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THEATRE

Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Only One Theatre. It’s Fallen Into Disrepair

The building represents Wright’s decades-long fascination with a concept he called the “New Theatre.” It involved eschewing the traditional setup, with a proscenium stage—in which audiences stare straight ahead with a single, framed view—and instead creating a circular, revolving stage that joined the actors and audience in a more unified space. - Texas Monthly

Some US Regional Theater Companies Are Bouncing Back Well From The Pandemic. Here’s Why.

How the Barter Theatre in rural southwestern Virginia, Signature Theatre in metro DC, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas kept up contact and engagement with their communities through the lockdowns and afterward. - AP

Portland’s Artist Repertory Theatre Pauses – Audiences Down 20-50 Percent

“So when people attend, they engage, they connect and then they give. So when the audience isn’t coming back, isn’t seeing the shows, then they’re not as motivated or connected to make that additional donation.” - Oregon Public Broadcasting

Actors’ Equity Moves To Unionize Broadway Production Assistants

"Many PAs, the union (says), are early-career stage managers, and PAs 'are among the only Broadway workers without current union representation.' The new bargaining unit includes both current PAs working on about ten productions as well as about 100 who have worked on Broadway the last two years." - Deadline

After 33 Years, André Bishop Announces Retirement From Lincoln Center Theater

"Bishop, 74, said he is choosing to leave at the end of the 2024-25 season because that is when his current contract (as producing artistic director) ends, and because that will allow him to join in that season's celebrations of Lincoln Center Theater’s 40th anniversary." - The New York Times

David Mamet Famously Can’t Stand Critics

Actor Shia LaBeouf personally invited critics to a new Mamet production anyway. - Los Angeles Times

The Babysitting Nonprofit Helping Parents Go To Broadway Shows

"Helping people in theater take care of their children is part of core mission — an early initiative was hiring babysitters to watch children at auditions. Then the leadership realized that theater artists need audiences." - NPR

Female Comics Say Russell Brand Is The Tip Of The Iceberg In Comedy

Six years on from the #MeToo movement, they say there remains a culture of misogyny and male privilege in the comedy industry that emboldens predators and prevents women from speaking out. - The Guardian

After Going Dark This Year, Cal Shakes Will Be Back In 2024 For Its Golden Anniversary

"California Shakespeare Theater plans to produce a show of its own in 2024, after operating exclusively as a rental house this year. The production, As You Like It, ... will mark the company's 50th anniversary and run Sept. 12-29 at the Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)

The Eddie Redmayne “Cabaret” Will Be Broadway’s Most Expensive Revival Ever

The budget is $24.25 million, and the box office will have to take in $1,2 million a week just to pay running costs — an intimidating prospect even for a Kander & Ebb revival, and their shows (e.g., Chicago) tend to do very well on Broadway. - Broadway Journal

The Critic Who Was Repeatedly Bopped On The Head With A Playbill (And Other Tales Of Audience Members Acting Out)

In yet another article pegged to Lauren Boebert getting thrown out of Beetlejuice: The Musical in Denver this month, former Chicago Tribune critics Nina Metz and Michael Phillips trade anecdotes and offer don't-do-this behavior tips for patrons. - Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)

Second City Will Open Its New York Outpost This November

"The improvisational comedy enterprise … will house its new nearly 12,000 square-foot entertainment complex in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Set to open on Nov. 16, the venue will feature two cabaret-style live theaters, seven Training Center classrooms, and a full-service restaurant and bar." - The Hollywood Reporter

Institutional Critique: Jeremy Harris And The Reevaluation Of Theatre

As the initial shock of the pandemic gave way to a reëvaluation of racial and other societal arrangements, Jeremy Harris became a kind of spokesman for the long-standing and suddenly stark unrest felt by his fellow-artists. It was a moment well suited to Harris’s natural, if somewhat paradoxical, penchant for institutional critique. - The New Yorker

After 62 Years, Ossie Davis’s Satire Of Racism In The Deep South, “Purlie Victorious”, Is Returning To Broadway

"Dad grew up in deepest Georgia, and had cause to be irate about the conditions there," (his daughter) recalled. "He tried to write a play that was full of anger and righteousness, but it just didn't work until he began to look at it and laugh.'" - The New York Times

Comedian Hasan Minhaj Says His Personal Stories Are Embellished

His admission is causing quite the freak-out online - but that's how comedy works: It doesn't have to be "real." - Los Angeles Times

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