Category: theatre

Pop-Up Replica Of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre Collapses; Brexit Gets Blamed

The actual theatre didn’t physically collapse, though: the company that operated the venue in York for the past two summers, with a second replica at Blenheim Palace near Oxford this past summer, has run out of money and is liquidating. Audience numbers this year were barely more than half what was projected; for this, the company’s owners blame Brexit. – BBC

Climate Activists Threaten Boycott Of Royal Shakespeare Company

Why? Because the RSC accepts sponsorship money from BP, which funds the company’s program offering £5 tickets to young adults. Says an open letter just sent to the theatre, “If we, as young people, wish to see an affordable play at your theatre we have to help to promote a company that is actively destroying our futures by wrecking the climate.” – The Guardian

Staff Versus Board: Seattle’s Intiman Theatre On Verge Of Closing?

At a contentious meeting Wednesday night, Intiman’s board of directors laid out a stark vision for the nearly 50-year-old arts organization, saying it was out of money and would probably have to close in October. Intiman’s staff, led by artistic director Jen Zeyl, and a collection of roughly 10 arts leaders and philanthropists from around the city, seemed to think otherwise. – Seattle Times

The Night Broadway’s ‘Slave Play’ Was Performed For An All-Black Audience

The producers of Jeremy O. Harris’s daring drama set aside all 804 seats on Sept. 18 for Black theatregoers, and they marketed the event almost entirely through direct outreach. Harris was thrilled by that night’s atmosphere: “People got out of their seats to go to the bathroom when they needed, people spoke, people laughed loudly, talked back, people (mon dieu!) texted with their ringers off and screens turned low. And the whole room felt free.” – American Theatre

Theatre Ticket Prices Just Go Higher And Higher. Time Was, Folks Rioted Over That.

Back in 1809, the newly renovated Theatre at Covent Garden in London raised the cost of the cheapest tickets by half a shilling, and people fought in the streets over this for three months. (Twenty people died.) In 2019, prices have, in some cases, more than doubled in the past ten years as most people’s pay has remained stagnant — and folks do little more than grouse or stop going. Alice Saville argues that high prices warp audience expectations and, ultimately, the art itself. – Exeunt Magazine