“The play, The Amish Project, will be Groff’s first nonmusical production on Broadway, and it’s strikingly personal for him: It’s a work of fiction inspired by a 2006 shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, just a few minutes from Groff’s childhood home.” - The New York Times
Kimberly Motes, the executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater since 2023, is leaving her position in mid-November to become president and CEO of Hennepin Arts in Minneapolis. - Chicago Tribune
The latest report from the Broadway League, covering the 2024-25 season, also found that the Broadway theater industry supported 114,600 full-time equivalent jobs and generated $979 million in taxes for the city. - Deadline
“Triumph, which has opened at London’s Almeida Theatre, is Churchill’s latest piece of explosive minimalism. Running at just 20 minutes, it skewers contemporary barbarism (via) historical analogy and is a reminder that Churchill … has in recent years developed a form of elliptical drama for which the apt word might be compressionism.” - The Guardian
Hamilton was the top grossing show of the week with $2.8 million, followed by The Lion King with $2 million. MJ was the fourth highest grossing with $1.76 million, followed by the Bowen Yang-led Oh, Mary! with $1.5 million. - The Hollywood Reporter
In the Folger’s newest exhibition To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare, curated by Akhimie, more than 400 years of Black women’s engagement with Shakespeare is collectively explored for the first time, illuminating the ways in which Black women have claimed and reimagined the works of Shakespeare through scholarship and craft. - The Guardian
The history play was published without a named author in 1596, and it was long believed that Shakespeare had written a few scenes. New analysis shows “beyond doubt” that he wrote “the lion’s share,” 23 segments of the script, while Christopher Marlowe wrote nine. - The Guardian
The incident happened last week at England’s Chichester Festival Theatre: last Tuesday’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was cancelled after a cast member reported that he’d just been chased through the streets by people shouting abuse. One 16-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged. - The News (Portsmouth, UK)
A first-time playwright now has a one-in-five shot at a second production within two seasons. If mine gets one and keeps traveling, the money waits in a catalogue Bertelsmann owns. - Jared Harbour
Basically? "It’s a two-hour whirlwind of pop music-infused teen joy, thoughtful discussion of cultural revisionism, complex young characters, and dynamic performances." - KC Studio
Possible? Maybe: "Davidson found sources for Puddletown’s business structure by looking backward, to the kind of cooperative arrangements used by first traveling commedia dell’arte companies to Shakespeare’s players, on down to late 19th and early century repertory troupes." Its first show is free. - Oregon ArtsWatch
Nobody quite knew what they had when 2011's first revival started. But "Sound of Music Live delivered an astounding 18 million-plus viewers — well past the hope internally that it would reach at least 10 million." - Variety
"However, there was no explanation given of exactly how a girl performing as a male character runs afoul of the more recent SB12, leaving only the implication that perhaps gender equality has been nixed under its provisions." - Downstage Center
Comedians now routinely give their audiences hours of new material every week, in exchange for subscription and advertising revenue that, while amounting to much less than what box offices and network sales departments once commanded, also goes more substantially and directly to the artists. - The New Yorker
