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THEATRE

Forecast: Theatre Fortunes Will Be Rough This Coming Year

By 2022, according to the same survey, 30 percent of responding theaters were projecting deficit operating budgets, and there’s a huge increase in that cohort on the horizon: 62 percent are projecting budget deficits in 2023.  - Chicago Reader

The Theatre World Never Really Understood The Subversive Side Of Lorraine Hansberry

The subversive intent of Hansberry’s art and activism has long been underestimated. Early reviews of Raisin, which debuted in 1959 and made Hansberry the first Black woman with a show on Broadway, were quick to domesticate her. - The Atlantic

With An Immersive Theater Piece, Irina Brook Emerges From The Huge Shadows Cast By Her Parents

After a lifetime "blindly" following the path of her parents — director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry — Irina realized she was in "the wrong business." Since then, she's been creating House of Us, "a permanent moving work in progress ... (so) insanely personal that it becomes insanely universal." - The New York Times

New Entertaining Bios Of Mary Rodgers And Stephen Sondheim Demonstrate The Power Of Voice

Two new brazenly entertaining works of theatrical biography are a reminder that “voice” is as essential to the stage as it is to a work of literature. - Los Angeles Times

Playbill’s New Editor Is Excited And A Bit Stressed

Diep Tran says her concern in covering theatre is, "How do we do this fairly? How do we give credence to both sides on issue? The good thing is, I don’t need to opine about the state of the industry; the artists are already doing that." - American Theatre

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Calls On Other Theatres To Protect Artists And Artistic Mission

The Victory Gardens crisis was unsettling enough to spark conversations among board members at other nonprofit theaters, worried about the message sent to artists and staff members who might be wondering about their own companies’ loyalties. - Washington Post

Award For Playwright Caryl Churchill Is Withdrawn Because Of Her Pro-Palestinian Views

Last April, a theatre in Stuttgart named Churchill the winner of its 2022 European Drama Award, worth €75,000. When the jury discovered that she's a vocal critic of Israel and supporter of the BDS movement, it cancelled this year's award entirely. - The Guardian

Inside The Museum Of Broadway

“Through the history on the timeline, we have tried to show the idea of Broadway’s consciousness and American consciousness. The issues are all there, whether actively in protest or inherently in the story.” - Artnet

How Will Arbery Writes Plays That Appeal To All Sides In A Deeply Divided Country

"The key is Arbery's ear. He is one of the theater's greatest listeners, able to hear and reproduce the subtle and deeply specific ways individuals reveal themselves and their relationships to others with language." - The New York Times Magazine

The Gestation And Birth Of “The Lion King” — An Oral History

"In interviews over the last few weeks, many of those involved in bringing The Lion King to Broadway in 1997 spoke about the show's genesis. This oral history contains edited excerpts from those interviews." - The New York Times

Does Australia Have Any Classic Plays Of Its Own? Yes, Though You Wouldn’t Know It

The working definition of a "classic play" here is one that's revived repeatedly through the years and reinterpreted over time.  What happens in Australia, argues Anthony Nocera, is that the plays which get that treatment are famous British and American titles, though there are plenty of deserving Australian scripts. - The Guardian

“Cine-Theatre”: Australia’s Hottest Young Director On How He Integrates Live Video Into Stage Performance

Says Kip Williams, who won't pre-record video and insists that his actors perform before the cameras live, "It takes the best of cinema and the essence of theatre and combines them into a new space. ... I want audiences to get lost in that blurred area between film and stage.'" - The Guardian

The Secret Of Mike Birbiglia’s Power

"One of Mike Birbiglia's simplest and best talents is his instinct for leaping from sprawling existential ideas to prosaic little experiences. ... (His) power is to make that leap seem easy without undermining its magic: Here's the small thing that illuminates the big abstraction." - Vulture

Inflation, Changing Audience Behavior Are Muting A Broadway Rebound

Amid the spate of new shows, producers are facing higher costs due to inflation and extra understudies, as well as the added stressors of unpredictable and changing audience behavior. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Plays Of Henrik Ibsen, Where Women, Philosophy, And Theater Intertwine

"The male philosophers in Ibsen's plays do not fare well. In fact, they are a bunch of ramshackle figures – either adding sheer comedy or making audiences cringe. ... His women characters play out ideas and positions on stage, and often pay the costs of their male counterparts' rigidly conceived projects." - Psyche

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