Category: theatre

What I’ve discovered through my repeat visits may surprise you: I don’t always agree with myself.

“If there isn’t Broadway-style buzz in downtown Boston, at least there’s palpable energy, rather than the depression of empty streets and marquees advertising long-shuttered shows.”

Recent studies in both Canada and the United States reveal that key artistic positions continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by men. “If the same data were coming out about cultural diversity on our stages, nobody would ever challenge it. It’s taboo. But as soon as you talk about equity for women, they start saying, ‘You can’t control my artistic choice’.”

“Audiences in the 12 months to 18 July were up 2.5% on the similar period last year, with box office takings up 3.5%. Nearly 7m visits were made to shows in the first half of the year.”

“In a small Kansas town that inspired some of William Inge’s most melancholy characters, about two dozen never-before-performed plays are poised to become the found treasures of his collected works. These plays were not hidden in the proverbial cedar chest in a dusty farmhouse but languishing in a college library in obscurity and solitude, like a tragic Inge heroine.”

“From New York City to Edinburgh to Adelaide, Australia, fringe theater festivals have become a staple of summertime culture, with troupes of actors producing experimental work on shoestring budgets and set-less stages. But none of these dozens of festivals are quite like the five-year-old Berkshire Fringe, in western Massachusetts, where its organizers work out of a cafe on Main Street because the wireless Internet is free.”

“An evening exploring the controversy surrounding Jeremy Piven’s surprise departure from the recent Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow will be presented at Joe’s Pub next month. … The evening was created by Alena Smith (Public Emerging Writers Group 2009) with Jordan Seavey (EWG ’09) and Anna O’Donoghue.”

“Granted, it took a decade to arrive at this point and, granted, the world looks askance on this country’s lack of zeal in prosecuting white-collar crime. But still, the moment seemed such muted theatre, so dissonant for the Ziegfeld-like producer of Phantom of the Opera and Showboat and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Alexis Soloski: “[T]he [NY] International Fringe Festival begins on 14 August, and I’ve been planning my schedule for the opening weekend. In two and a half days I’ll see more than a dozen shows, and, if this year is anything like the last 10, I’ll also have to deal with too little sleep, too much pizza, freezing air conditioning, boiling sun, torrential rain and several of the worst plays I will see all year.”

“Livent founder Garth Drabinsky has been sentenced to seven years in prison for an accounting fraud that propelled the theatre company onto the global stage before leading to its collapse. Drabinsky’s business partner and co-defendant Myron Gottlieb was sentenced to six years. … Prosecutor Alex Hrybinsky had asked for prison terms of eight to 10 years, noting that neither man has shown remorse.”