"'It’s impossible not to be distraught about the state of the field,' said Christopher Moses, an artistic director of the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. 'It’s clear this is the hardest time to be producing nonprofit theater, maybe in the history of the nonprofit movement.'" - The New York Times
An app is coming to your rescue (surely it will be banned soon as well). Digital Public Library of America officials say they use "GPS-based 'geo-targeting' to show readers the books that have been banned in their area, with e-book versions available to borrow digitally." - Publishers Weekly
"The earliest of Matthews’s Shakespeare workshops for fellow cast members was in 2001, for ... Romeo and Juliet in Los Angeles. He also held the classes for the Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird and has led them for the Actors Center in New York." - The New York Times
"Of the 184 cultural organisations surveyed, and 1,011 individual responses from those working within arts organisations, more than half the respondents conceded they had made little or no changes to their programming or outreach programs to attract audiences from different cultures, age groups, geographic locations and gender identities." - The Guardian
The streaming company added 5.9 million new paid subscribers during the second quarter of 2023, the first period after instituting what it calls its "paid sharing" strategy. - The Hollywood Reporter
Never fear, Europe. Though the language itself seems to have invaded every corner of France, an announced focus on English this summer at the Avignon (theatre) Festival turned out to be mildly interesting at best. - The New York Times
"To watch a show the customer has to insert their phone into the VR device. Once the phone is place, the users strap the box, effectively a pair of cardboard goggles, around their head and plug in their own headphones. The app then streams a recorded performance." - BBC
"Staff apparently turned up for work at branches on Friday to find notes on windows explaining they were closing down." This leaves Sunderland (yes, the town of Roy Kent's first team) and Wigan suddenly without large cinemas. - BBC
Just what we need: More joyless, foolish bureaucrats quashing theatrical productions. "The interactive show is set at an Italian-American wedding, with a three-course meal, live music and dancing." - BBC
Why did this take so long? Blame the GOP. "In 1997 Michigan Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra derided The Watermelon Woman as 'possibly pornographic.' ... He decried that the film had been funded by taxpayers." - NPR
"The crisis is a perfect storm of bad economic and demographic trends, exacerbated by a change in cultural habits during the pandemic. … The confluence has theater business professionals issuing dire warnings. 'By this time next year, I think the industry will shrink by half,'" said one consultant. - MSN (The Washington Post)
"By the spring of 2023, the promise of the Cultural Plan" — equity — "had gotten shoved to the side, as the so-called 'Big 7' ... struggled just to keep the doors open." Now the pandemic seems to be past, but audiences have been slow to return, and the city is recalibrating. - KERA (Dallas)
This phenomenon is because, well, the podcasts about The Bachelor are better than The Bachelor (and other shows), basically. Or in host language, "The recap podcasts are kind of the spice on an otherwise not very well-seasoned fish, which is the franchise." - Time
Remember when it was a sign of, like, total rebellion to blow a huge bubble on screen? Well, that time is long gone - and the pandemic has helped kill off what was left. - The Atlantic
"Theaters must think more expansively of themselves as communal spaces, not merely entertainment venues for stage presentations to ticket buyers; what does it mean to be a civic space, a public space, a 'third place'? No, really." - Culturebot
