As controversy continues over Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe (and able-bodied), casting herself as Shakespeare's only explicitly disabled character, actors with disabilities who have played the role themselves weigh in. - The Guardian
"Big-budget shows are increasingly using illusions to help tell stories full of wonder. … Ten years ago, a consultant magician would be brought on to a production to help achieve an effect. Today, illusion designers are a core part of the design team, like the lighting or sound crew." - The Guardian
Unless there's a turnaround in the sector, arts leaders who spoke with the Star say the once-thriving sector in Toronto — one of the largest theatre centres in the world — could become a shell of its former self. - Toronto Star
"In a studio theatre tucked into a courtyard behind Kyiv’s main Khreshchatyk Street, six playwrights and six directors were hammering out a fraught question: how to write plays about war, during the war. One unexpected outcome of their workshops was: through jokes." - The Guardian
"Before the war, many comedians performed their sets in Russian and eyed major comedy festivals in Russia as the pinnacle of career achievement. ... the audience won’t laugh at jokes delivered in Russian, comedians say. Unless, of course, the Russian language is the butt of the joke." - The Atlantic
"Words like 'challenging,' 'volatile' and 'unsustainable' feature in some theatres' annual accounts, which have been filed in recent weeks. Some have changed their programming to do more 'popular, familiar, crowd-pleasing work.'" - BBC
In the latest Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway awards, Ryan J. Haddad's Dark Disabled Stories won best new play and a host of other awards, while playwriting awards were split between Hansol Jung for Wolf Play and Bruce Norris for Downstate. - Playbill
"Heading into 2024, one of the most noticeable things about the ties that unite the live theater-scape, from the Great White Way through to touring houses around the country, is how it is happily riddled with all that is Stephen Sondheim." - The Smart Set
Jonathan Larson conceived the show as a monologue, with himself at the keyboard playing all the roles. After he died suddenly in 1996 and Rent became a smash hit, Tick, Tick … Boom! was adapted into a three-actor piece. But NPH and the Kennedy Center have bigger plans. - The Washington Post (MSN)
"While the news is hardly a surprise, given that Roche Schulfer is 72 and his longtime artistic partner Robert Falls exited in 2022, the departure brings to a close an extraordinary career that expertly led Chicago’s largest theater through the COVID-19 crisis and the changing habits of audiences." - Chicago Tribune (MSN)
Perhaps there’s a feeling that, having spent upwards of, say, 180 quid on a pair of tickets for something, they’re entitled to a five star, anything goes experience from the moment of arrival to the second they lay down their head back on the pillow. - Evening Standard (London)
Jenny Worton of the theatre division at the Roald Dahl Story Company: "Because the stories are so beloved, and appear in lots of different mediums, it’s quite hard to ensure consistency. So we cooked up the idea that we could start commissioning people directly and develop shows ourselves." - The Stage
In November, school officials in Sherman, Texas objected to the casting of trans student Max Hightower in a male role and ordered that actors' birth gender must match that of their roles. Here's how parents, students, and, ultimately, allies all over the US fought back and won. - The Dallas Morning News
Zuri Washington: "I was made to feel like I did something wrong in the course of this entire experience, and I know I didn't do anything wrong. I could have done things differently, perhaps. But what they did to me is like a legal version of tone-policing." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Cervantes played Alexander Hamilton for more than two thousand shows, through the early days of the pandemic and much more - including the death of his daughter. "This show gave me an opportunity to use my frustrations and anger and sadness," he says. - Playbill
