Outdoor theatre was a risky bet in 2020, but in the Berkshires, it more than paid off. The artistic director of the Barrington Stage Company on the conversation that changed this winter’s planning: “My development director almost passed out.” – The New York Times
Category: theatre
Bay Area Theatre Is Devastated
“This is hitting our sector in a way it’s not hitting any other sector and no one has a plan for it. We are all frantically treading water just to stay afloat… “We have unemployment that is about three times the national average. Because of how the arts work and people having to physically be together, it’s one of the sectors that will be closed the longest and have the longest road to recovery.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Want A Different Broadway? Fund A Different Broadway
These theatremakers are proposing a new way of thinking about funding and producing on Broadway, with the goal of creating more access points for BIPOC individuals interested in commercial producing. – American Theatre
Online Theater Gets More Interactive
“Several months into the pandemic, performers, designers and writers are using technology … with more ingenuity. They’re skillfully adapting some of the devices honed in live performance over the years — namely, techniques to break the fourth wall and lure spectators into the show. And in the process, theater is reclaiming for these trying times its rightful status as the most intimate of art forms.” – The Washington Post
The Play That Understood The Trump Era
Though researched and written during Barack Obama’s presidency, Sweat, which opened at New York City’s Public Theater days before the 2016 election, became a definitive work of Donald Trump’s. In a 2017 profile of Lynn Nottage, the New Yorker called the play “the first theatrical landmark of the Trump era.” – BBC
How To Rebuild A Healthier, Fairer Theater Ecosystem? Bring Back Repertory Companies
Jim Warren, founding artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center, writes that the “revolutionary changes” he recommends — companies of 15 to 20 resident actors, performing shows in rotating repertory and handling administrative jobs as well as performing, and working 40-hour weeks with full benefits — “are a jumping-off point for righting a history of wrongs.” – American Theatre
A Third Of U.S. Theatres Surveyed Fear They’ll Go Out Of Business In 2021
“Only 23 out of 60 are confident that they will not need to close before the pandemic runs its course. You read that correctly: Almost as many theatres surveyed think they’ll need to close next year as think they will not need to consider closing at all.” – American Theatre
How “The Lion King” Became A $9 Billion Blockbuster On Stage
“The musical, estimated at $20 million—at the time, likely the most expensive in Broadway history—opened at the Palace Theatre. The critics dismissed it as a theme park show. The Broadway crowd snubbed it too, giving the 1994 Tony for best musical to Stephen Sondheim’s short-lived Passion. But the family audience flocked to it. It became a blockbuster.” – Vanity Fair
Eight Small Theaters Sue New York State And City For Right To Reopen
“The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters ‘shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.’ The theaters filing suit … have 199 seats or fewer, and most of [them] are commercial operations.” – The New York Times
The Coronavirus Olivier Awards Went Off Surprisingly Well
But the British theatre awards were still filled with pain. Marianne Elliott, joint winner of best director: “This is a happy day and this is a sad day, because of what theatre was, and because none of us know when it will properly return.” – BBC