Theaters and art venues appeared to be one of the most fragile institutions with the war. Most of them stopped functioning and closed up with the first sound of the sirens. Many actors joined in territorial defense, some went into the army, many are volunteering. Almost all theaters ceased to exist. - Arts Fuse
"Because to write about anything, you have to declare something and I find that very hard to do. I do very much feel: 'Is my blue the same blue as your blue?' I have that about everything." - The Observer (UK)
Adapting Mockingbird for the stage, Sorkin knew Atticus shouldn't be an icon of rectitude. "I realized I didn't have to create a flaw for Atticus, that he already had one. It's just that it had been presented to us as a virtue." What was that flaw? - MSN (The Boston Globe)
"I think a lot of people's response to my plays are based on projection. ... I love that. It's my ideal. Because then you're just coming with whatever you've projected on to the three lines you've read about it on the internet." - The Guardian
In aggregate, Broadway grosses are on the rise, consistent with what’s typically seen as spring begins in New York and a spate of new shows open. But those big numbers at the top end serve to mask some less bold numbers. - The Stage
First, it canceled a full day of shows. "Then, late Saturday night, the production said that it was canceling all performances until April 8 “due to the detection of a limited number of positive covid test results within the company." - The New York Times
To be fair, Al Jolson was a Broadway star long before he hit Hollywood. Still, when he returned to the stage, "consumers tossed money over the box-office transom by the sackful, creating one of the biggest box-office advances in memory." - The New York Times
Producer Garth Drabinsky not only lost his company but was jailed in Canada for fraud. He's not involved in the new show financially, but "suspicion of Drabinsky runs high in the Broadway community." Can Paradise Square possibly work? - The New York Times
It's now an elaborate, rarefied classical art form, but kabuki got its start in the red-light district across the river from Kyoto in 1603, and several of the genre's important conventions were introduced as ways to curb all the vice tied up with kabuki in its early years. - Apollo
"To fully appreciate Ntozake Shange's work, and what it means to have it return to Broadway this spring (in a production directed by Camille A. Brown), it helps to explore the historical and cultural contexts that led to its original Broadway production in 1976." - The New York Times
Cassie Beck: "I started to make choices in my mind and see where my sense of humor might infuse it a little differently. I realized (Heidi) didn't write just a performance piece for her to perform. She ultimately wrote a very well-structured, amusingly laid-out and emotional play." - Forbes
André Bishop, chief of Lincoln Center Theater (where the show debuts next fall) and director Bartlett Sher asked Sorkin to consider the project. "It was the fastest I've ever said yes to anything." Among the changes he's making is removing everything magic or supernatural from the script. - The Hollywood Reporter
"That this undeniably unusual show found an audience when it launched ... made a certain kind of sense for the era. But its lasting success has surprised no one more than the founders themselves." - Vulture
The group Artists Who Code is trying to help artists (and not just theatre artists) make a transition to the world of actual remuneration for skills - that is, technology. This might sound depressing, but the pandemic meant the group grew quickly. - Los Angeles Times
Prescot is believed to have been the site of the only purpose-built Elizabethan theatre outside London, built in 1593. No plans of the original have survived, so the new venue is a replica of the Cockpit-in-Court, designed for Charles I by architect Inigo Jones at Whitehall Palace in 1629. - BBC
