Theatre

“It was both a destination for tourists and it was also our hub, and so we wanted to keep it close to the theater district. And, too, we’re in the business of creating community, and that’s another thing the Drama Book Shop does, and that’s incalculable — I can’t tell you how many creative teams on theater companies say ‘Let’s go meet at the book shop and talk there’.” – The New York Times

The Wife of Willesden will be a monologue giving Smith’s modern spin on The Wife of Bath’s Tale from Canterbury Tales. The piece will premiere next year in her home neighborhood, the northwest London borough of Brent, as part of its programming as London’s Borough of Culture. – The Guardian

“I’ve written for every reputable publication in town. For as long as I’ve been attending theater in the city, my name and brown skin have made me the target of bullies and racists. I’ve been asked if I’m with the catering staff at theater critics events, been chastised by angry ushers to turn my cell phone off, even if I have never taken my device out of my pocket during a performance, and often been asked if I’m sure I belong in the orchestra, as ushers point me to the mezzanine. My skin has become so thickened by the mistreatment and rudeness of theater employees that I might as well be a walking callus.” – Broadway News

“Shortly after a fundraising gala-brunch on Saturday, Nov. 2, Intiman announced it had raised $130,000 in one month (including the brunch), putting the theater close to its year-end goal of $200,000. Meeting that goal would leave the organization, which has operated with a roughly $1 million budget in recent years, with $150,000 cash on hand going into 2020.” – The Seattle Times

Becoming the first woman to top the list of most-produced playwrights (in the 2017-18 U.S. season) was a feat, and this year’s return to the No. 1 spot might be even more impressive. But the 37-year-old writer’s quiet rise to the top of her profession isn’t just a personal victory, because she has built her success on telling women’s stories — and providing more (and more challenging) roles to female actors. – Arizona Republic

Arifa Akbar, who will succeed Michael Billington in the new year, has been a contributing reviewer and reporter for The Guardian for several years; she’s currently arts editor at Tortoise Media and spent 15 years at The Independent as news reporter, arts writer and literary editor. – The Guardian

The box-office receipts of commercial theater are not solely attributable to private entrepreneurs and fierce capitalist competition. Broadway producers are buying an artistic sensibility and a talent for provocation honed in state-funded theatrical laboratories across Europe, plus expertise that is the product of working relationships stretching back decades. – The Atlantic

Shortly after the start of Wednesday evening’s performance of this production — well-known for casting Black actors as the Loman family — audience members began to hear dripping water. About half an hour in, the sound got louder and then a portion of the ceiling crashed into the auditorium. The 1,200-seat Piccadilly Theatre was quickly evacuated, the show was cancelled, and star Wendell Pierce met the audience outside to apologize. – WhatsOnStage (UK)

One night at Hamilton in San Francisco earlier this year, right at the moment of the Hamilton-Burr duel, an audience member had a heart attack; the commotion made some people believe there was a real shooter in the house, and the audience stampeded. A real shooting during a play could happen, as it has at cinemas and rock concerts; live-shooter training for theater personnel is now a thing. And since art reflects life, we’re seeing more guns onstage as well. Lisa Lacroce Patterson writes about how theaters are dealing with guns, onstage and off. – American Theatre

Says Billington, who began at the paper in 1971 and has written roughly 10,000 reviews, “I shall shortly be 80 and, with the years, the stress of writing to a deadline doesn’t get any easier. Giving up will be a wrench but I feel now is the right time to do it.” (And yes, the paper will hire a successor.) – The Guardian

What is intriguing is that the collapse of East Germany was, in many ways, a piece of theatre. The Alexanderplatz demonstration, one of the largest in GDR history, had been planned by actors and directors from leading East German theatres. They invited playwrights and actors to address the crowds, alongside dissidents and politicians. They even had a baddie: the former deputy head of the Stasi secret police spoke – and was booed. – The Guardian

At the announcement of the settlement, theatre administration and survivors stood side by side. “The moment brought a close to a decadeslong ordeal and underscored the pain of those whose childhoods were taken away, their lives scarred by abuse. It also saw theater management publicly acknowledge the abuse committed by former employees, and offer an apology and commitment to continue working with survivors.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Both students and alums want a public apology, an independent investigation – and change. “Their allegations include claims of physical intimidation and inappropriate remarks about students’ mental health issues and about sexual abuse.” – The Stage (UK)

Student mental health, teacher favoritism, inequities in class makeup and in casting … it’s all stressful for the young actors of Canada (and there are ways that some of these things could change … if performance instructors wanted them to). – HowlRound

Before it lost public sympathy with a badly misjudged action on the London Underground, the British activist group’s agitprop had had a good deal of success, thanks to its “instinctive understanding of public theatre.” Critic Kate Maltby looks at Extinction Rebellion’s successes and missteps alongside the current Old Vic production of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs, starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith as a couple of climate-anxious white millennials. – The New York Review of Books

“‘I consider this the ultimate in fan-fiction, basically,’ [says] Lopez, … [who] wanted to know, ‘How faithful can you be to the novel while simultaneously blowing it up?’ For those who know Howards End well and need an intro to the gay New York of The Inheritance (or vice versa), the playwright walks a few key lines of comparison between the two.” – New York Magazine

“I always imagined I would be a playwright at night and a CPA or something in the day,” Lauren Yee said. “I’m pretty organized and disciplined. There are times when I’m thinking about a project and I put the pieces together like a producer.” Now, she gets to be a full-time playwright. – Star-Tribune (Mpls)

Lear deBessonet is best known as the founder of Public Works, a much-lauded program of the Public Theater that once a year stages a new musical adaptation of a classic story, which is performed by a handful of Equity actors and more than 100 amateur performers drawn from across the five boroughs of New York. The program has proved influential, spurring similar ventures in multiple cities across the United States and in England. – The New York Times

“Last year The Sun ran a story that started: ‘Convicts at a drug-plagued prison performed a lavish version of musical Les Misérables for the public – to boost lags’ morale.’ Two years earlier, in the same paper, a story ran that ‘prisoners in Britain’s creaking jails are to be taught art, music and drama in a desperate bid to slash reoffending’. In 2008, the Daily Mail reported: ‘A sick joke: terrorist signs up for comedy classes at top-security prison.’ So why do these companies do it? Because the evidence that it works is overwhelming.” – The Stage

“Anupama Chandrasekhar isn’t one to shy away from a tough subject. The Indian playwright has written about acid attacks, sex tapes and her home country’s culture of patriarchal violence. ‘I have been asked so many times, mostly by men, ‘Why don’t you write comedies, or plays that celebrate India?” she says. ‘I tell them: on the day that these things don’t happen any more, I will happily start writing bedroom farces.'” – The Guardian