"This is 'one great big Edinburgh experiment', says Coco Sarel, possibly as a caveat in case things go wrong. Sarel (900,000 followers) is one of four TikTok comedians who, she says, want to find out if they're any good at stand-up. 'Which is better than four LinkedIn comedians.'" - BBC
And it's not called Fear and Loathing, either. In fact, its title is The Untitled, Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, it's premiering next week at the La Jolla Playhouse with a Tony winner in the title role, and the intent is to bring it to Broadway. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
She wrote The Shadow of a Doubt in 1901 and came close to seeing it staged briefly on Broadway, only for the project to fall apart for still-unclear reasons. The script lay undiscovered until 2016, and it's now onstage at the Shaw Festival in Ontario. - The New York Times
The blood’s memory really coursed through August. You also have to remember that the man read everything ever written—he was an autodidact. But he didn’t specifically research and say, “Okay, I’m writing a play about this era…” - American Theatre
"For a long time critics couldn't stop talking about the 'next Fleabag' in a way that may have been constraining for other women writing frank, funny solo pieces about their messy lives." Natasha Tripney talks with three of those women at this year's festival. - The Guardian
You transpose it to Beirut. It was a complicated endeavor, especially (given the huge differences between Arabic and English) for the songs. But it worked — in fact, says the Arabic lyricist, "It's like it was written to be a commentary on the judicial system in Lebanon." - The New York Times
All of these power-adult former theater kids exist in a moment when the very things that used to make drama-loving teenagers an easy punchline have become strengths. Today, performing an outsize version of oneself is often rewarded. - The New York Times
One expert says theatres have to invest in kids to inculcate a cultural habit "they might enjoy as they get older" - but, she adds, people in their 30s and 40s can't afford houses, so theatre as cultural investment? Unlikely. - Oregon ArtsWatch
As with so many other US regional theaters, a post-pandemic cash crunch to put on hold all five of its scheduled productions for the coming season and undertake a $500,000 "Save the Playhouse" emergency fundraising campaign. When performances will resume depends on how much money is raised. - San Antonio Report
Besides the much-discussed problems facing most American theaters, and that leadership at many of the city's companies has changed virtually all at once, there's this: "what once were internal disputes, such as debates over hiring, programming and the allocation of scarce resources, (have spilled) over into the public sphere." - Chicago Tribune
"He was viscerally aware that the essence of dramatic art is found in the living, breathing doing of it with a collective cast of participants—actors, directors, producers, mentors, audiences. Reworking isn’t failure. Indeed, Wilson the bluesman rewrote and remixed in real time, improvising and experimenting his way to mastery and historical revelation." The Atlantic
Leaders of Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre announced on Tuesday they are canceling the 2023-24 season, just as the company was beginning rehearsals for one of the shows it planned to produce. - Oregon Public Broadcasting
