Theatre

Despite the fact that they can sometimes feel like (as one literary manager put it) “the Hunger Games of playwriting,” prizes do help bring new voices into an industry that can be very much a closed shop. Lyn Gardner talks to people who run competitions, and people who’ve entered them, about the difference prizes make and the issues involved (e.g., whether or not submissions should be anonymous). – The Stage

At a news conference, Mr. de Blasio said that in addition to the Broadway vaccination site, there would be a mobile vaccination unit to serve theater workers beyond Broadway. The sites will be staffed by theater workers, many of whom have been relying on unemployment insurance since Broadway shut down over a year ago. – The New York Times

Ambassador Theatre Group is purchasing from the Nederlander Co. the Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres in San Francisco and the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, as well as taking over the presentation of Broadway tours at the Detroit Opera House and Music Hall. – Deadline

Old platforms have pivoted, new ones have emerged. And now any fan, with just a few smartphone taps, can arrange a video message, a live chat or even a private coaching session with a favorite star. – The New York Times

“Quietly simmering frustrations erupted publicly last week, when more than 2,500 union members signed a letter, circulated by a Broadway performer and signed by Tony winners and Tony nominees, plaintively asking, ‘When are we going to talk about the details of getting back to work?'” – The New York Times

Laura Collins-Hughes: Alexis, when you saw the invitation, what went through your mind?
Alexis Soloski: Panic, basically. … I won’t be vaccinated for months and I don’t feel ready to make this moral/professional/hygienic calculus. You?” – The New York Times

And they’re not shy about asking the union to move up the timeline – please. “We feel unheard, we feel left out, and we feel way farther behind than any other industry when it comes to putting in place practical protocols that would get us back to work.” – The New York Times

“In 1960 Peter Hall created a theatrical revolution. He turned a summer Shakespeare festival in Stratford-on-Avon into a year-round enterprise based on a permanent ensemble, a second home in London and a mix of classical and contemporary work. But it wasn’t until 20 March 1961 that the whole enterprise was given the name we know today. … Sixty years on, even as we celebrate the RSC’s survival, new questions arise. What is it really for? How does it adapt to a changing world? Do we still believe in large theatrical institutions?” – The Guardian

If so, it’s got nothing to do with illness or quarantine as subject matter; it’s that the lockdown pushed everyone — audiences, colleagues, and (crucially) gatekeepers such as casting agents and bookers — online, where barriers to entry are low and the democratizing effect has been sizable. – The Guardian

Three years after Chris Dercon ended his brief, dissension-plagued tenure at the theatre, his successor as artistic director, Klaus Dörr, quit after it became public that 10 women at the Volksbühne had made formal complaints to the Berlin city government about Dörr’s alleged sexual harassment of younger actresses and humiliation of older ones. – The New York Times

Ivo van Hove at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Stéphane Braunschweig at the Odéon in Paris, Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne in Berlin, Kajsa Giertz at the Helsingborg (Sweden) City Theatre, and Saheem Ali and Shanta Thake at the Public Theater in New York talk about government support, programming while their buildings are closed, and reopening plans. – The Observer (UK)

Theatres have collectively reported losses of nearly £200 million following a year of closure, according to a survey which also reveals that a quarter of freelancers have gone out of business or ceased trading because of the pandemic. – The Stage

Helen Shaw: “The pandemic has been a period of getting a lot of ‘little did I know’ stuff out into the open, including (but hardly limited to) the troubling ethics of the industry and the intense vulnerability of those who make a living in it. … I celebrate that our theaters closed, because it’s one of the few ways we’ve protected our people, by acknowledging that they were not essential. Theater is vital, beautiful, useful, inevitable. Won’t those words do as well?” – Vulture

With Chita Rivera, André De Shields, and an array of singers and dancers, the pop-up on the anniversary of Broadway’s shutdown gave paying work to performers who haven’t seen much of it in a year. And it was hopeful: “Although they aren’t likely to perform inside theaters again until after Labor Day, the message of the show was that the end of the industry’s nightmare seemed to be getting closer.” – The New York Times

The guidelines are stringent – each county must cycle completely out of “colors” of COVID-19 infections before indoor theatre can open, and they have to cycle way lower rates before outdoor theatre can open at a low capacity, with reservations and assigned seating, and only with people from within 120 miles of the theatre. It’s weirdly different from movie theatres, but: “Any progress — any change that allows arts groups to rebuild a sense of community — is critically important.” – Los Angeles Times

Rob Weinert-Kendt: “So what happened — what changed — in this past 12 months, and how will this lost, frantic year be remembered? I asked dozens of theatre workers from all over the U.S. to answer those questions. Their responses are a panorama of grief, gratitude, frustration, affirmation, resolutions and questions.” – American Theatre

Ridiculous as it might seem now, eight to 10 weeks was initially discussed as a likely closure period. The more pessimistic were talking about the summer of 2020. – The Stage

“The annual theatre festival organised by the Indian People’s Theatre Association in the small town of Chhatarpur became the object of abuse and violent threats by Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group linked with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). The festival has been running since 2015, with theatre groups from across India taking part in plays and workshops over five days. However, this year Bajrang Dal began a campaign, accusing the organisers of programming ‘anti-national’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ plays, despite only knowing the titles.” – The Guardian

“Subscription packages for some of Broadway’s biggest hits are being sold at a handful of the nation’s performing arts centers, while a host of others have booked dates and plan to [start selling] subscriptions later this spring. Although performances are almost six months away and could change, … the return of Broadway road shows is critical to the financial recovery of regional arts centers.” – The Washington Post

The UK’s theatrical culture is obsessed with the idea of theatre as storytelling, both as a discourse and as a conditioning of what the work is and should be like. This is extremely rigid: theatre is not storytelling but an experience. In London almost every season announcement sounds the same, everyone seems to be saying, “We are telling new and important stories.” – Howlround

“In one of the more surprising revelations of the shutdown, it turns out that the American theater has no towering figure even attempting to lead it through this crisis, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber has in Britain. … In such a scarily perplexing time, there is no one to rally the troops, let alone do what I’m hoping you will: Make the theater’s case to the culture at large. You, with your incandescent charm, would be brilliant at that. Even though, in some ways, it’s a very tough sell.” – The New York Times