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THEATRE

US Playwright Ken Ludwig Gives £1 Million To Preserve Shakespeare Family Home

The author of the farce Lend Me a Tenor and the book for the Gershwin musical Crazy for You donated in order to fund desperately-needed preservation work on Hall's Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susannah and a very rare example of intact Jacobean architecture. - Time Out UK

After A Big Broadway Theatre Merger… Big Profits

Taking over ownership of Jujamcyn’s five Broadway venues, including the August Wilson and Walter Kerr theatres – a deal finalised in summer 2023 – pulled in £75.5 million in revenue and profit of £18.2 million. - The Stage

Auditions For Drama School: Fair Or Unfair?

They're certainly difficult, especially since COVID. High school drama programs rarely prepare students well for conservatory work, including the audition process, and a small (and pricey) industry has developed solely in coaching young applicants for their auditions. - ArtsHub

This Fall On Broadway: Bring On The Divas

Theater stages are the diva’s holy playground, where complex characters and powerful performances ask audiences to question their received ideas. A new slate of shows this fall promises both rapture and reexamination. - Washington Post

Carole Rothman, Founder Of Broadway’s Second Stage Theater: Exit Interview

As she approaches her not-entirely-amicable departure after 45 years, the 73-year-old artistic director discusses the challenges she faced as a woman in the industry, her favorite memories (and her biggest disaster) and what her future in the theater may look like. - The New York Times

What Netflix Standup Specials Say About The State Of Today’s Comedy

Like other performers in our Balkanized, make-your-own-prime-time-entertainment landscape, many comedians act less like artists or court jesters than like notionally humorous leaders of affinity groups or of minor, mostly harmless cults. - The New Yorker

How Policing Audience Phones Changes Meaning In The Theatre

The “Starbucks!” sticker is an effort to physically prevent photography and videos circulating online. But this seemingly innocuous action creates a ripple effect about the meanings created within the production and the social aspect of theatre-going. - The Conversation

“Nutritious Work”: What Tarell Alvin McCraney Wants To Make Happen At The Geffen Playhouse

"When we get folks in from every walk of our community, they can start having a conversation differently than, 'Get out of my way, I’m headed to the store' or 'Move, I need that parking spot.' … People start walking out and go, 'Wait. You saw that? What did you think?'" - Los Angeles Times

Edinburgh Themes This Year: Theatre Of Wellness

A conspicuous number of shows were themed around psychological maladies. These included plays about grief, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and gambling addiction. I had thought I was going to a festival, but this sounded more like a wellness convention. - The New York Times

Theatre Folks Are Inveterate Pranksters, Onstage And Backstage

"The Broadway or West End grind, in which a cast can perform the same show eight times a week for months or years on end, is particularly suited to monotony-breaking mischief." Thomas Floyd offers up some choice examples. - The Washington Post (MSN)

What Happens When Your Essential Creative Collaborator Dies?

The experience of grieving Adam was going to be braided with the thing that could bring me closest to him, which was a gift. - The New York Times

Actors At Edinburgh Festival Are Protesting From The Stage Over Scotland’s Arts Funding Cuts

"It emerged on the eve of this year’s festival that Creative Scotland faces cuts of up to £10m this year, amid widespread spending reductions across the public sector following the general election." Protest messages have been read onstage at both the International Festival and the Fringe. - The Guardian

How To Survive – And Maybe Thrive – While Performing In The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

One performer who was new to the 2024 Fringe: “Everyone is telling me you can’t understand the Fringe until you go to the Fringe. … I’m hoping to make the right decisions and I’m very excited, but I also feel like throwing up every day, which I guess is part of the process.” - The New York Times

How Did Chicago’s Improv Comedian Masters Deal With The DNC?

Well, Second City doesn’t really do a ton of political comedy, per se. However, if someone shouted out Tim Walz: “We know he likes white-guy tacos. … Truly - yes. Present him as very cool uncle. So, yeah, I'd probably go straight to Minnesota.” - NPR

How To Go On With The Show When Your Closest Collaborator Dies

“Adam thought that solo shows should answer the question: What is our place in the world? I looked after the jokes, and he looked after that.” Then the show went to Broadway - and Adam Brace suddenly died. - The New York Times

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