Category: theatre

The Chicago Tribune is asking its critics to write about a review they wish they could have back – an instance in which their immediate reaction, expressed on deadline, came to seem incorrect with the passage of time. Theatre critic Chris Jones knew immediately what he would be writing about – his failure to recognize the talent of playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Neil LaBute, now two of America’s leading dramatists, the first time he saw their work performed.

Tom Stoppard’s plays have never made for light, easy theatrical evenings. So it’s no surprise that his latest has resulted in a few early walkouts in New York. But Stoppard is genuinely interested in what audiences think of his work, to the extent that he has begun quizzing those leaving the play after the first act.

“We are living through yet another period of strife prompted by certainties and doubts about religion. As a result, debate about the justification of religious commitment is increasing in volume and heat. Theatre is uniquely placed to explore such questions, as it can show audiences what such differences of opinion mean in the context of human lives.”

“Theater buffs often get a secret little thrill as they surf TV’s hour-long drama series: The opening credits frequently include the names of some of America’s best playwrights,” including David Mamet, Jon Robin Baitz and Eric Overmyer. Theater critic Lawson Taitte and media critic Tom Maurstad discuss the reasons for the crossover trend and its implications for both media.

“The Royal Shakespeare Company, keeper of the flame of the greatest playwright ever, plans to ‘knock Shakespeare off his podium’, according to artistic director Michael Boyd, by increasing the proportion of new plays it stages to half of its total work.” In addition to commissioning plays, “writers will be ’embedded’ within the company. The first of these, Adriano Shaplin, will be working with the actors who are preparing Shakespeare’s history plays, all eight of which will be in the repertoire by spring 2008. The idea is for authors to write plays with a specific ensemble in mind, just as Shakespeare did.”

“Michael Gennaro, who announced last week that he would be leaving his positions as president and chief executive of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., will become the executive director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I. He is to succeed Edgar Dobie, who is leaving in January to focus on his duties as executive producer of the new musical ‘The Pirate Queen.’ ” Gennaro’s move to Trinity means a reunion with his former Steppenwolf Theater Company colleague, Curt Columbus, now Trinity’s artistic director.

“The Culture Project, the 10-year-old downtown nonprofit theater that specializes in political drama, has found a new home: the space now occupied by the Manhattan Ensemble Theater.”

“There is a double pain in contemporary South Korean theatre; an anguish about the absence and suffering of their compatriots in the ruined North, and a mourning for the victims, many of them leftists, of the South’s right-wing military dictatorship, which fell in 1988.”

Actress Ellen Burstyn, co-president of the Actors Studio, says the craft of acting is in trouble these days. “Acting? I think it needs some help. TV has lowered the bar. With quicker schedules everything is rushed, so the quality gets lowered.”

Mary Poppins is an iconic figure. But which Mary? The movie and the Broadway musical have different women in mind…