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THEATRE

Andrew Lloyd Weber Retreats — His West End Theatres Will Observe COVID Rules

"If it were just me, I would happily risk arrest and fines to make a stand and lead the live music and theatre industry back to the full capacities we so desperately need." - BBC

A Theatrical Experience That Makes You Wonder If It’s Theatre?

Theater is perhaps the closest term to describe the experience, but even that is poorly suited; “Liminality” evades any one category or definition, though what else could we expect from a show that’s all about the in-between spaces in perceptions and realities? - The New York Times

Actors’ Equity And Producers Settle On COVID Safety Rules For Broadway Tours

"The 17-page agreement says that producers must require all members of the traveling company to be fully vaccinated and mandates free weekly virus tests. Also: 'absolutely no interaction' will be permitted between performers and audience members." - The New York Times

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s New ‘Cinderella’ Could Start Performances Despite Extension Of UK Shutdown

Declaring "Come to the theatre and arrest us," Lord Lloyd Webber vowed last week to reopen all his West End venues at full audience capacity on June 21, "come hell or high water." At the beginning of this week, with caseloads of the Delta variant of COVID rising, Boris Johnson postponed the lifting of theatre restrictions from the 21st...

Running A Theatre From The Kitchen Table During A Pandemic

Marissa Wolf was midway into her first full season as artistic director at Portland Center Stage and had just opened The Curious Incident of The Dog In the Night-time in March of 2020. - The New York Times

A Critic Watches The RSC Rehearse

Despite some trepidation from the actors, the Royal Shakespeare Company is live-streaming for the public select rehearsals for the upcoming production of Henry VI Part One. "I'm intrigued by how much I've learned," writes Michael Billington — who wasn't more impressed than anyone else ever is by watching actors warm up but was fascinated by seeing the actors work...

Theatre In A Slowly Reopening Canada Worries It’s Being Left Behind

One Vancouver AD says that his colleagues are extremely burned out - and also worried about what's coming. On the other hand, post-pandemic: "I don't know that it's the same art form anymore. And that's interesting to me." - CBC

Theatre Workers With Long Covid Worry About A Return To Work

Theatre working conditions often aren't ideal for anyone, much less people whose bodies and minds have been harmed by the virus. "Theatre artists and practitioners with chronic illnesses and disabilities have long documented how the industry is inaccessible or even unkind." Can theatre change? - American Theatre

As LA’s Center Theatre Group Director Retires, The Enterprise Needs A Rethink

"The character of Michael Ritchie’s audience has not been shaped in this devout manner. The marketing of hits has replaced more time-consuming forms of outreach. On the level of scale, this may make sense. But theater isn’t a traditional business. And while loyalty may not register on year-end financial statements, it pays long-term dividends." - Los Angeles Times

So Women Can’t Act In ‘Godot’, Eh? Take *This*, Beckett Estate!

In Godot Is a Woman by the theatre company Silent Faces, "three glum, bowler-hatted clowns … are waiting for the Beckett estate to answer their call about performance rights for Godot. They wait … and they wait, until a message that they have moved up to eighth in the queue sends them into a . … They become theatre...

Britain Now Has Its First All-Black-Female Shakespeare Troupe

Says actor Gabrielle Brooks, one of four co-founders of the Mawa Theatre Company, "Shakespeare remains a staple of British theatre. He's still the most produced playwright in the world and I think if we want to tackle diversity, representation and inclusion, then why not start with the Bard himself? … If we can, as black British women, embed ourselves...

In Vegas, The Shows Are Coming Back. Will The Tourists Come To See Them?

"The change since last spring, as measured by the return of surging morning-to-midnight crowds, is head-snapping. While just 106,900 tourists visited Las Vegas in April 2020, according to the Convention and Visitors Authority, some 2.6 million people visited this April — a big rebound, but still almost a million shy of what the city was attracting before the pandemic."...

A First Look At Stratford’s New $70 Million Theatre

Its physical beauty is a far cry from the rough-and-ready look of the previous Tom Patterson Theatre: a converted curling rink. - Toronto Star

‘Come To The Theatre And Arrest Us’: Andrew Lloyd Webber Says He’ll Reopen His Theatres At Full Capacity ‘Come Hell Or High Water’

In response to news that Boris Johnson's government is considering postponing the full reopening of performance venues scheduled for June 21, the musical theatre mogul said he cannot afford to operate his West End theatres at the 50% occupancy permitted now and might have to sell them if capacity controls aren't removed. - BBC

Garth Drabinsky’s Comeback Will Be Broadway’s First Fully New Musical Since COVID Arrived

The first production on Broadway that hadn't been previously scheduled and postponed will be Paradise Square, a show about the origins of tap dance, set in the 19th-century Manhattan slum called Five Points and featuring songs by the pre-Civil War composer Stephen Foster, directed by Moisés Kaufman and choreographed by Bill T. Jones. Drabinsky, a three-time Tony-winning producer in...

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