Category: theatre

“Bay Area theaters are undergoing the greatest amount of flux since the mid-1980s, when the founding artistic leaders of American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and San Jose Repertory Theatre were replaced. And there’s more.”

“The Denver Center Theatre Company’s Colorado New Play Summit made such strides in its third year it already is being recognized as one of the most important new-play events in America.”

“So what do this year’s casting decisions mean, if anything? Are certain plays now so established that they can be unmoored from historical context and still work as art? Have audiences evolved to the point that the race of an actor no longer matters, regardless of the part?”

“Obviously accessibility in conventional theatre spaces isn’t a problem that’s been adequately resolved. Far from it. But the more adventurous a production, the more problems it poses in terms of being accessible to all those wanting to experience it. Is this just a trade-off we have to accept?”

“A play, by virtue of its public performance, can re-arrange consciousness in a way that the novel rarely does: a great piece of theatre leaves you changed as well as spiritually re-charged. But the novel’s great weapon is time…”

“Taken as a whole, the cast’s re-sponse to the Broadway offer could be summed up as, ‘Do we have to?’ Sure, this thinking goes, Broadway was once the summit of American theater, but these days, it’s just another Times Square tourist trap, the domain of overblown musicals and vanity projects for Hollywood stars who want to show that they can memorize more than one line at a time.”

“And after eight conspicuous years of the Renovation Maybes — Will they? Won’t they? When? — Arena’s long-planned $125 million makeover has swept it into itinerant territory largely uncharted by any major American theater.”

Worried about getting caught, “the Belarus Free Theatre uses private apartments and wooded areas around Minsk to which audiences are invited via furtive text messages and phone calls on the day. Yet this month the group is advertising openly and drawing full houses for two plays at London’s Soho Theatre.”

If the New York gossip is to be believed, “Passing Strange” could be the musical that drags Broadway kicking and screaming into the 21st century. But despite its creators being decidedly outside-the-box figures, the show is being produced by Broadway lions not known for their embrace of change. So, how’s that relationship working out for everyone?

David Mamet’s interest in the inner workings of politics has been evident at least since he wrote the screenplay for 1997’s Wag The Dog. His latest play, though, shows a new subtlety in Mamet’s understanding of the game of politics, as well as the public’s attitude towards it.