Category: theatre

“The Pasadena Playhouse’s leadership aims to choose a script within three weeks – not for a play to mount on the stage that went dark Feb. 7 because of financial woes, but for a legal scenario the company can follow as it tries to settle about $2 million in debt and eventually return to the boards.”

“In recent years the tributes to Mr. Sondheim have come so thick and fast that they have begun to blur. While such celebrations tend to be messy affairs, ‘Sondheim: The Birthday Concert’ (directed by Lonny Price), was a model of organization, with a suave host (David Hyde Pierce) and witty leitmotifs woven into its structure.”

London stage veteran Sheila Hancock has just called British theatre folk and critics “snooty” about big West End musicals. “I beg to differ,” says Michael Billington, who says many of his colleagues are big fans and that he “was reared on the genre.” They’re just snooty about what gets onto West End stages these days.

The 42nd Street space still has “three theaters of varying sizes; an open lobby with a cafe and a bookstore; and the prominent [Frank] Gehry as designer.” It’s also “budgeted at a mere $60 million and is actually under construction, in contrast to the planned arts center at the World Trade Center site, which increasingly seems like a pipe dream.”

“Faced with declining revenues and shrinking audiences, the Laguna Playhouse will permanently downsize its operations, effective immediately.”

“These days, technology has introduced new ways to make theatre interactive. While the standard scripted play, performed without interruption before a silent, seated audience, is still the most common theatre experience, sound and video technologies have put powerful tools into the theatremaker’s hands. Working out how to use these tools requires a fair amount of trial and error, as the young and inexperienced producers of Apollo 13: Mission Control are the first to admit.”

“[T]he performers [of Canada’s] Les 7 Doigts de la Main don’t just dazzle by flying between poles; they offer up snippets of personal information as they irritate, bond and flirt with each other. They are so human, it feels all the more astonishing when they hurl themselves off poles. … [The Australian troupe] Circa’s show, meanwhile, strips back circus to a basic manipulation of form and space to create something akin to sculpture.”

“Exercises devised by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe theatre in London will see children aged 11 to 14 mirror the methods of professional actors at rehearsal” instead of reading the plays at their desks. “Written and oral assessments developed alongside the lessons will show how well students have understood the texts.”

“At first, 16 workers represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 461 were affected. They provide maintenance, ground crew and housekeeping services. But other union members representing production and sales, which make up about 160 members, also went on strike.”

“The eldest sister has been left slaving over a hot stove, while her younger sister flirts shamelessly and taunts her for being overweight. An argument breaks out: boiling oil is spilled. … This is not really a fractious family get-together (though it certainly feels like one) but a new play … being staged in various West Midlands kitchens for the next couple of weeks.”