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THEATRE

Meet Idina Menzel’s Latest Broadway Co-Star: A Tree

Stella, as she’s called, is the title character in the new show Redwood, and she has been very carefully designed. - The Christian Science Monitor

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Director Jumps To Lincoln Center

Maria Manuela Goyanes is heading to New York’s Lincoln Center Theater, where she will be artistic director of LCT3, a black-box space devoted to developing new work, as well as a producer on other projects across the organization. - Washington Post

Jury Duty As Theatre, Or Theatre As Jury Duty

“Jury Games (is) one of several immersive theater productions that are taking jury service … and repackaging it as entertainment. Similar experiences will be popping up in cities around the world this year, including The Jury Experience in … North America and Europe, and Murder Trial Tonight, touring Britain.” - The New York Times

Hugh Jackman And Sonia Friedman Launch Transatlantic Theatre Production Partnership

The Hollywood and Broadway superstar actor and the West End and Broadway super-producer, working in partnership with director Ian Rickson, have formed a joint venture called Together. The company will focus on fully-staged-but-stripped-down productions in small venues, aiming for performances both intimate and affordable. - Deadline

Why Beckett Is Perennially Relevant (But Especially Now)

Beckett is perennially timely because his works concern themselves with those eternal questions that the political emergencies of the day cannot override. Even as we confront impossible times, we remain planted in that greater impossibility — human existence. - Los Angeles Times

Two Major Theater Figures Are Working On A New James Taylor Musical

Tony- and Pulitzer-winning actor-playwright Tracy Letts (August: Osage County and The Minutes) is writing the story and book for the jukebox show, titled Fire and Rain, and another Tony winner, David Cromer (The Band’s Visit), will direct. - Variety

Going On A Fool’s Journey

“I wanted the benefits of clowning, namely feeling comfortable and even coming to enjoy reading my work in public, without any of the scary bits (and clowns in America have quite a scary reputation).” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

This Man’s Lockdown Project Turned Into An Exhibition About Belfast’s Lost Theatres

“Children appreciate the miniature dolls house type model making, adults appreciate the skill that goes into making them, and older people who may remember when some of these places still stood.” - BBC

People Really, Really Want To See Denzel Washington And Jake Gyllenhaal At The Public

“Othello sales are next-level, seeming to reflect the appeal of the combination of two well-known actors with a well-known title, and also a 'Taylor Swift effect,' meaning that consumers are getting used to paying top dollar for live entertainment.” - The New York Times

Theatre Schools Need To Get Smarter About Teaching Their Students How To Get Jobs

”Undergraduate theatre training programs have a moral imperative to prepare students for the profession, not simply teach them to be good at what they do.” - American Theatre

Send In The Clowns: This City Reduced Traffic-Related Deaths By Putting Mimes Amidst The Gridlock

In the 1990s, Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus replaced hundreds of corrupt traffic cops with a few dozen mimes. Armed with nothing but signs that read correcto and incorrecto, the silent troupe theatrically mocked lawbreakers and applauded polite motorists. And it worked. - Atlas Obscura       

The Persian National Epic Becomes An Extravaganza Of Shadow Puppetry

“The show” — Song of the North, adapted from the medieval Persian epic poem Shahnameh — “is mind-dizzyingly complex, involving 483 puppets, 208 animated backgrounds, 16 character masks and costumes and nine performers who follow more than 2,300 separate cues.” - The New York Times

No American Play Is More Affected By The Shadows Of Its Previous Actors Than “Streetcar”

And that doesn’t mean only Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, though their shadows are the longest. Ben Brantley revisits some of the other prominent interpreters of the lead roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, from Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight to Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster. - The New York Times

Guthrie Theater Will Reopen Its Third Stage For First Time Since Pandemic

“For the first time in five years, Minnesota’s largest theater will produce a work in its Dowling Studio, activating its ninth-floor third stage that has been dark for professional shows since the coronavirus shutdown.” - The Minnesota Star Tribune

Stage Crews Reach Union Agreement With Atlantic Theatre

The agreement will be closely scrutinized by New York’s other Off Broadway theaters because the union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has undertaken a major drive to organize those stage crews. - The New York Times

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