and working all over the U.S., actor-director-choreographer Robert Barry Fleming is now in his first season as artistic director of one of the country’s most important regional theatres. He tells Diep Tran, “It’s taken me 50 years to be afforded my ‘Jackie Robinson moment’: the chance to lead a large, multi-million dollar institution, and I believe that may have less to do with my ability or readiness to do the job, and more about the dominant culture demonstrating readiness.” – American Theatre
Category: theatre
Can A Rope Bondage Show Empower Women? These Two Actor-Aerialists Think So
Everything I See I Swallow, which scored a success at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe and is now touring regional England, involves “the art of shibari, the centuries-old practice of Japanese rope bondage … It’s the spark for a piece of theatre that speaks to something universal and pressing, about the rights of women over their own bodies, the ramifications of digital life, and that knotty old question: can it ever be empowering for a woman to take her clothes off in public?” – The Guardian
Theatre Ontario To Close After 48 Years
The organization works with theatre companies and professionals at all levels, including amateur, professional, and educational, with advocacy, education, and training, and has run many programs to that end, including the Talent Bank, and Summer Theatre Intensive. – Ludwig Van
Seeing ‘Slave Play’ As A Black Person, With An All-Black Audience
Aisha Harris: “At one point during the performance — as the white woman … used a black dildo on her [black] partner … while they pretended to be the mistress and slave on a plantation — my colleague, seated next to me, said, ‘Imagine seeing this with white people!’ I could absolutely imagine it, and thus understood why this specially curated audience needed to exist.” – The New York Times
New York Mag/Vulture Theater Critic Sara Holdren Steps Down
“I’m stepping away from full-time criticism to pursue more directing, but there’s no disentangling the two pursuits for me now. … Critic and director must both articulate a vision and relate it to the wider world. Both are authors, whether of an argument or an event. Both must contextualize; both must reveal themselves in the work; both must dream the future of the form they love. I’m off now to a different kind of dreaming.” (ninth paragraph) – Vulture
What Royal Shakespeare Company’s Decision Not To Take Oil Company Money Means
“The RSC’s move will make it much harder for other arts institutions such as the Royal Opera House, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery to keep taking money from oil companies on the grounds that it helps widen access. It may signal the start of the arts world distancing itself from oil companies.” – The Stage
Why Hasn’t A Lauren Gunderson Play Been On Broadway Yet?
It’s a little weird – well, one might call it something other than weird, but it also is weird – that Lauren Gunderson, the most produced playwright in the U.S. aside from Shakespeare, hasn’t been on Broadway. As a matter of fact, she’s rarely produced in NY at all. So: “Is New York City ready for the rest of America’s favorite playwright?” – Slate
Lighting Projection Design Is Changing More Than Broadway And Big Regional Theatres
Projection design is that cool part of theatre where – poof! – an entire kingdom can freeze over, as in the Broadway and touring versions of Frozen, or where, in Anastasia, “a stage-spanning LED wall displays landscapes that move in tandem with [a] train.” And it’s more portable than a huge, multi-part set, too. – Los Angeles Times
London’s National Theatre To End Funding From Shell
The National Theatre joins the Royal Shakespeare Company, which had been deliberating for quite some time before ending its longtime “relationship” with BP (formerly British Petroleum). Pressure from youth, climate activists, and even its own artists means that “the National Theatre has announced it will end Shell’s membership from next year, as the arts organisation accelerates plans to make itself carbon neutral in the face of the climate emergency.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Woman Who Changed Hawai’i – And International – Theatre Forever
Jane Campbell, who died in March at 87, served as the managing director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth for more than four decades. “At a time when theatre for children was seeking a place at the American professional theatre table, Jane quietly yet determinedly guided her company from a tiny community ensemble to a fully professional company with national and international recognition.” – American Theatre