"How can these stories end? What does deliverance look like in a world in which the odds are stacked against these Black characters, and at a time when, post-Black Lives Matter and post-George Floyd, artists are being held newly accountable for portraying Blackness responsibly?" - The New York Times
Comedy is a social corrective exposing the gap between what is (injustice, poverty, environmental disaster) and what some think it ought to be (fairness, equal opportunity, gentle breezes). This gap, which may be history’s largest mass case of cognitive dissonance, remains our omnipresent duality. - The Conversation
"In a statement, Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, said audience members were still encouraged to wear masks, but would not be required to beginning July 1. The policy will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis going forward." - Gothamist
"Cutting us back because of where our postcode is will have a direct and negative effect on the nationwide work that this move is designed to address," said NT director Rufus Norris. "It will have the exact opposite effect of their stated intention." - The Guardian
For close to 62 years, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre has stood on West 47th Street, so it did 34 years previously as the Mansfield. On June 9, 2022, its current owner, the Nederlander Organization announced that this fall it will be renamed in honor of the distinguished performer Lena Horne. - Theatre Scene
From Pitlochry in Scotland to the Cotswolds to Sutton Hoo to Cornwall (well, that one's been there for 92 years) to north London, old Greco-Roman-style outdoor theatres are opening — and the few that have survived from the Roman era are being excavated. - The Observer (UK)
"The days of 'cripping up' - a term disabled actors regularly use to describe those with no physical impairment playing disabled characters - appear numbered now." - BBC
Arthur Hughes, who opens in the role at Stratford-upon-Avon later this month, lives with radial dysplasia and describes himself as "limb-different." "I've always wanted to play him," says Hughes, "I think a lot of disabled actors will think playing Richard is their birthright." - BBC
Mia Yoo took over La MaMa after the death of the formidable Ellen Stewart. (Yoo's father is Stewart's adopted son.) While Yoo has kept going what Stewart left behind (and is overseeing a major building renovation), her leadership style is "polar opposite." - The New York Times
The venue, called Labyrinth, was conceived by the creative directors of the immersive theatre company Les Enfants Terribles and will open in November with a revival of their hit adaptation of Alice's Adventures Underground (Lewis Carroll’s manuscript title for Alice in Wonderland). - WhatsOnStage (UK)
Corsicana, the latest script by Will Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning), is "the rare play to feature both a lead character — and a lead actor — with Down syndrome." (Arbery himself has a sister with Down syndrome.) - The New York Times
Graham Bowen (dance captain and swing), Lewis Cleale ("all the old white guys"), and John Eric Parker (Mutumbo) "joined a reporter at the theater one afternoon last week to discuss the musical's staying power, and how it's changed with the times." - The New York Times
"In the New York theatre, ... the fact that these two major figures happened to be Jewish may seem inconsequential. But in the universe of post-war Britain which Pinter and Stoppard entered as young men and young writers, it was significant." - American Theatre
"Molly Smith, ... a champion of American plays and the force behind a glittering transformation of (Arena's) Washington complex, announced that she will leave the job in July 2023. Her departure signals a rare turnover in the artistic leadership of one of the nation's most important nonprofit theaters." - MSN (The Washington Post)
When Flint Repertory Theatre artistic director Michael Lluberes contacted Tom Jones, the musical's playwright/lyricist, requesting approval to do the show with two young men as the central couple, Jones decided to go through the entire 60-year-old script and make adjustments. Many people think it works even better this way. - American Theatre
