"'Tragedy,' in drama, is concerned with suffering, but there's more to it than that. ... Individuals inherit fallout from events in the remote past, through no fault of their own. The next move is the test: What do you do with the bad hand you've been dealt?" - The New York Times Magazine
"An ensemble member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company," Tarell Alvin McCraney "is professor of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and has earned a reputation as a passionate mentor. He will continue to teach at Yale while leading the Geffen Playhouse." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Though the musical recounts, in reverse, the dissolution of a close personal and professional friendship, the work of re-creating the central characters has brought Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez, and Jonathan Groff into a very tight (and platonic) relationship of their own. - The New York Times
A young Knoxville man named John takes a reporter through his preparations to perform — as Anastasia, his drag persona — in a sort of educational performance for clergy members and community leaders in Chattanooga, another part of the effort to combat Tennessee's new anti-drag law. - The Nation
In August, the state's flagship university made headlines by deciding to eliminate all foreign language instruction. The puppetry major in the theater and dance department has been targeted as well but got a reprieve. Reporter Emma Pettit watches the students and professor at work. - The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Stevie Walker-Webb, a theater director and rising star who at the age of 36 has already been nominated for a Tony Award, was appointed Thursday as Baltimore Center Stage's artistic director. … He succeeds Stephanie Ybarra, who stepped down March 17 to accept a position with the Mellon Foundation." - The Baltimore Sun
Experimental work was the soul of the New Ohio, a producer and presenter that closed for good on Aug. 31. The publicity line has been that the shutdown is the end of 30 years, but that’s a give-or-take number. - The New York Times
Two-thirds of this year's programming is at five hubs; one-half — 150 productions — is at Cannonball, which offers a stage, lighting and sound equipment, and people to run it. "Lots of independent artists are hungry for platforms where they don't have to do every single step of producing themselves." - WHYY (Philadelphia)
"Musicals can be shotgun weddings, their authors joined by necessity, not love. But in most cases, they're at least both breathing. Not so this fall. On Broadway, Off Broadway, in special events and out of town, living authors are collaborating with dead ones." - The New York Times
"Santa Cruz Shakespeare … hit 114% of its box-office goal for the year before its summer season even finished. And its 2024 lineup expands to five plays from the customary three, extending its summer calendar into September and then mounting a winter holiday show." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)
We think we’re gonna end up with about 15,000 more tickets sold than in 2022. And student groups are coming back. That was a big, big blow for many theaters and OSF as well because when COVID happened, schools shut down field trips and all that. But we’re getting student groups back. - Oregon Public Broadcasting
"Steppenwolf Theatre Company, one of Chicago's most storied arts institutions and long a crucial part of the city's identity, said Thursday that it was laying off 12% of its staff, effective immediately." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Zachary Noah Piser, a Chinese-American actor, was to play the lead in Tiananmen: A New Musical when it debuts in Phoenix in October. The cast announcement was made last Thursday, when Piser happened to be performing in Shanghai; on Friday he made a brief statement announcing his withdrawal. - CNN
"Her scripts call for comfortable pauses, uncomfortable pauses, weird pauses, confused pauses, horrible pauses. … It's worth contemplating what's going on between the lines in her low and slow theater. For starters, why do some audience members find silence so off-putting?" - The New York Times
