Category: theatre

“The company expanded during the boom,” when it overtook “Lincoln Center Theater as the largest nonprofit theater in the country. But the past year has seen drops in fundraising and membership subscriptions,” as well as box-office disappointments. “And now the renewal of Roundabout’s biggest corporate sponsorship is in doubt.”

It was a star-studded night as alumni of Chicago’s Second City showed up to celebrate.

“Audio description is a program for the blind that translates visual images into spoken language. While it isn’t new – Wheelock Family Theatre pioneered the service in New England nearly 20 years ago and a number of area theaters, including the Huntington, New Repertory Theatre, Citi Wang Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, and Central Square Theatre, offer some access programming for the blind and deaf – Broadway Across America is increasing access, as are other cultural organizations in the region.”

“Washington has remained frustratingly and curiously off the short list of major world cities considered natural, routine stopping points in a key area: international theater. And more to the point, work from perhaps the most influential English-speaking theater country on Earth, Great Britain.”

“New York City and Chicago may have better reps as theater towns, but in the universe of Equity-waiver theaters, L.A. is the epicenter. Unlike Chi, there’s a bottomless reservoir of film and TV actors here or, at least, people who call themselves actors. In some ways, the L.A. scene recalls the network of tiny Manhattan theaters that used to exist in SoHo and the Village in the 1970s.”

“Equity has raised concerns about the state of regional theatre, claiming that the scale of in-house production in repertory houses across the UK has fallen, despite increased public investment.”

“In addition to replicating a riverboat, Show Boat usually requires a cast of about 50 and an orchestra of about 28. As a result only about a half-dozen theater companies tackled the show in 2008 in the United States.” In the frugal spirit of 2009, Northern Virginia’s Signature Theater has reconfigured the show for a cast of 24 and an orchestra of 15.

“After years of waiting, Peter Hinton has finally got the present he’s longed for under the Christmas tree: A quarter-century after it was disbanded, the National Arts Centre’s resident acting company has been reborn. Comprised of 18 actors from across the country, the NAC’s English Theatre Acting Company takes its first bow Dec. 11 in Ottawa.”

In only six weeks of curtain appeals at “A Steady Rain,” Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig raised a record-breaking $1,549,953 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

“After a nationwide search, the producers of the coming Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker have cast a vision-impaired 10-year-old as the understudy for the role of Helen Keller, to the delight of advocates for disabled actors who were concerned about the choice of a seeing, hearing actress to play Helen.”