Rising Tide Theatre co-founder George Dzundza (The Deer Hunter, Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy) says "Theater is a blood event." While movies are set in stone, he says, "If you go to a play, you are a director of sorts. You have a direct, visceral response." - Oregon ArtsWatch
Or not. Many new productions "essentially take his work for granted —both in the sense that, sure, Shakespeare is foundational, indispensable even, and in the sense that yeah, he’s just there, like, whatever." - American Theatre
In its 75th anniversary year, the return of the Fringe sees lower crowds - probably virus-related; possibly also related to fewer reviewers discussing shows. But venue costs, and accommodation costs for casts and crews, are soaring, further threatening the festival. - The Stage (UK)
The Exit Theatre — the stalwart Tenderloin venue with three small theaters and a cafe, home of the San Francisco Fringe Festival — is closing its Eddy Street doors by the end of 2022. - San Francisco Chronicle
Says one, "You can get away with most things if you're smart and funny. If you (aren't), then you're just an asshole on stage. That's when you get these lazy comics who are, like: 'Oh, too far for you?' If you had sharper writing, you could make it work." - The Guardian
Last summer, Elisabeth Vincentelli traveled to Creede, Colorado to see how Creede Repertory Theater was holding up through the ups and downs of the pandemic. Last month, she went back to see the company's return to full operation. - The New York Times
Criss Henderson’s departure, which had not been widely anticipated, is part of a great wave of resignations and retirements in the Chicago theater community, which has seen recent artistic and administrative leadership departures at the Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater and many others. - Chicago Tribune
Why did I even want to be an actor? It was a question I hadn’t thought to ask myself; the dream had calcified in my bones too long ago. Childish reasons, in my case. Excitement, praise – hunger for fame, even. I know now that the life of an actor would suit me very badly. - The Guardian
"You may not know her name, but (Kate) Berlant is influential in comedy circles, and her digressive style stands for everything that a scripted autobiographical play doesn't. And she is having trouble wrapping her head around it." - The New York Times
“This part of the world has seen such a fundamental demographic shift. There has been a change in who lives here, who owns property here, who visits and who goes to the theatre here – and that has a knock-on effect on producing, planning and programming.” - The Stage
“Every Ojai play has a single plot. And that plot is: ‘Here, this thing that no one else has noticed—we have seen it as something beautiful and important. We will take this thing that has been lost, and we will show it to the world.’" - American Theatre
As a theater critic in France, I’m used to sitting in auditoriums full of all-white, older spectators. In the comedy world, the customers mirrored the young, racially diverse lineups onstage. - The New York Times
“Directors are rude, look at their iPhones during the audition, run late and don’t apologise, they chat away to their casting director as if the actor didn’t exist, they laugh at private review copy jokes. A litany of misery! Each of these tales is underpinned by the fact that the actor is a supplicant.” - The Guardian
"The written play has its own music, its own pristine existence — words, thoughts, and spirit ... abstracted from the bodies of actors (moving) through space. There are wonderful things that can happen in the mind of a reader that cannot happen to anyone watching actors in a play." - The Guardian
"American-style comedy clubs ... barely existed in France before the 21st century. ... At (several) venues ..., all opened within the past three years, there wasn't a free table in sight. And the crowd was exactly the kind of 'new audience' so many theaters desperately seek to attract." - The New York Times
