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THEATRE

Looks Like Actors’ Equity And The Broadway League Have Settled On A New Contract

"The details of the agreement have not yet been released and remain subject to ratification by Equity members who have recently worked on these contracts. ... Touring productions, which had been included in this contract in the past ... are being spun off into a new contract." - The Hollywood Reporter

The Right-Wing Twitter Mob Comes For The Washington Post’s Theater Critic

Last week, a review by the Post's Peter Marks of Bruce Norris's Downstate carried an eye-catching headline: "Downstate is a play about pedophiles. It's also brilliant."  Alas, that soon caught the eyes of the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz: "So now the corporate media is praising pedophilia." - Playbill

How Do You Put A 1957 Radio Documentary About Gay Men On The Stage?

The Homosexual Condition, the BBC's first-ever documentary about the lives of gay males, was believed lost until the script and other documents were located in 2015.  Here several people involved in creating the new stage adaptation, titled The First Homosexual, talk about the challenges of the project. - BBC

Why Is Theatre Dealing With (Or Not) Climate Change The Way It Is?

“Perhaps the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis,” observed Bayo Akomolafe. Producers can’t decide how climate change should be presented to theatergoers: they fear that scripts that come on too strong will scare off well-heeled audiences. - ArtsFuse

Funding Cuts To Two Small London Theatres Could Have Big Effects

Not only do the Donmar Warehouse and Hampstead Theatre regularly send productions out into the commercial theatre world (including the West End and Broadway), they bring major productions from abroad into London. Yet Arts Council England just zeroed out their government funding. - The New York Times

The Real Secret Of The L.A. Comedy Scene’s Success? Gigs In People’s Backyards

"No matter how cobbled together the entire operation might be, some of the very best comedy shows in L.A., for more than two decades, have happened in a comedian's (or a group of comedians') backyard, living room, garage, grotto, warehouse, etc." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

New Technology That Replaces Most Musicians In The Theatre Pit

The innovative aspect of KeyComp, he said, is that a single musician can play one or two of the most important musical lines, and the technology adds subsidiary lines in a way that matches the player’s tempo, articulation and dynamics. 

“Phantom Of The Opera” Isn’t Leaving Broadway After All (Well, Not Yet)

In September, after months of shrinking attendance, producers announced that the longest-running show in Broadway history would finally close this coming February.  Ticket sales immediately picked up, and last week's gross box-office set a record. So the run has been extended for eight more weeks. - The New York Times

Carey Perloff Digs Into Stoppard

The more I’ve dug into Stoppard’s biography, the clearer it has become that, in spite of appearing to be a quintessential Englishman, he’s always been an outsider. - Los Angeles Times

The Museum Of Broadway Reveals The Show Behind The Shows

Theatre history dreams: "The Broadway timeline itself is two floors filled with pictures and artifacts –costumes, props, documents – illustrating the history of New York theater from minstrelsy and vaudeville up to the present day." - NPR

For Suzan-Lori Parks, Theatre Creates Reality Just As Much As The Reverse

"Parks was on set as the writer for a TV show that had to go on hiatus when COVID hit. So she just started writing a short play a day – plays that would eventually become Plays for the Plague Year." - NPR

How Two Women From New York’s Avant-Garde Theatre Changed Omaha

"Decades before today’s movement for gender parity in the theatre, Terry and Schidman produced their own original work and that of others, like Paula Vogel" and María Irene Fornés. - American Theatre

Ending A Theatrical Tradition Means Space To Innovate

Or that's the idea, anyway, at the Prince Edward Island theatre festival that won't perform Anne of Green Gables every year anymore. The artistic director: "The core change here is making space for new shows, new work, and new voices." - CBC

After 70 Years, London’s “Mousetrap Is Coming To Broadway

On Friday, keen-eyed theatergoers discovered a website for the Broadway iteration, which announced that the murder mystery, whose London production holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-running play, would make its Broadway debut some time in 2023. - The New York Times

End Of An Era: World’s Longest-Running Annual Musical Theatre Production To End

The musical was staged every year from 1965 to 2019, earning it recognition from Guinness World Records. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a two-year pause, but the musical returned this year. - Toronto Star

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