Category: theatre

“Considering London’s first-class reputation for theatre venues, it’s a shame that some of them appear to be in such disrepair backstage, particularly when so much has been done to improve those areas used by the public.”

“The Tony award-winning theater is laying off about 10 percent of its full-time staff — between 40 and 50 employees — and also eliminating five seasonal workers, switching six year-round contracts to seasonal work, instituting a hiring freeze, cutting production costs and reducing salaries from 1 percent to 4.5 percent.”

“At its peak, the theater drew more than 27,500 subscribers and some 300,000 people a year, making it the largest regional theater in New England. The closing has led to finger-pointing and recriminations.”

“Once Liza Minnelli has been given an award, can anyone else truly win it? In the case of the Tony Award for special theatrical event, the answer is an unequivocal no. The Tonys will no longer bestow an award in that category starting with the 2009-2010 season, its press representatives said in a news release.”

“A small Philadelphia theater company called Hotel Obligado folded in December – which ended up, oddly, being good news. After producing offbeat and new work for eight years, Hotel Obligado closed with a surplus of about $5,000 – which has become its legacy, funding the city’s newest theater prize, the Hotel Obligado Audience Choice Award for New Work. A $1,000 chunk of it will be given to one of five small local companies tomorrow night….”

“Over the last five years, he has tackled the Iraq war, political party funding and railway privatisation. Now, David Hare is turning his attention to another weighty and pressing subject: the banking meltdown. The National Theatre’s director, Nicholas Hytner, approached the playwright in early April to write what the theatre calls ‘an urgent and immediate work’ investigating the cause and effect of the financial crisis.”

“Intiman Theatre has named New York stage director Kate Whoriskey as its next artistic director,” succeeding Bartlett Sher. “[I]n an unusual process, she will work with Sher as his co-artistic director through 2010. … The Intiman board hired her at Sher’s strong suggestion, without a customary national search for other candidates — another rare move.”

“A perceived split between Off Broadway’s MCC Theater and the org’s longtime writer-in-residence Neil LaBute appears to amount to little more than a production delayed for scheduling reasons. A previously announced staging of LaBute’s play ‘The Break of Noon’ did not appear as part of MCC’s recent announcement of its 2009-10 season, spurring speculation in print that LaBute and MCC … were parting ways.”

“Last year, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Her Naked Skin became the first play by a living female playwright ever to be staged in the National’s largest auditorium, the Olivier – a fact that, understandably, caused a stir. This year, the number of twenty something British female writers coming up through the ranks suggests the venerable theatre could soon be hosting a slew of exciting new plays by women.”

The playwright-screenwriter “has called New York’s MCC Theater his creative home for close to seven years. But … MCC said it has canceled its much-awaited production of LaBute’s latest play, The Break of Noon. On top of that, a representative for LaBute told The [L.A.] Times today that she is uncertain if he will remain the company’s playwright-in-residence.”