That’s what Punchdrunk, the éminence grise of immersive companies, is doing at its southeast London headquarters. Lander 23 is an IRL multiplayer game in which teams of four audience members/players are split into two squads: "fields" who navigate an alien landscape and "drivers" who give them instructions on where to go. - The Guardian
When the old National Theatre of Wales closed in late 2024, Sheen came up with a plan. "Ultimately, I found myself arguing for something that I realised I” — with fame, professional connections, and deep-ish pockets — “was in the best position to deliver. … It could happen, but only if I did it." - BBC (Yahoo!)
Attendance for the week ending January 11 was 272,911, down about 13% from the previous week. About 92% of all Broadway seats were filled, compared with 98% during the New Year’s week. Average ticket prices took a $40 drop from the holiday prices, to an average $126.76 last week. - Deadline
The Los Angeles theater world underwent a historic leadership shift in 2023 when two artistic directors of color were placed at the helm of the city’s most prestigious nonprofit companies. -Los Angeles Times
“You are seated, waiting for the show to begin. Through your special glasses, you can see … four actors (entering). They come close to your chair and look directly at you. ‘Don’t panic,’ Ian McKellen tells you. But Ian McKellen isn’t really there. Neither are the other three actors.” - The New York Times
“I want it to be a theatre where theatre people can come and see a show and that generates a kind of warmth,” he says. “You’ll often find actors in the bar afterwards.” - The Times (UK)
“'The shared laughter in a crowded theater, the eager debrief after a musical, the heavy silence that hangs over all of us in a drama — these are moments that every New Yorker deserves,’ Mamdani said.” - The New York Times
“There was what I would not call lying to my family but obfuscating about where I was and what I was doing, as if I were having an affair. (An affair would have been easier to explain.)” - The New York Times
In the movie Kokuho, a epic covering five decades in the life of a fictional kabuki actor, we see the traditional theater slowly fade from Japanese popular culture. In real life, interest in kabuki has fallen, especially since COVID. Now there’s hope that the film’s success could attract new fans to the genre. - CNN
Mind you, this script wasn’t just spit out by a bot after one prompt. The French AI collective Obvious spent two years developing the script with the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne: training the software on the playwright’s structure and themes, then producing new drafts after feedback from scholars and actors. - The New York Times
“In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair – traditionally Matt and Luisa – are now Matt and Lewis, reinterpreting the story’s ‘allegory of love, longing, and reconciliation through a gay lens,’ according to producers. The show’s original pair of fathers, who secretly orchestrate the clandestine love affair between their children, are now mothers.” - Deadline
“If I step back and think about what unites the shows, it’s probably they’re all trying to be joy-forward experiences and shows where the audience is acknowledged,” says Alex Timbers, now 47. - AP News
Sandy Shinner, 75, will step down in May from the widely-admired Off-Loop company, which she has run for 13 years. She will remain a member of the group’s ensemble. - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)
“Shepard would astonishingly make his mark as an avant-garde playwright on the downtown scene with only a few months of networking and no production to his name. … ‘New York was like that in the Sixties,’ he said later. ‘You could write a one-act play and start doing it the next day.’” - Literary Hub
Julie Halston, who’s playing Parker in mid-January: "Theater is my church and in its noblest form, theater is a service. It is a place to learn, to connect with others, and to experience joy as a performer and an audience member.” - The New York Times
