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THEATRE

As Broadway Adjusts To Public Outcry, The Question Of How And When To Dim The Lights Goes On

“The lights-dimming ritual, which goes back decades, has been an increasingly fraught one for the nine entities that own and operate Broadway theaters.” - The New York Times

Fleetwood Mac’s Sound Engineer Sues “Stereophonic” Playwright David Adjmi For Plagiarism

"The complaint alleges that Stereophonic is an 'unauthorized adaptation' of Kenneth Caillat’s 2012 memoir, Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album (which he co-wrote with Steven Stiefel) about his time as a sound engineer (later promoted to co-producer) of one of the most popular albums in history." - TheaterMania

Cal Shakes Gives Up Its Struggle And Will Shut Down

One of the largest nonprofit theaters in the Bay Area, the California Shakespeare Theater for 50 years offered high-quality outdoor productions and theater education programs. The company has had financial troubles for several years; an emergency campaign last summer raised $350,000 to complete this season's one production. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Using Mali’s Traditional Theater As Psychiatric Treatment

Koteba, a traditional form of theater by Mali’s largest ethnic group, the Bambara, mixes acting, singing and dancing to work through villagers' problems and offer satire. At one of Bamako's largest hospitals, koteba is being used to help psychiatric patients in a country desperately short of mental health professionals. - AP

The Real Reason That Texas School Superintendent Cancelled That High School’s “Oklahoma!”

The Sherman High School's production became a subject of nationwide controversy after a transgender boy was removed from the cast, his fellow students protested, and the district called it all off. An independent report says that the now-former superintendent was upset about "same-sex kissing" onstage. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

Discovering The Ruins Of One Of Shakespeare’s Playhouses Changed Our Understanding Of Theatre History

"There was a received narrative that proper playhouses start off round and then just get bigger, with the pinnacle of that evolution being the Globe. And all of a sudden we’ve got this early, yet long-lived, rectangular structure. ... This has changed our understanding of theatre development." - The Guardian

Longtime Houston Alley Theatre Managing Director To Step Down

The Alley put out a press statement that included a long list of financial achievements during the years Dean Gladden has been managing director. When he came to the Alley the Houston theater was facing an $800,000 deficit. "The Alley now boasts financial reserves exceeding $5 million." - Houston Press

In DC, The Problem For Small Theater Companies Is Finding Theaters To Perform In

"A number of companies that cater to smaller audiences with niche or experimental productions are struggling to find or keep their spaces in the city. And now the Source Theatre, an intimate 120-seat stage … that has served audiences for nearly 50 years, is up for sale." - The Washington Post (MSN)

“Thankless And Difficult”: What It’s Like Running One Of L.A.’s 99-Seat Theaters

"'Part and parcel of running a theater in Los Angeles is waking up two to four times a year and not knowing if you're going to be in business the next week,' John Perrin Flynn reflected after announcing his retirement as producing artistic director of Rogue Machine Theatre." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

The Problem With Using Software To Determine What Shakespeare Did And Didn’t Write

Scholar Darren Freebury-Jones used a text database called Collocations and N-grams to spot parallel phrases and passages in Shakespeare's plays and those of his contemporaries. Oxford Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith writes that Freebury-Jones's computerized approach is less compelling than his own literary analysis. - The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)

The Importance Of Dangerous Words Onstage

Who needs to see a play in which inflammatory positions and arguments aren’t dangerous? Hatred and intolerance won’t disappear because pious new puritans stop them being aired in theatre for fear of causing offence. - The Stage

Matthew López On The One Play He’s Written That He Was Terrified Of Reviving

One big reason that the Tony-winning playwright of The Inheritance has been reluctant to revisit this script, titled Reverberation, is that it's the last play he wrote before getting sober. And where López calls his gay romcom screenplay Red, White & Royal Blue a "joy-bomb," Reverberation is more like an A-bomb. - The Guardian

What It Means To Write A Play In The Age Of AI

"In the midst of all this, what does it mean to be a writer trying to write in the way that I want to write? What would the new technologies mean for writers like Saul Bellow or Philip Roth, who I adore, and for the richness of their language?" - The Atlantic

National Black Theatre Prepares to Move Into Building Worthy Of Its Work

CEO Sadie Lythcott says, "Our artistic ambition was always stifled by the space that we had." Come 2027, NBT will move into a block-long complex with two theaters, a set-building shop and affordable artist housing, all on 125th Street in Harlem. - The Guardian

How Does Lin-Manuel Miranda Decide What Projects To Pursue?

“If it’s just one idea, it will probably die in the impulse phase. If the idea opens avenues and you see many more roads, that’s worth pursuing. It doesn’t leave you alone.” - Fast Company

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