Peter Marks: "Russia is a nation of passionate theater-, music-, and dance-lovers. ... It is beyond comprehension that terrified women and children could turn to a theater for physical security and have their safe space shattered by a (Russian) force set on destroying Chekhov's humane legacy." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Very luckily, it appears that most of the civilians inside the Mariupol Drama Theater were able to get down to the building's bomb shelter before the shelling started, and the survivors have begun to emerge. - CNN
The union's third annual Diversity and Inclusion Hiring Bias Report found that just under a quarter of contracts went to actors and state managers of color, up 3.3 percentage points from 2016-19, with those union members averaging 91.8% of the pay their white colleagues received. - Deadline
Purim spiels, retelling the story of Queen Esther, are documented back to the 14th century and doubtless happened for generations before that. New versions still get written (one New Jersey cantor has published 11), though they tend to be all too family-friendly, lacking the sharp satire spiels once had. - Tablet
"The 'We See You, White American Theatre' movement demanded an end to unpaid internships ... and more recently, employers across the Bay Area started saying that they can’t hire enough workers to fill open positions." But somehow it's not ending exploitative unpaid internships." - San Francisco Chronicle
Stage success was steady and gradual - and then, "somewhere around his 50th birthday, this eccentric, perennial amiable performer became a unlikely favourite of Steven Spielberg." Then an Oscar. Now whatever he really wants. - Irish Times
"Getting free in the past, it's just getting free. Like, you're literally in bondage. Getting free in the present is a very different thing. What does freedom look like now?" - The New York Times
The holiday season in particular was plagued by constant cast changes or cancellations when someone in the company got sick or tested positive. With the pandemic now receding among the vaccinated, Broadway will have 16 productions opening over about six weeks. - Variety
The Humana Festival of New American Plays, as envisioned prior to the Global Pandemic, has inspired a new approach to develop and produce new work on multiple platforms year-round,” Fleming’s emailed statement read, in part. - WFPL
"The company, which created its theater division just five years ago, has already released 93 audio theater works, ... commissioning new work from 55 playwrights, presenting 25 shows in person ... and becoming one of the most active commercial producers in the city." - The New York Times
In the wake of the stolen presidential election and Lukashenko's vicious crackdown on the subsequent demonstrations, the underground troupe decided to go into exile. Now they're in London to stage a production that premiered two years ago in Minsk and is now more timely than ever. - The Independent (UK)
"A new production of the musical Cabaret starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley leads the Olivier Award nominations with 11. It's followed by a adaptation of best-selling novel Life of Pi and a revival of Anything Goes, with nine each." - BBC
“Similar to how your iPhone nowadays tells you, ‘Oh, you listened to music a little too loudly this week; watch out, because we don’t want you to get a hearing impairment due to overuse’ — it would be the same idea for the voice.” - Variety
"Now, the Off Off Broadway nonprofit theater is fighting to come back — this time with a new hybrid structure built to give complete artistic autonomy to a group of writers, directors and actors that has spoken out against the old Flea." - The New York Times
A real NY story: "The theater director Muriel Miguel grew up there, and lives there still. When she was a child, in the 1930s and ’40s, Native dancers and actors from all around the country would stop by the house while working in New York." - The New York Times
