Category: theatre

Faye Dunaway Fired From Broadway-Bound One-Woman Show After Assaulting Crew Members

Producers of Tea at Five, a solo show by Matthew Lombardo about Katherine Hepburn that had been in a pre-Broadway tryout in Boston, said that they had “terminated their relationship” with Dunaway and would take the show to London with a new star next year. If we can believe Michael Riedel’s report (seemingly confirmed by the playwright), Dunaway’s screaming at and slapping of backstage staff was part of a pattern of behavior reminiscent of soprano Kathleen Battle’s reign of terror in the 1990s. – New York Post

L.A. Theatre Fires Director Five Days Before Play’s Opening, Cast Quits, Production Is Cancelled, And Questions Of Race And Privilege Remain

“On the day before the California premiere of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, a play about the harsh realities facing black men in America, Echo [Theater Company] staff on July 12 sent an email to patrons and posted a notice on its website: ‘Pass Over is not going to open due to internal artistic differences that cannot be reconciled.'” Reporter Makeda Easter looks into the mess. – Los Angeles Times

‘Radical Hospitality’ — Why Seattle’s Intiman Theatre Has Made All Its Tickets Free

“The initiative, artistic director Jen Zeyl explained, is about more than the standard theater problem of getting ‘butts in seats.’ (Though, of course, there’s that.) It’s about getting the butts one wants in seats — not just the people who can afford to take the $25+ crap shoot known as a theater ticket, but the people who can’t: the woman at the corner store, high-school sophomore, the guy asking for spare change on the sidewalk.” – The Seattle Times

Shakespeare In Canada, Set In India

It’s the first time a Bard on the Beach production has been set in India – and that’s a boon for Sarena Parmar, the woman playing Helena, who grew up one of very, very few kids of color in Kelowna, B.C. But the country has changed, she says. “Bard on the Beach has been making a push for diversity, but even so, this is the first time it’s had such a large South Asian cast. ‘We’re getting so many more South Asians coming to see the show and suddenly they can see themselves in the story in a way that maybe they couldn’t before,’ [Parmar] said.” – CBC

When Plays Have Rape Scenes, What’s The Right Thing To Do For Theatre Profs And Students?

Should a theatre prof be responsible for taking her students to a play that has scenes with violence and rape? And perhaps more to the point, does theatrical responsibility extend to warning those in the potential audience who have experienced gendered violence? (And finally, why are some people worried that warnings might be required – what’s it to them?) – Howlround