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
"The collective pause spurred an unprecedented reflection on what they weren't getting from their prepandemic jobs and what precarious elements they had tolerated. ... Some are leaving the door open to return to theater someday. Others say they'll never go back. Here are 10 of their stories." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
"Jimmie 'JJ' Jeter ... is halfway down the Australian Hamilton cast list, described merely as 'standby'. But he's played every single male role in the show – including the title role on Broadway for a month. And at any moment he might be asked to do it again." - The Age (Melbourne)
The adaptation will be done by the film's producers and Deaf West Theatre, the Los Angeles company known for its hit Broadway productions of Big River (2004) and Spring Awakening (2016). - Deadline
It binds far-flung companies looking for new models for joint offerings. And it brings to theatergoers across the country a play with an inclusive theme and a plan for accessibility for Indigenous people and other diverse audiences. - Washington Post
The Trojan War and siege of Troy are the subject of The Burnt City, the latest environmental theatre piece from the creators of Sleep No More. Charlotte Higgins pays a visit to the company's new permanent performance space in London. - The Guardian
Back to Back, a company made up of neurodiverse and disabled performers based in Geelong, a city about an hour southwest of Melbourne, has won the International Ibsen Award, created by the Norwegian government and worth 2.5 million kroner ($286,000). - The Guardian
It is, of course, located in New York - in a corridor of the Columbus Circle subway station. It's "physical arm of the Broadway Makers Alliance – a confederation of 65 craftspeople, both theater professionals and super fans, who create Broadway-themed work." - NPR
Then you're in luck with Oscar nominee Drive My Car. The three-hour Japanese film is "an impeccably textured elucidation of a group of strangers joining up to animate the written word, and of the ways a great play remains eternally relevant." - Washington Post
Several of the more than 400 plays presented at the festival have gone on to win wider accolades — “The Gin Game” by D.L. Coburn, “Dinner With Friends” by Donald Margulies and “Crimes of the Heart” by Beth Henley, all won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama — and the event is often regarded as a milestone in the careers...
Peter Marks: "Russia is a nation of passionate theater-, music-, and dance-lovers. ... It is beyond comprehension that terrified women and children could turn to a theater for physical security and have their safe space shattered by a (Russian) force set on destroying Chekhov's humane legacy." - MSN (The Washington Post)
Very luckily, it appears that most of the civilians inside the Mariupol Drama Theater were able to get down to the building's bomb shelter before the shelling started, and the survivors have begun to emerge. - CNN
The union's third annual Diversity and Inclusion Hiring Bias Report found that just under a quarter of contracts went to actors and state managers of color, up 3.3 percentage points from 2016-19, with those union members averaging 91.8% of the pay their white colleagues received. - Deadline
Purim spiels, retelling the story of Queen Esther, are documented back to the 14th century and doubtless happened for generations before that. New versions still get written (one New Jersey cantor has published 11), though they tend to be all too family-friendly, lacking the sharp satire spiels once had. - Tablet
