“Saul Williams, the poet and performer who played the lead role in Holler If Ya Hear Me, tells Kurt Andersen it’s inevitable that hip-hop will carve out a place for itself on Broadway. What killed Holler, Williams says, were people who wrote it off before they saw it.” (audio)
“All theater is immersive, whether we want it to be or not. You need to design your audience’s experience from the moment they set foot in your theater door, or, preferably, as they approach it from the street.”
“What we’re talking about is everybody is paid, from the top down. …And they’re all paid at as close to (Actors’ Equity) scale as possible.”
“Producers constantly say that West End ticket prices are so high because of the high rents charged by theatre owners, and this would be a way to circumvent those demands – although of course the costs of kitting out a pop-up venue are likely to be very substantial indeed.”
“It’s inevitable, but not without a certain amount of consideration towards rap’s unique and specific position in the music sphere. Also, I am doubtful of its ability to be successful using the same formulas of other more successful jukebox musicals.”
“Throughout the three weeks of the festival there have been almost daily demonstrations. Several shows have been stopped or disrupted, though the worst nightmare of the organisers – total cancellation of the entire event, as happened in 2003 – has happily been avoided.”
Lisa McNulty, “who has been the artistic line producer at Manhattan Theater Club since 2006, will begin her new job on Aug. 11. She has a long history with the 36-year-old Women’s Project Theater, whose mission is to produce plays written and directed by women.”
“More than 100 people either fainted or left the theatre after being overcome by on-stage gore – making it a strong candidate for the most potent show in British history. … Those who fainted included The Independent‘s reviewer.”
“I was listening this morning to a Norwegian doctor who’s been in Gaza and working in a hospital in Gaza, risking his neck and going through a kind of unimaginable hell. And I was thinking, well, he’s there because of Ibsen. He wouldn’t be there if that man had not influenced his society in such an extraordinary way.”
“I’ve always felt that Krapp is an autobiographical piece. You do feel, all the time, that it’s Sam saying, ‘There but for the grace of …’ For me it’s a kind of essay in aloneness – and an essay on self-deception, too, which Krapp is well aware of. He is like any addict. One side of him says ‘I shouldn’t do this’ and the other side says ‘But I’m going to – and what’s more you know I’m going to’.”
“Was there really no alternative to euthanizing a company that had achieved so much over its 22-year history?”
“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.