Category: theatre

“In theatre, it sometimes seems that the only way women can escape their gender roles and the terrible burden of femininity is by plunging a knife into a male breast or taking aim with a gun and making damn sure they don’t miss.”

“The cultural impact of ‘Les Misérables,’ a product of its time, arriving at the end of the Cold War when politics went global and superpower alignments began to thaw, was revolutionary, and not only because it depicted the aftermath of the French Revolution.”

“Seven major regional theaters around the country — from Seattle, Wash., to Providence, R.I. — have put video monitors in their lobbies to carry information and advertising. Movie theaters and some nonprofit theaters have long had TV monitors in their lobbies, but the new effort is part of a move to develop a national video network for advertisers.”

“The five-year plan, due to be completed by February 2007, will be expected to ‘establish a clear vision of the development of drama within Northern Ireland with priorities and key actions for the arts council to implement’.”

“Kushner is a world-class mensch. He’s also one of the most ambitious contemporary playwrights around. But great theater isn’t synonymous with great causes, and none of his other plays has come close to eliciting the resounding critical acclaim of ‘Angels.’ What’s more, there are obvious costs to his public availability, exploited by journalists in need of a sound bite as much as by dogged documentary filmmakers. Simply put, if you’re constantly holding forth on what you do as a writer, how can you protect the imaginative insularity needed to do it?”

“After the myriad tomes assuring us of his preeminence among postwar writers, it’s not exactly clear how the strangely muttering voices filling the voids of his blasted landscapes speak to us today. What was once so radical — tramps on an apocalyptic heath, characters popping out of trash cans, an isolated mouth foaming verbal ooze — has become instantly recognizable, even familiar.”

Last week a Colorado judge ruled that smoking onstage was not an “artistic expression.” “Must it really be argued that smoking can reveal character or propel a plotline? Can you imagine a ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff’ without Martha blowing smoke in George’s face?”

“The San Jose City Council voted 10-0 Tuesday to approve a $1 million loan to American Musical Theatre of San Jose. Two weeks earlier, on Oct. 17, the City Council voted by the same margin to bail out the more seriously financially troubled San Jose Repertory Theatre with a $2 million line of credit. The timing is not coincidental. The aid extended to the city’s two largest theater companies is part of the city’s new $4 million Arts Stabilization Fund.”

“The Pirate Queen, a $15 million musical from the creators of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, is listing badly in Chicago, the first leg of its voyage to Broadway. Local critics fired cannonballs at it – ‘ill-ruddered’ (Boom!), ‘drearily predictable’ (Boom!) – and Broadway insiders who trekked west to see it say it needs a massive overhaul. But is the creative team up to the job?”

A mediator has been called in to try to avert a Toronto actors’ strike. “ACTRA called for mediation last week to bring about a new indie production agreement after talks that began Oct. 23 collapsed when producers demanded actors take pay cuts of 10%-25% for minimum daily rates paid on film and TV productions shot here.”