ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

THEATRE

The Public Theater In New York Faces Big Deficits

"When it disclosed layoffs last July, the renowned nonprofit company said that it hoped to avoid a budget deficit in the year ending in August 2023. Instead, expenses exceeded revenue by $8 million that season, according to its most recent audited financial statement." - Broadway Journal

Theatres Use Gaming To Attract New Audiences

For instance, Dungeons and Dragons improv can break through barriers and attract nontraditional audiences to theatres. - ArtsHub

The State Theatre Of Melbourne Is Under Renovations Until 2027, But There’s A Small New Joy

That is, the old rehearsal room is now a 150-seat theatre. And the size is a plus, they say: “Without The Show Room we wouldn’t be able to present performances that have the potential to truly capture audiences in such an intimate space." - Limelight

“Blues For Mister Charlie” — Reconsidering James Baldwin’s Broadway Debut, 60 Years Later

"An impassioned play about the murder of a Black man that implicates progressive white viewers … which opened in a white-dominated environment inimical to his ambition, (it) was not only among his most monumental accomplishments, but also … a revolution on the midcentury Great White Way." - The New York Times

A New Trend? Two Downtown NYC Theatres Decide To Bunk Together

The prestigious Soho Rep is giving up its longtime home in TriBeCa and will instead share space with Playwrights Horizons, a Midtown theater company, while trying to figure out a longer-term plan. - The New York Times

“Sleep No More” Owes $4.5 Million In Back Rent, Claims Landlord

Centaur Properties, owner of the McKittrick Hotel, where the immersive production has been playing since 2010, has been in a legal contretemps with PDNYC (the entity producing Sleep No More) for months. The latest development has Centaur demanding back rent and seeking dismissal of a PDNYC lawsuit. - The Real Deal

Comedy Critics Weigh In On The Vice-President’s Laugh

“Only in an era when everything gets politicized would a campaign come out aggressively against boisterous laughter. What next? Running against puppies and ice cream? Laughter transcends party politics.” - The New York Times

Jeremy O. Harris Says He’s A “Theater Supremacist,” But …

"… more fitting might be a theater proselytizer. ... In his eyes, theater should be as much a part of the American story as music is: 'Music has figured out a way to really brand itself as necessary, because people can see the tangible links to profit.'" - The Washington Post

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Is Getting A Real Theater — Designed By A MacArthur “Genius,” No Less

The new venue — sort of a deluxe, sturdy version of the tent the festival uses currently, with the Hudson River and highlands as a backdrop — comes from Studio Gang, the Chicago-based architectural firm of MacArthur fellow Jeanne Gang. The structure's opening is scheduled for summer 2026. - Playbill

A Theatre Tries To Bridge The Divide At The Italy-Slovenia Border

The city of Gorizia/Nova Gorica was divided as the Iron Curtain arose after World War II, with an actual wall in place until 1994. At Mittelfest, an event created to help bridge the mental border that remains, the director staged an epic play about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. - The Guardian

At London’s “Slave Play”: Restricted Audiences Work For Those Who Attend

In London, the mood on the theater steps was upbeat and there seemed little concern that when this “Slave Play” transfer — including two Black Out performances — was announced in February, it drew the wrath of some British commentators, and got caught up in ongoing debates over race in British cultural institutions. - The New York Times

An Immersive Show That Takes Away Your Sight

Although virtually "taking away" one of their five senses, the show banks on spectators' reliance on their four other forms of perception: the venue features a 3D -surround sound experience, a chemical company was tapped to create some of the scents used during the show... - Time Out New York

South Coast Repertory Theatre Chooses New Managing Director

At Vineyard Theatre, her home for the last seven years, Suzanne Appel successfully managed the theater’s finances during the pandemic, keeping the entire full-time staff employed, and she created a four-year plan to raise employees’ wages more than 30 percent by 2026. - CultureOC

Actors Reading Aloud To Stroke Patients

"InterAct Stroke Support operates all over the UK, … tak(ing) professional actors into hospitals to read poetry and stories to stroke survivors." Longtime Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington spends a day watching InterAct at work. - The Guardian

Why Conservatives Killed The Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theatre sought to democratize the dramatic arts. But it also tried to use theater to invigorate democracy, which is where the program ran into trouble. - Yale Review

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');