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THEATRE

Ontario’s Stratford Festival Reports Modest Surplus

Stratford "reported total revenues of $66.2 million for the year, with a surplus of $638,711 after expenses. The results, credited to strong ticket sales, donors and government support, improved on a 2021 surplus of $553,058 during a smaller, mostly outdoor season." - Toronto Star

Houston’s Leading Theatre Cancels Cancels A Major Production Because It Just Can’t Get The Staging Done

Said artistic director Rob Melrose in his announcement calling off Derek Walcott's adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, "We knew going into this production the scope was difficult, and we thought it was appropriately resourced, … (but) it is impossible to bring this production to completion." - Houston Chronicle

Actors’ Equity Threatens Strike Against Touring Broadway Productions

"The union … has been bargaining with The Broadway League, which represents industry producers, presenters and general managers, since mid-January to create a new touring contract. Now, Actors' Equity has authorized … a strike on all Broadway national tours" if negotiations remain stalled. - The Hollywood Reporter

Who And What Won Big At Britain’s Olivier Awards

The play Prima Facie and the adapted play My Neighbor Totoro were the biggest, but not the only, winners from London's West End. - The New York Times

Chicago Gets A New Theatre-Focused Bookstore

Is it like New York's Drama Book Shop? A little, but "The Understudy has rotating displays atop wheeled shop tables, curated by Chicago artists. They are also providing a new hub for itinerant theatre companies seeking space for readings and workshops." - American Theatre

How Atlanta Theatres Are Struggling To Recover

According to the letter, “coupling lower than average attendance with the fact that arts funding is the smallest fraction of philanthropic giving means that there are simply not enough resources available for the short term health and long term viability of the Metro Atlanta cultural arts community.” - ArtsATL

Robert Falls On American Theatre As He Leaves The Goodman

"I remain optimistic that the theatre has been around for a long time, and it’s going to continue. I just feel that way. There’s no doubt that our younger audiences brains’ have been rewired by the speed of the culture. But honestly, I sit with young audiences looking at an O’Neill play..." - American Theatre

The Gay Cherokee Playwright Who Wrote The Source For Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”

Lynn Riggs rode a cattle train, worked in New York as an extra in cowboy movies and in Hollywood churning out studio screenplays, wrote Green Grow the Lilacs in France and was in the Army when Oklahoma! debuted on Broadway. Yet he never left behind his difficult prairie childhood. - Smithsonian Magazine

“Shucked” On Broadway: Why The Preview Grosses Are Low But The Seats Are Sold Out

"Lead producer Mike Bosner … and his team enacted the old-school practice of preview pricing: selling tickets for a show's pre-opening period at a significantly lower price point than after the show's official opening — and advertised this accordingly." - Broadway News

London’s West End Has Musical Theatre Problem

The problem is historic: because this area has been underdeveloped for years, the UK doesn’t have a strong path for shows to follow, and that leads to a lack of desire for risk-taking among audiences and investors alike. Hence the plethora of adaptations taking over West End stages. - The Guardian

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1988 Manifesto For The Musical Theatre

Through Phantom, Lloyd Webber presented an argument for the destiny of musical theater itself. The operatic tradition had always been divided over the relationship between music and drama, and this debate had reemerged in Lloyd Webber’s day. - New York Magazine

How A Gruesome Caravaggio Inspired One Of Samuel Beckett’s Most Notorious Monologues

On a 1971 visit to Malta, the playwright saw the painter's Beheading of St. John the Baptist, and the horrified face of an elderly female spectator at the execution was the key inspiration for Beckett's Not I, the 13-minute monologue for a disembodied mouth on a pitch-black stage. - The New European

We Worked On “Phantom” For 35 Years

For a lot of us, we started out doing this young. And our lives have changed. It’s like watching a child grow up. I didn’t have a child when I started this. Now I have a daughter, who’s 34, and a grandson! - Forbes

British Theatre Audiences Are Behaving So Badly That Nearly Half Of Front-House Staff Want To Quit

"Front-of-house staff facing violent assaults, theatregoers urinating in fire exits and mass brawls in auditoriums were among the incidents uncovered by the report from the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU). … Almost half (45%) said they had considered leaving the industry due to poor audience behaviour." - The Guardian

Actors’ Equity Is Forming Its Own PAC

"The union ... will be launching the PAC in the first week of April, with the goal of contributing money to federal candidates who support Actors' Equity priorities" such as arts funding, expanded health insurance coverage, and the Performing Artists Tax Parity Act. - The Hollywood Reporter

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