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How Sleep No More Changed Theatre For Better

And for worse. “The world of the McKittrick, we believed (or let ourselves pretend to believe), was an enchanted one; not just by the witches who herald Macbeth’s downfall, but by a stranger and more widely suffused magic.” - Slate

People Are So Lonely, And Theatres Are In So Much Financial Trouble

Can funding struggling theatre help solve our disconnect? Sarah Ruhl: "We are facing a public health emergency—and we need funding from the National Institutes of Health immediately. Let’s treat theatre as a proven method to stem the tide of debilitating isolation in this country.” - American Theatre

Sacre Bleu! Why Are English-Language Books Filling Europe’s Bookstores?

"As English fluency has increased in Europe, more readers have started buying American and British books in the original language, forgoing the translated versions that are published locally. This is especially true in Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and, increasingly, Germany.” - The New York Times

Broadway Box Office Grosses And Attendance Are Basically Flat From Last Season. That’s Worse Than It Sounds.

"'Every year our expenses go up at least five percent, if not more, because we so outpace inflation,' says Ken Davenport, producer of the Neil Diamond musical A Beautiful Noise. 'So flat is terrible.'" - The Hollywood Reporter

Faced With Declining Attendance, Some U.S. Museums Are Trying “Radical Hospitality”

That's the term SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford uses; Hirshhorn Museum director Melissa Chiu calls it "radical accessibility." Ted Loos reports on how those two institutions and Atlanta's High Museum are putting the idea into practice. - The New York Times

The Joys Of ‘Relaxed’ Ballet

One mother of two autistic children said, “I’m hoping that what we see here shows that you can do anything, especially in the arts, to make it accessible for all.” - CBC

This Long-Awaited Festival Of Pacific Arts Will See The Revival Of A Dramatic Trilogy

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, originally planned for 2020, is back - and “longtime collaborators playwright Alani Apio and artistic director Harry Wong III saw an opportunity to realize a shared dream 30 years in the making: to simultaneously stage all three plays in Apio’s The Kāmau Trilogy.” - American Theatre

Weeping And Wailing On Broadway (And This Is Good News)

Critic Elisabeth Vincentelli reports that audiences being moved to actual tears (and, yes, even wailing on occasion) has become surprisingly commonplace this season — and it's all because of the way the scripts and cast are connecting with viewers. - The Washington Post (MSN)

After Decades Of Being Youth-Obsessed, TV Gets Comfortable With The Old

Most people watching TV are older than those groups. Among cable channels, the median age for TNT and Bravo viewers is 56, for HGTV it is 66, and even the once-youthful MTV’s median-age viewer is 51, according to Nielsen data. The cable news audience is even older. - The Wall Street Journal

Does Pay-What-You-Can Pricing Really Increase Ticket Sales?

Well, yes and no — depending on what exactly one means by "increase" and "ticket sales." - ArtsHub (Australia)

Harlem Crypts And Brooklyn Catacombs And Classical Music By Candlelight

Andrew Ousley decided to present his concert series Death of Classical in the crypt of Harlem's Church of the Intercession not only because the acoustics were remarkable, but because so many potential audience members seemed put off by traditional venues. Then he went on to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery … - The Guardian

Rhinebeck, The Little New York Town Where New Musicals Start Their Big Journeys

"At a moment when regional theatres and foundations are cutting funding, particularly for new-work development, Rhinebeck has become a beacon of just how much is still possible with limited resources.” - American Theatre

What’s The Sudden Deal With Nuns In Popular Culture?

“If the aesthetic interest in nuns is an enduring one, it’s also true that every few years, like fashion trends or viral flus, nuns have a particularly concentrated cultural moment. We’re living in one now.” - The New York Times

We Have Now Reached Peak Theater, And It’s All Downhill From Here

"Spring 2024 saw a frenzy of new shows opening in the face of two formidable obstacles: costs that have nearly doubled over a decade and an audience almost 20% smaller than it was pre-pandemic. … As the Jazz Age attests, bubbles can be fun." But this one may soon burst. - Vulture (MSN)

Using Technology To Enhance Audience Engagement

The performances that work best for both haptic tours and live audio descriptions are dance and theater productions that offer a mix of visual and auditory elements. - San Francisco Classical Voice

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