Matthew Gardiner takes over the 32-year-old company, which operates two performance spaces in Arlington’s Village at Shirlington, at a tumultuous inflection point. - Washington Post
"The subsidy came after intense lobbying from small theaters concerned about their future after a 15-month shutdown. Compounding the effects was the prospect of sharply increased labor costs for many theaters as a result of a new gig worker law that took effect in 2020." - The New York Times
Charles McNulty: "The Dumb Waiter lampoons the subservience to authoritarian power by focusing on the behavior of the stooges. Pinter humorously captures their moral rationalizations, their willingness to answer even the most nonsensical of demands, the way their own brutality suffuses them with fear." - Los Angeles Times
Two issues: Uncertainty as to when theatergoers will be ready to cram into small black boxes, and a 2020 state law that stands to substantially drive up labor costs for many of these organizations. - The New York Times
Alexis Soloski considers four of them currently running (if that's quite the word) in New York City, suggesting that they can be a good post-lockdown reintroduction to the experience of being an audience member. - The New York Times
The theater students of the UNC School of the Arts Class of 2020 hadn't expected to be starting their careers right at the moment their chosen industry completely shut down. Here's a look at how they managed and where they are now. - The New York Times
“An effort was made. Was it good enough? Was it the right effort? Was it an effort that was still within the blind spots that we have? Possibly." - Dallas Morning News
Stage director Nicolas Kent and former Guardian security editor Richard Norton-Taylor have edited hundreds of hours of testimony, from early warnings to "bragging about fixing fire safety tests," into a verbatim theatre piece. - The Guardian
"Black stage managers and their white allies … are establishing new organizations for racial equity, creating more opportunities for up-and-coming stage managers of color, and even examining aspects of their job that may do more harm than good." - The New York Times
Any Equity production where everyone backstage has had their shots may now let those folks do their work more or less as normal, though some safety rules are still in effect. But no meeting audience members at the stage door! - Playbill
"When adversaries in politics go low, one has no choice but to go equally low, if not lower, in order to have the same visceral impact the same number of people. And what was revealed to me under the previous administration was that the fate of our whole democracy might hang on your wit and your ability to...
The fascinating idea is that the free tuition even can expand exponentially to help yet more artists. It’s an interesting argument, rarely applied to philanthropy in education. - Chicago Tribune
Director Keith Warner assembled a cast made up entirely of opera singers, headed by such major names as John Tomlinson, Thomas Allen, Kim Begley, Louise Alder, Emma Bell, and Susan Bullock — several of whom studied drama seriously as young adults and have been wanting to try this for some time. - The Guardian
