While the interior is idle (or getting a revamp, in some cases), the windows to the street have a thing or two to say about art, poetry, and the power of words - and, in some cases, even dance. The Brooklyn Ballet performed 20-minute "jewel-box dances" from The Nutcracker in its street-level windows in December, using barriers to prevent...
Arrival times will be staggered, drinks and snacks must be pre-ordered, and the audience can go to the bathroom when it needs to - but there will be absolutely no stopping a play once it begins. Shakespeare might feel a bit too real. Consider Romeo and Juliet. There will be no need "to deny the hell of that play,...
Despite the fact that they can sometimes feel like (as one literary manager put it) "the Hunger Games of playwriting," prizes do help bring new voices into an industry that can be very much a closed shop. Lyn Gardner talks to people who run competitions, and people who've entered them, about the difference prizes make and the issues involved...
At a news conference, Mr. de Blasio said that in addition to the Broadway vaccination site, there would be a mobile vaccination unit to serve theater workers beyond Broadway. The sites will be staffed by theater workers, many of whom have been relying on unemployment insurance since Broadway shut down over a year ago. - The New York Times
Ambassador Theatre Group is purchasing from the Nederlander Co. the Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres in San Francisco and the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, as well as taking over the presentation of Broadway tours at the Detroit Opera House and Music Hall. - Deadline
Old platforms have pivoted, new ones have emerged. And now any fan, with just a few smartphone taps, can arrange a video message, a live chat or even a private coaching session with a favorite star. - The New York Times
"Quietly simmering frustrations erupted publicly last week, when more than 2,500 union members signed a letter, circulated by a Broadway performer and signed by Tony winners and Tony nominees, plaintively asking, 'When are we going to talk about the details of getting back to work?'" - The New York Times
Laura Collins-Hughes: Alexis, when you saw the invitation, what went through your mind?Alexis Soloski: Panic, basically. … I won't be vaccinated for months and I don't feel ready to make this moral/professional/hygienic calculus. You?" - The New York Times
And they're not shy about asking the union to move up the timeline - please. "We feel unheard, we feel left out, and we feel way farther behind than any other industry when it comes to putting in place practical protocols that would get us back to work." - The New York Times
Jessie Buckley is playing Juliet, and Josh O'Connor is playing Romeo, but there's no audience - and there's a huge audience. "When news first broke that Buckley and O’Connor would appear together in a contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet, there was huge excitement among theatregoers. The idea was for a short autumn run at the Lyttleton theatre, in...
"In 1960 Peter Hall created a theatrical revolution. He turned a summer Shakespeare festival in Stratford-on-Avon into a year-round enterprise based on a permanent ensemble, a second home in London and a mix of classical and contemporary work. But it wasn't until 20 March 1961 that the whole enterprise was given the name we know today. … Sixty years...
If so, it's got nothing to do with illness or quarantine as subject matter; it's that the lockdown pushed everyone — audiences, colleagues, and (crucially) gatekeepers such as casting agents and bookers — online, where barriers to entry are low and the democratizing effect has been sizable. - The Guardian
Three years after Chris Dercon ended his brief, dissension-plagued tenure at the theatre, his successor as artistic director, Klaus Dörr, quit after it became public that 10 women at the Volksbühne had made formal complaints to the Berlin city government about Dörr's alleged sexual harassment of younger actresses and humiliation of older ones. - The New York Times
Ivo van Hove at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Stéphane Braunschweig at the Odéon in Paris, Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne in Berlin, Kajsa Giertz at the Helsingborg (Sweden) City Theatre, and Saheem Ali and Shanta Thake at the Public Theater in New York talk about government support, programming while their buildings are closed, and reopening plans. - The Observer...
Theatres have collectively reported losses of nearly £200 million following a year of closure, according to a survey which also reveals that a quarter of freelancers have gone out of business or ceased trading because of the pandemic. - The Stage
