Will a larger, more activist union make things fairer? Or will business remain more or less as usual? "We asked several industry sources and union folks to give us their best guesses and hopes about how this momentous change will play out." - American Theatre
Actors' Equity is requiring vaccinations. COVID safety officers are being added to production teams, and a leading epidemiologist has been hired to train them. Peter Marks looks into how the new measures are being put into practice. - The Washington Post
"His fall from grace in the mid-1950s was sudden and unexpected. From the mid-1930s he'd been the darling of the West End." Then along came the British theatre's Angry Young Men, followed by critic Kenneth Tynan, whose savaging torpedoed Rattigan's plays for a generation. - The Stage
"I hope that the theatre generally, will be open to the idea that when you limit yourself to doing only primarily white theatre for primarily white audiences, there is well over half the city you are excluding.” - American Theatre
First, Stephen Sondheim couldn’t come up with songs because he didn't think James Lapine's script needed any. So began a cascade of calamities, right up to the Broadway opening, until the show shocked everyone involved by getting 10 Tony nominations and a Pulitzer Prize. - The New York Times
I felt ashamed of my mistake, for not seeing a colleague for who he really is. “How limited your perception is, Lily!” I thought. And: “I wonder how much else I miss?” Probably, I decided, quite a bit. - San Francisco Chronicle
"Generosity for generosity's sake will only hasten (critics') redundancy. But candor and compassion aren't antithetical terms." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Seeing theatre changed people’s behavior. After seeing the plays, people donated more to charity — whether or not the charity was related to the topics in the plays.” - Psypost
The post-pandemic (and possibly post-45) change: "As theater returns to robust live-ness, Washington has been cast in a significant role once again, as a test-market locale with sophisticated theater tastes." - Washington Post
On Friday, the Public Theater canceled its show for the third night in a row because of a positive COVID-19 test. Can we ever depend on live performances again? - The New York Times
Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, both members of the company's ensemble, "said that the pairing will allow them to ensure 'there is always somebody tending the garden,' without forcing either of them to give up national acting careers." - Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
"Other writer-actor types have played the upper-middle-class intellectual as a kind of sheepish hero, all the while hiding, or prettifying, or justifying the dark interiors that often accompany that seemingly benign performance. Shawn turns this kind of character inside out and shows the demon within." - The New Yorker
