ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

THEATRE

How One Of Metro DC’s Best Stage Directors Came Back From A Catastrophic Highway Crash

After midnight on Nov. 30, 2022, Synetic Theater co-founder Paata Tsikurishvili was sitting in traffic when another car rear-ended his and knocked it into the HOV lane, where it was hit at full speed by a third vehicle. Astoundingly, he was back at work in under a year. - The Washington Post (MSN)

18 Shows Are Opening On Broadway This Spring. Too Many?

The density of late-season openings — 11 plays and musicals over a nine-day stretch in late April — has producers and investors worried about how those shows will find enough ticket buyers to survive. - The New York Times

Smart Glasses Provide Live Captioning For Plays

Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Co. is offering hearing-impaired patrons the use of high-tech eyewear that displays real-time captions, adjustable for placement, size and color. People's Light in nearby Malvern (which introduced them in 2019) and Arden are currently the only US theaters to offer the glasses. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Broadway’s Big Presidents Day Box Office Boost

The Presidents Day Weekend was like a little Christmas gift for Broadway, with grosses for the 23 productions posting a hefty 27% increase over the previous week, topping out at $26,946,864. - Deadline

Trying To Learn To Cry On Cue, The Way Actors Do

Journalist Rachel Handler talks to a somatic psychotherapist, an acting coach to major stars, that coach's son, and several actors and directors, all in a quest to learn how to summon the tears. - Vulture

Lunchtime Theatre, With A Pint? How Very British

Actually - how very Scottish. A Play, A Pie, and A Pint premiered in Glasgow in 2004 and hasn’t stopped (aside from the early days of COVID-19) producing 48 new plays a year ever since. - BBC

How To Get Broadway Out Of Its Winter Doldrums? Let Audience Members Ride The “Sweeney Todd” Death Slide

In the current staging, Sweeney's barbershop is above the stage; when he slits a customer's throat, he pulls a lever that sends the victim down a slide into Mrs. Lovett's basement. Under the tag "A Bad Idea Worth Considering," Rebecca Alter points out that slide's underutilized revenue potential. Wheeeeee! - Vulture (MSN)

Another San Francisco Theater Has To Do An Emergency Donate-Or-We-Close-Down Campaign

"Cutting Ball Theater, the 25-year-old company known for form-breaking new plays and rejuvenated classics, ... says it needs to raise $45,000 by March 1 and $200,000 by June, out of a $750,000 annual budget, in order to stay open." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Second City Has Opened Its New York City Branch

"The new site (in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood) is less of a traditional comedy club than it is a sort of small campus for comedy aficionados. The 12,000-square-foot, two-floor complex includes two cabaret-style live theaters, a training center …, and a restaurant bar called The Bentwood." - Time Out New York

How Arizona Theatre Company Thrives In Two Homes

“What people don’t realize is that in a $6 million budget, the expenses in Phoenix are only $1 million more. We netted close to $2 million more by being in two cities; we got two bats with only one batter." - American Theatre

For This Brazilian City’s Carnival, The Giant Street Puppets Come Out

In Olinda, a town on the northern coast near Recife whose historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the puppets range from the traditional Midnight Man and Daytime Woman (and their son, Afternoon Boy) to David Bowie, James Brown, and the John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever. - The New York Times

One Of London’s Best Theatres For New Plays May Have To Lay Off Its Literary Department

"The Royal Court is known for putting the names of emerging playwrights up in lights for the first time, but … (its) literary department is struggling to survive as the venue on Sloane Square, renowned for staging risk-taking shows over 60 years, makes swingeing cuts in order to keep going." - The Guardian

Will This Production Of “The Wiz” Change How Broadway Does Business?

“Broadway and the road have gone through different eras and phases, and it will continue to morph, but we may be beginning a chapter of something new. Because this works artistically, it works economically, and so far, it’s been very exciting to do it this way.” - Los Angeles Times

Hezbollah Goes Into The Immersive Theater Business

No, this is not a joke, though Robert F. Worth thought it was, when he first saw the announcement that the Lebanese Shiite militant group was staging an "immersive theatrical performance" titled The Crossing, complete with live gunfire and Hamas-style tunnels. - The Atlantic (MSN)

Actors Equity Authorizes Strike Over Development Pay

"We know there is no revenue from the development sessions themselves, but it’s still work, and that doesn’t change whether there’s revenue today or whether it’s an investment producers are making against future profits. And that work must be appropriately compensated.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');