She had plenty of experience in that theatre as an actor, but taking over the artistic directorship after the contentious departure of Emma Rice was quite a challenge: “The big learning curve was understanding my place as artistic director in the organisation, at a point when it was bruised and people needed healing. It was traumatic.” – The Stage
Category: theatre
A Skeptic Gets Convinced By The Modern ‘Translations’ Of The Play On! Shakespeare Project
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, an editor on the Norton Shakespeare edition, wasn’t worried about profaning the Bard’s texts; he thought the playwrights were being told to stick too close to the original. When he heard the new versions read aloud, and when he considered the choices the playwrights involved made, he was hugely impressed. – American Theatre
Meet The Woman Who Spent 16 Years Stage Managing ‘Avenue Q’
Christine M. Daly: “There’s a spray that we use [on the puppets], but there’s not a lot you can do about it. You cannot wash their insides. That’s the hard part. We are probably the biggest users of Purell in the Northern Hemisphere.” – The New York Times
New York’s Signature Theatre Company Sells Its One-Millionth $35 Ticket (Here’s How Its Audience Has Changed)
The off-Broadway theater company is celebrating its one millionth ticket sold through the initiative, and the company says its audience demographics speak to the program’s success. Almost 60% of Signature’s audience members had a two-person household that makes under $100,000 a year. Contrast that to a typical Broadway-goer who comes from a two-person household that makes more than twice that, according to stats from the Broadway League. – Fast Company
Why Anna Deavere Smith Created ‘Notes From The Field’, Her Documentary Play About The School-To-Prison Pipeline
“I was in hair and makeup next to a [Nurse Jackie] castmate, British actress Eve Best, and I told her I couldn’t get out of my mind a news story I had just heard: that a kid in Baltimore, my hometown, had peed in a water cooler at school and they were going to send him to jail. Eve responded, in her fabulous accent, ‘Oh, well, whatever happened to mischief?’ That was when it struck me: rich kids get mischief, poor kids get pathologized and incarcerated.” – Literary Hub
Broadway Adaptation Of ‘Magic Mike’ Suspended Following Exodus Of Show’s Writers
“The musical has canceled its [preview] engagement at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre, which was supposed to start this November. … Magic Mike: The Musical‘s writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, composer Tom Kitt, and lyricist Brian Yorkey recently left the production over ‘creative differences’ just before a developmental workshop that was supposed to take place earlier this month.” – Vulture
Are Social Media Influencers Undermining Theatre?
Showmanship likes to reveal itself as such and often in some sort of great theatrical caper. In contrast, this marketing approach – for obvious reasons – prefers to stay in the shadows. This is a marketing tool that does not respect the theatre industry or its legacy. At worst, it insults the genuine fans and advocates of productions whose postings may become questioned. It is also wide open for abuse. – The Stage
On The Tour Van With Shakespeare And Company
That would be the New England theatre troupe, not the Paris bookstore. “Every year since 1982, Shakespeare & Company has sent young performers on the road from early winter through late spring, for four months of Dunkin’ Donuts breakfasts, motel showers, flubbed lines, forgotten props, missed turnoffs, standing ovations and the chance to live with Shakespeare’s words a lot like the traveling players of 400 years ago would have.” Reporter Alexis Soloski spent a few days with them. – The New York Times
We’ve Already Got Broadway Shows Performed Live On TV. Soon We’ll Have Musicals Produced Directly For TV
Netflix has already done small-screen versions of Springsteen on Broadway and American Son, and they’re now working on feature versions of Broadway’s (recent) The Boys in the Band and (current) The Prom. Fox is working on its own jukebox musicals. Where will the genre go from there? – Dance Magazine
Theatre For Deaf Kids And (Especially) Their Hearing Parents
Director Paula Garfield, mother of two deaf children and deaf herself, created Horrible Histories: Dreadful Deaf “just as much for hearing parents as for their deaf children. It’s a chance for parents and children to experience a BSL-led show together, and for parents in particular (who Garfield explains are often ‘terrified’ when they discover their child is deaf) to see deaf actors happily go about their business, utterly at home in the spotlight.” – The Guardian