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THEATRE

We’re All Used To Streaming Theatre Now, But What About Augmented Reality Theatre?

You know, hologram theatre in your kitchen or living room or ... wherever. "Theater makers are naturally fascinated: They’re used to working in 3-D. ... As soon as you bring a director or stage designer or choreographer into V.R., you see their brains whirring." - The New York Times

Broadway Is Back, But What About Audiences?

Recently, Broadway shows haven't needed to cancel because of COVID cases in cast or crew, but there are a lot of empty seats - and three shows are closing in hopes of reopening in the spring. - NPR

What Actual Inmates Thought Of Lynn Nottage’s Play About Recently Incarcerated Workers

Some detainees at Rikers Island watched a livestream of Clyde's. "Theater artists often speak of their aspirations for social relevance, especially in work focused squarely on contemporary issues. That aim has long been close to Nottage’s heart." - Washington Post

Theatre Lies: The Liberating Feeling Of Making S***t Up

The most fun part about writing is that every writer I know is a fucking liar. Some think this is radical political work. Some think that to write is to channel the ancestors and the woo-woos to put voice to page. But all of these are just tactics. - American Theatre

A Lot Of Broadway Shows Have Closed Temporarily. Could That Become A Standard Business Model?

The highly contagious omicron variant has given productions a reason to shut down for what happen to be the slowest two months of the year (when many shows die even in ordinary times), reopening in March as tourists start coming back. Could that practice work out long-term? - TheaterMania

Can Theatre Learn Something About Value From Professional Soccer?

At a time of a public health emergency, more people appear to have prioritised football than theatregoing. We should ask why. The answer is likely to be less about price and more about perceived value. - The Stage

New York State’s New Governor Wants To Expand COVID Tax Credit For Commercial Theater

"(Kathy) Hochul on Tuesday proposed budgeting $200 million for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit, which provides up to $3 million per show to help defray production costs. … Nearly three dozen productions have told the state they expect to apply." - The New York Times

How A Small British Columbia Community Theatre Erupted In Controversy

So how did a quaint, 175-seat theatre at the end of a quiet, dead-end street in the Rockland area find itself at the centre of such a storm? - The Times-Colonist (Victoria, BC)

Molière Is Refused Reburial In The Panthéon, And Une Grande Querelle Breaks Out

Actor-director Francis Huster has campaigned for years for the "father of the French language" to be admitted to the ranks of les immortels. Yet even in his quadracentennial year, the great playwright is denied. Why? Robert Zaretsky argues that the reason given by the government is, quite frankly, merde. - Slate

London’s National Theatre Sees Precipitous Decline In Revenue And Staff

Income at the National Theatre dropped by £50 million and the organisation lost just under a quarter of its staff in the first year of the pandemic. - The Stage

The British Are Champions Of Classic Theatre — So Why Do They Shortchange This Great Classic Playwright?

Michael Billington: "In France the 400th anniversary of Molière's birth is being celebrated in a big way. In Britain it has been greeted with a deafening silence. But then we have always been slightly wary of Molière." In translation, that is. Adaptations, on the other hand … - The Guardian

The World’s First NFT Musical (You Just Knew It Was Coming)

The set of digital collectibles offered by the producers of Ross Golan's The Wrong Man "will be a mix of music, graphics, and film, including the full animated musical, vinyl, posters featuring artwork from the musical, and a previously unreleased track from Golan." - Playbill

Where Theatre’s Pause Is Particularly Agonizing

"The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory prides itself (in non-pandemic times) on mounting plays where its actors speak in original pronunciation," and a cabinet-maker who recreated an entire Renaissance England theatre space there mastered it, only to see everything shuttered for the pandemic. - Baltimore Sun

Lynn Nottage Is About To Have Three Shows Up At One Time

Playwright Nottage: "I will tell you, in all honesty, I haven't been getting a lot of sleep," but that's OK. "The dream is to really be busy doing the thing that you love, deeply immersed in making art." - NPR

Curtains Go Up, Audiences Flee Omicron, And Broadway Sees Curtains Fall Again

Too familiar, and too grim. On the upside: "Until the pandemic, the industry had been enjoying a sustained boom, fueled by a rebound in the popularity of musicals and by New York’s gargantuan growth as a tourist destination. And this downturn might not last long." - The New York Times

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