“Most actors are not rich – they are very poor indeed. … The one thing you can ask, I think, is that actors get paid a living wage. I would like it if all the repertory theatres that currently exist could do that. It would make a huge difference.”

“Done well, jukebox musicals, which are by nature about popular music, can have great music and dramatic insight, too. I propose that we stop being embarrassed by them, and I hope that producers and librettists continue to make the genre better. Great pop music can be celebrated well and enjoyably.” Sarah Lawson explains how, with examples.

“Compared with some other forms of Japanese theatre – Noh, for example – Kabuki had humble beginnings. It was made by common people for common people. … Other forms of Japanese theatre, such as Noh and Bunraku, subsist on government funding. Kabuki lives on ticket sales.”

“The way it was handled has created a situation we fear is damaging to the Women’s Project’s reputation, especially as it typifies the very thing we are committed to fighting — the lack of acknowledgment of the contribution of women to the American theater”

“‘It’s a different experience, that appeals to people who are not necessary theatergoers,’ said Mr Jackson. ‘We see people just sit and relax into the atmosphere, and feel more included in the whole experience.’”

“This conference was what many of us in el movimiento have been waiting for: that moment when the next generation of amazing young artists, scholars, producers, and administrators are not only ready to step it up, but have also been trained through mentorship programs, internships, and good old theater jobs.”

“Since theater is a live art form, to me there’s nothing about digitization that intrinsically makes piracy easier. Unlike the music and film industries, where digitization (and the attendant problem of piracy) has had a vast and industry shaking effect, I don’t anticipate the same thing for theater. As a friend once said, the worst piracy tool of the century is the photocopier.”

“We don’t want to close because we would be letting down whole communities and a new generation of young theatregoers in rural areas whose access to quality professional theatre is limited, but there is only so long that you can struggle on unfunded. Even though we have been hugely successful in our fundraising, this work cannot operate unsubsidised.”

“Should we look to the past and replicate the ancient Rome model where the richest pay higher prices so the poorest can come for free? Should we look to the future and create our own bitcoin-like currency? … Can airline pricing in theatre really work?”

“The Shubert Organization, a major Broadway player that owns 17 of the 40 theaters there, is positioning itself to move into the commercial Off Broadway sector in a significant way with the acquisition of the New World Stages complex, according to three theater executives with knowledge of the expected deal.”

“Productions from the Edinburgh fringe – including a one-man show from Steven Berkoff – are to be broadcast live to Odeon cinemas. The cinema chain has teamed up with online arts service Hibrow to bring live performances from the festival to [UK] cinemagoers in August.”

“Its finances are precarious, the mortgage is in foreclosure. Real estate agents are busily showing its home to potential buyers. A possible savior – Philadelphia’s Roberts family – might offer a helping hand, but not yet. As the Philadelphia Theatre Company hangs on by a thread, theater leaders say its loss would be a blow – artistically, and to the city.”

“He is the most powerful musicals producer of all time, but in his early career Sir Cameron Mackintosh faced harsh criticism from one of the world’s greatest song-writers, according to previously unpublished letters.”

“[The Snow Queen's] themes of persistence and determination are fitting. Two of its creators, Rick Lombardo and Kirsten Brandt, lost their jobs last month as artistic director and associate artistic director of the San Jose Repertory Theater, when it closed and filed for bankruptcy.”

“Julie Crosby’s abrupt departure as the producing artistic director of Women’s Project Theater has led most of its advisory board and several members of the board of directors to quit, saying that her exit endangers the 36-year-old theater.”

Holler If Ya Hear Me “never brought in more than $175,000 a week in gross revenues, becoming one of the worst-selling musicals of recent years.”

“The idea that to be popular is to dumb down [is one that] I completely reject. The audience is smart and witty and wants to be challenged.”

“Although it sometimes feels hard to effect change in any sphere, particularly government thinking, theatre is not helpless. Far from it.”

Unless you’re a theatre junkie, you might not know that hiding behind the acronym is a nationwide organization of almost 75 theatres in all major cities (and many other cities) across the U.S. And oh hey? They pay their actors.

“That the majority of people don’t go to the theatre is fine: it’s a free choice. But when too many people think it’s not for them, that’s a problem. They would have an amazing time if they just rocked up one night.” So this artistic director went to a supermarket parking lot to talk people into coming, one at a time.

Katie Mitchell: “It may be that the work I make is at times too ‘other’ and so won’t always fit tidily into mainstream culture in the UK. That sense of other could be to do with gender, or intellectualism, or wanting to experiment with form, or simply a feeling of Europeanism. I don’t know.”

“Its casual, bare-bones shows downtown contrast with the bigger-budget Shakespeare in the Park, which the Public Theater produces in Central Park. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot patrons sit on folding chairs or the ground.”

“If someone wants to applaud somebody, let them. I get why [people who hate entrance applause] get their panties in a bunch but I just want people to go and experience the show. A good actor is a good actor, and if people want to reward him or her they should.”

“The Howard Street theater proposal envisions three separate venues, each with its own street-level performance space and its own marquee announcing events presented by the likes of Annex Theater, EMP Collective, Acme Corporation and Stillpointe Theatre Initiative. Upstairs areas are envisioned as a beehive of various cultural, social and business enterprises.”

“With all eyes on Brazil and the World Cup, Broadway is getting into the act with plans to adapt the Oscar-winning film Black Orpheus for the stage. Producers said Monday that Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage will write the story and Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe will direct.”

The art of shadow puppetry may be thriving in Bali and Java, but the Malaysian version has been steadily losing ground to films and video games. So a video game creator and an old master puppeteer decided that George Lucas’s sci-fi saga is as epic a myth as the Ramayana – and that Luke, Leia and Darth Vader are more audience-friendly than Rama, Sita and Ravana. (includes video)

“On June 20, the organizers of the Malta International Theater Festival, which takes place annually in Poznan and is one of the largest such events in this part of Europe, gave in to a coalition of Catholic fundamentalists and right-wing hooligans and canceled the performance of “Golgota Picnic,” after repeated accusations that the play was blasphemous.”

Leonard Lopate talks with documentarian Madeleine Sackler about her most recent subject: Belarus Free Theatre, which has wowed the West with the same shows it creates and performs in secret back home, constantly under threat from Alexander Lukashenko’s neo-Soviet regime. (audio)

“There is something pernicious about these prison shows offering the most diverse casts of any other entertainments but then having them portray characters that bolster alienating stereotypes.”