The Witch of Konotop is a 1982 stage adaptation of a classic Ukrainian novella published in 1832, telling the story of a Cossack town administrator in the 17th century who goes on an honest-to-goodness witch hunt. For more than a year it has been the hottest ticket in Kyiv. (audio) - NPR
Cutting Ball Theater plans to cease operations at the end of 2024. In its 25 years, Cutting Ball has mounted a Strindberg marathon, a staged documentary about its Tenderloin neighbors, Gertrude Stein and Suzan Lori-Parks on the same bill, and … classics audiences couldn’t see anywhere else. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
"As arts spaces across Scotland’s capital struggle to stay afloat, the number of venues hosting fringe shows this year is among the lowest of the past decade. In August, ... 262 venues will welcome audiences, an almost 20% reduction since the festival’s peak in 2019." - The Observer (UK)
“Spotlight charges performers to appear in its directory, which it says was used to cast 99% of productions in the UK in 2023. But Equity says the fees, which were recently increased to £216 a year for actors on a monthly tariff, are ‘above what the law reasonably allows.’” - BBC
Leaders of The Orlando Fringe and Tampa Fringe described the governor’s description as inaccurate on Thursday at a news conference, but they said it was important for the state’s arts groups to be funded because they play critical roles in their communities. - AP
Comedian John Tobin and business partner Norm Laviolette own and operate several comedy venues in Boston and New England, and they noticed that younger audience members were drinking far fewer beers and cocktails than their older counterparts did. So the pair launched SoBar Comedy. - WBUR (Boston)
"The eight films, which feature some of the UK's top performers, will receive their premiere screenings at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, the city in Kent where the writer was born. The viewings, between 16-24 August, will mark the 460th anniversary of Marlowe's birth." - BBC
The one-act by American writer Joshua Kaplan, titled TERF, doesn't premiere until next month at the Edinburgh Fringe, yet right-wing media on both sides of the Atlantic have attacked it — sight unseen — as hostile to Rowling, a well-known critic of alleged excesses of the trans rights movement. - The Hollywood Reporter
BAD exists for actors who’ve been shut out of roles for being insufficiently white, thin or cisgender, who’ve not felt welcome in audition rooms because of a physical disability, neuro-atypicality or any other aspect of their identity. Here, they’re not relegated to the margins of the chorus line. They play heroes, love interests and ingenues. - San Francisco Chronicle
Stéphane Capron from radio station France Inter filed a defamation claim against Spanish actor-director Angélica Liddell after she read one of his reviews aloud, called him a cabrón, told him and other critics to "face your own vileness," and mooned the audience from the stage at the Avignon Festival. - The Guardian
As was the original plan with Hamilton, and as happened with Here Lies Love, The Who's Tommy, and Evita, the show — an adaptation of the 1979 film and 1965 novel about a gang falsely accused of murdering a rival — will take shape first as a concept album. - Bloomberg (MSN)
It’s not just fans who are angry. Theatre’s biggest stars regularly rail against high ticket prices, even though they help pay their salaries. - The Guardian
Their convergence at the Public in the mid-2010s would resonate as far more than happy memories: Now each of them has become a Woman With Power, in a beleaguered field in vital need of new inspiration. - The New York Times
