Under new artistic director Jon Tracy, Marin Shakespeare is undertaking a slew of new initiatives: adding nine artistic associates, hosting other stage companies in its space, a "dramaturgy university", the theater equivalent of a book club, and, four-hours-a-day-three-days-a-week, letting anyone use its facilities. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Crying live is the standard challenge, but these actors have also had to simulate coughing, sneezing, climaxing and even vomiting in front of an audience. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
"Unionized teachers and others at the Second City Training Center said Tuesday they have authorized a strike and will set up a picket line proximate to the comedy company’s theaters if their employer refuses to bargain further, with the strike and pickets beginning Jan. 16." - Chicago Tribune
"Jeremy McCarter, the former New York magazine drama critic and co-author with Lin-Manuel Miranda of the behind-the-scenes book Hamilton: The Revolution, has been named Literary Executor of the Wilder Family LLC … (with a brief) 'to devote special time and energy to the adaptation possibilities in Wilder’s full range of works.'" - Deadline
An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure a performance of the musical Evita could go ahead after the lead and understudy became ill and could not perform. - The Guardian
"Loss of local support for the arts is a symptom of the increasing number of councils facing bankruptcy after more than a decade of central funding cuts. … Arts campaigners and performers fear the lights will soon go out in a string of venues across England, Wales and Northern Ireland." - The Guardian
The real-life audience for stand-up is larger, and more diverse, thanks to viral clips. But, one comedian says, "If you base your comedy around the algorithm, you’re doomed. ... You have to do what you think is good for comedy, and not think about the sharing." - Washington Post
Has comedy changed dramatically in purpose in our era? Or have its ideological trappings gone pious in ways that are at odds with what comedians have always done? - The New Yorker
"In a year in which the festival (had) its budget halved, … a roster of local artists might have been an easier sell. But that would undercut the ethos of Under the Radar, which has always mingled international artists with local ones in pursuit of ... 'the global downtown.'" - The New York Times
"The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society has reached an agreement with the Broadway League on a new four-year contract that covers associate directors and choreographers for the first time. … (They) had been one of the rare non-unionized groups on Broadway." - The Hollywood Reporter
Winner of the week? Disney’s The Lion King, which grossed a massive $4,316,629, not only setting a house record at the Minskoff but a Broadway record for the highest single-week gross ever, a big achievement even when noting that the long-running musical played nine performances, as did other productions over the holidays. - Deadline
"When I was playing Hamlet, a guy took out his laptop – not his phone, his laptop – while I was in the middle of ‘To be or not to f***ing be’. I was pausing and (the stage team) were like, ‘Get on with it’ and I was like, ‘There’s no way’.” - The Guardian
