Harvey Fierstein (who prefers a riot of color): “Superstition demands that a dressing room cannot be decorated until the reviews are published. It’s the old ‘counting your chicks before they’re hatched’ deal. But some actors take the monastic approach even further.” – The New York Times
Category: theatre
Steppenwolf Theatre Brings Back The *Real* First Queer Candidate For President (Sorry, Mayor Pete!)
Back in 1992, the drag queen Joan Jett Blakk ran a campaign (“Putting in the camp, taking out the pain”) for president on the Queer Nation Party line. Now Tina Landau and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (who also stars) have created a play titled Ms. Blakk for President — “part campaign rally, part nightclub performance, part confessional — and all party!” – American Theatre
When Theatre Artists Read The Mueller Report Aloud, Did That Qualify As Theatre?
Howard Sherman (who was one of the readers): “It certainly was a performance: the airing of a document with the use of theatrical tools to illuminate a text for others. … If journalism is the rough draft of history, then [the reading] was the first draft of drama based on history.” – The Stage
More, More, More At Edinburgh Fringe — More Shows, More Venues, More Countries Represented Than Ever Before
“The 2019 programme … includes 3,841 shows, up from 3,548 in 2018, and 59,600 performances, up from 56,796. The programme has a record 63 countries represented, and more than 700 free shows, with more than 400 ‘pay what you want’ shows, an increase from 260 last year.” – The Herald (Scotland)
How Russia’s ‘Documentary Theatre’ Company Exposes Injustice
Founded in 2002, Teatr.doc assembles scripts from documents and participant testimony from important incidents in contemporary Russia. Writer Verity Healey reports on the company’s latest project, Torture, “about the physical and psychological methods officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) used on a group of left-wing young men prior to the 2018 World Cup.” – HowlRound
But It Messes Up The Meter! Grumpy Old Director Grumps About Gender-Swapping Shakespeare
Richard Eyre, a former director of the National Theatre in London, criticized a recent RSC production of Timon of Athens in which Lord Timon became Lady Timon — and, therefore, the line “I love that man” became “I love that woman”. Eyre, stressing the importance of Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter (which that extra syllable throws off), called the casting “a very bad decision. … Do the plays. Don’t rework it.” – The Times (UK)
Another London Newspaper Axes Its Theatre Critics
Henry Hitchings and Fiona Mountford had been contract freelancers at the London Evening Standard, he for 10 years and she for 17. Their redundancy is part of what Standard ownership calls “necessary cost-cutting.” – PressGazette (UK)
Can The New Website ‘3Views On Theater’ Change The Trajectory Of Criticism?
“The plan is to have monthly rotating chief editors, who will help curate the content — slated to comprise around 15 pieces a month — with the help of ongoing editors Michelle Tse (one of Stage & Candor’s editors) and Penny Pun, a playwright. What kind of content, and for whom? [Rob Weinert-Kendt] spoke recently with Tse and Pun, who were joined by two of 3Views’s founders, playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Julia Jordan, about the new magazine’s ambitions and focus.” – American Theatre
How (Why) James Corden Brought Musical Theatre To Late Night TV (And Made It Work)
“We were going round the table and he just went, “I wonder if there’s a world in which you say L.A. doesn’t really have a theater community, but you’ve made it your mission to bring one, and you’re going to perform them on a crosswalk.” – New York Magazine
Glenda Jackson ‘King Lear’ On Broadway Is Closing A Month Early
Despite high praise for Jackson’s performance, reviews for the show have been ambivalent at best, and initially robust sales have slowed considerably. The final performance, originally scheduled for the close of the Fourth of July weekend, will now be this Sunday, just hours before the Tony Awards (for which this production garnered only a single nomination, and not for Jackson). – The New York Times