ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

THEATRE

They Asked AI To Write A Stand-Up Show

One program delivered lazy, sexist jokes and couldn’t be trained out of its ways. So that’s going great - but researchers keep saying it will improve. - BBC

How On Earth Does One Write A Musical About Particle Physics?

David Henry Hwang wondered that, too. Yet he's part of an impressive team working on a show about the Large Hadron Collider and the discovery of the Higgs boson. "It took a year to get my head around how to tell this story," Hwang said. - The New York Times

Uh-Oh, Last-Second Cancellations Of Shows Due To COVID Are Back (At Least In Chicago)

This past weekend, the Goodman Theatre called off two performances of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil just before curtain time. On Saturday they couldn't round up enough understudies to cover all the sick cast members; on Sunday they had the same problem with backstage crew. - Chicago Tribune

The Puppet Makers And Puppeteers Reimagining “Spirited Away” For The Stage

Come for the hand-carved dragon scales; stay for the “evil flash mob” animating Kaonashi/No-Face. - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Colman Domingo Turned To Another San Francisco Theatre Veteran To Help Him With New Movie Sing Sing

Domingo wanted someone rooted in stagecraft to help as he made the film. Specifically, he “wanted his best friend, his San Francisco theatrical co-conspirator Sean San José, a San Mateo resident who co-founded Campo Santo ... and is currently director of San Francisco’s Magic Theatre.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Winning At TV, But Still Loving Theatre

Ashley Park is now in-demand on Netflix - but says the theatre’s the thing, even if it’s not Broadway. “I love community theater and high school theater youth groups — really any time I get to witness storytelling in its most pure and honest form.” - The New York Times

New Musicals Expose The Seamy Underbelly At The Heart Of The American Dream

If you watch reality TV, you’ll understand why The Queen of Versailles is hitting so hard. And, of course, Gatsby never gets old. - The New York Times

Former Monk Wins The Lottery, Immediately Starts Funding Nonprofit Theatres

Is this real? Absolutely. Roy Cockrum won Powerball in 2014, and since then has given millions to nonprofits. “The question I put to artistic directors is, ‘Is there a project you’ve always dreamed of doing that you couldn’t afford?’” - The New York Times

Spend Years Writing Theatre Criticism, And Maybe Learn How To Write Plays

That formula worked for Kelundra Smith, at least. One important detail: In criticism and in theatre, “you have to have a strong pitch.” - American Theatre

Cal Shakes, Not Yet Successful At Its Emergency Fundraiser, Extends Over The Weekend

The company is really hoping to make enough money to produce As You Like It in September. "The 50th anniversary performance ... is supposed to mark its return to self-produced Shakespeare after operating exclusively as a rental house for other companies.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Play At London’s Almeida Briefly Halted Because It Made Grown Men Faint

The play, titled The Years and based on the memoir by 2022 Nobel literature prizewinner Annie Ernaux, was stopped for 10 minutes on Monday after several (mainly male) audience members asked for medical assistance following the graphic onstage depiction of an abortion. - The Guardian

The Public Theater In New York Faces Big Deficits

"When it disclosed layoffs last July, the renowned nonprofit company said that it hoped to avoid a budget deficit in the year ending in August 2023. Instead, expenses exceeded revenue by $8 million that season, according to its most recent audited financial statement." - Broadway Journal

Theatres Use Gaming To Attract New Audiences

For instance, Dungeons and Dragons improv can break through barriers and attract nontraditional audiences to theatres. - ArtsHub

The State Theatre Of Melbourne Is Under Renovations Until 2027, But There’s A Small New Joy

That is, the old rehearsal room is now a 150-seat theatre. And the size is a plus, they say: “Without The Show Room we wouldn’t be able to present performances that have the potential to truly capture audiences in such an intimate space." - Limelight

“Blues For Mister Charlie” — Reconsidering James Baldwin’s Broadway Debut, 60 Years Later

"An impassioned play about the murder of a Black man that implicates progressive white viewers … which opened in a white-dominated environment inimical to his ambition, (it) was not only among his most monumental accomplishments, but also … a revolution on the midcentury Great White Way." - The New York Times

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