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THEATRE

Is Flying To London To See Ian McKellen’s Hamlet Worth The Risk?

A very 2021 question - and the risk doesn't run one way. - The New York Times

Running A Small Los Angeles Theatre In The Midst Of A Pandemic

It's not exactly easy, but Boyle Heights' Casa 0101 is giving arts and educational opportunities a real go, but it's prepared to go back online if transmission rates go up. - Los Angeles Times

Portland’s Damaso Rodriguez Steps Away From Artists Rep

Shepherding the theatre's downtown building through a sale, debt restructuring, capital campaign and construction isn't easy. Oh, and then there's the pandemic. Rodríguez says his discussions with theatre friends "became kind of existential: 'Why do you do this? What do you want? What’s the future look like?'" - Oregon ArtsWatch

Wave Of New Plays By Black Playwrights…

The plays are arriving at an existentially challenging moment for Broadway, when theaters have been closed for a year and a half, when the Delta variant has set back the nation’s recovery from Covid, when tourism is way down. - The New York Times

Stephen Sondheim, At 91, Is Working On A New Musical

As he told Stephen Colbert this week, "I've been working on a show for a couple years with a playwright named David Ives, and it's called Square One. … With any luck, we'll get it on next season." - The New York Times

After 35 Years, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls To Depart

" decision, which he said was not made under any kind of internal or outside pressure, brings the exit of Chicago theater's premier auteurist director, … known for the expansiveness of his ambition, the boldness of his risk-taking and the richness of his conceptual productions." - Chicago Tribune

There’s Lots Of Complex, Intricate Movement In The Broadway Play ‘Pass Over’. Don’t Call It Choreography

"There's not even blocking," says director Danya Taymor (Julie's niece). "I mean, there's a little blocking." That was worked out by the director and actors with Broadway's great clown, Bill Irwin. He and Taymor talked to Lauren Wingenroth about the play's non-choreography. - Dance Magazine

How 9/11 Changed Comedy

Some of the comedic experimentation that immediately followed 9/11 tested the limits of free speech for entertainers, who made up the new rules as they went along and found that even jokes about 9/11-adjacent subject matter occasionally crossed a line. - The Atlantic

As London’s West End Reopens, It May Scrap Wednesday Matinees

There's plenty of demand for seats from theatregoers within England, but the audience for midweek afternoon shows is almost entirely tourists from abroad, of whom (thanks to COVID) there are still very few. - The Guardian

Broadway’s Biggest Hits Are Back Onstage At Last

Eighteen months after the novel coronavirus shut them all down, the long-running audience favorites — Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Chicago — resume their runs on Tuesday. Reporter Michael Paulson looked in on the preparations. - The New York Times

Theatre Has An Internship Problem

Or, you might say, an exploitation problem. - American Theatre

The Real-Time September 11 Conversation Between August Wilson And John Lahr

August Wilson, responding to Lahr, on the morning of September 11, 2001: "Yesterday was a different world, and I am mourning for it." - Slate

Stand-Up Comedians Look Back On Their First Shows After 9/11

"Every comedian's response to the attack wasn’t necessarily positive, just like every American's wasn't. Comedy didn't save the country after 9/11, but it did reflect it." - Vulture

RSC Chief Gregory Doran Steps Down Temporarily

The Royal Shakespeare Company's artistic director is taking indefinite compassionate leave (the UK equivalent of family/medical leave) to care for his husband, actor Antony Sher, as he faces a terminal illness. - The Guardian

How On Earth Did Experimental Downtown Drama Land On Broadway?

"An unusually large proportion of the 10 plays opening this fall are what one producer calls ‘formally inventive’ and others might label downtown, avant-garde, or (that dread word) challenging." Jesse Green considers three of them: Is This a Room?, Dana H., and Pass Over. - The New York Times

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