The Soap Opera Of Clybourne Park's Move To Broadway "The New York run of [the Pulitzer-winning play], which has been widely viewed as a top contender for the 2012 Tony Award for best play, was threatened this week after one of the lead producers, Scott Rudin, left the project" following an unrelated dispute with playwright Bruce Norris. Now the owner of the theater where Clybourne Park is to run has assured the cast (currently performing in Los Angeles) that the transfer will proceed. The New York Times 02/02/12

email this story | Posted 02/03/12@12:01AM

Wilton's Music Hall In London Out Of Danger (For Now) The historic but dilapidated venue - the very last of England's old music halls, and the venue for several of London's best-known experimental productions in recent years - was in danger of having to close for safety's sake after failing to secure Lottery funding for repairs. Now a little-known government trust has contributed £700,000, enabling the first stage o renovations to begin. The Guardian (UK) 02/02/12

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An All-Black Waiting For Godot - What Does (What Can) It Mean? "Of all the things the play has been interpreted as - a howl of existential angst, a rueful tribute to music hall, quite deliberately about nothing at all - how it relates to race remains an intriguing, and controversial, question." The Guardian (UK) 02/01/12

email this story | Posted 02/02/12@12:07AM

Israeli Nationalist Group Campaigns Against Arab-Israeli Actor Im Tzirtu, an organization created after the second Lebanon war which "acts to strengthen and promote Zionist values in Israel", is running pickets and media protests against a Tel Aviv theater's engagement (to play Bernarda Alba!) of Mohammed Bakri, who made a controversial 2002 movie about the Israeli Defence Forces' actions in Lebanon's Jenin refugee camp. Ha'aretz (Israel) 01/31/12

email this story | Posted 02/02/12@12:04AM

Long Wharf Theater Cancels Stage Version Of Sophie's Choice "The Long Wharf Theater in New Haven has replaced what it had billed as the 'world premiere' of the play Sophie's Choice." The script, by David Rintels, is said to be unready for production. The New York Times 01/30/12

email this story | Posted 02/01/12@12:02AM

What's Behind The Music In Shakespeare's Words? His Grammar, Says Professor "In a new study Dr Jonathan Hope, from Strathclyde University, compared Shakespeare's work with playwrights including Thomas Middleton and Ben Jonson." Hope suggests that Shakespeare's "real genius lay in the unique way he used grammar to construct sentences, adding a poetic element to English." The Telegraph (UK) 01/31/12

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Toronto Passes Tax Credit To Lure Major Theatre From Chicago, Elsewhere "In an effort to lure prestigious, big-budget productions such as these away from cities like Toronto to Chicago - and, particularly, the employment, tourism and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic spinoffs they bring - Illinois's new Live Theater Production Tax Credit will offer a tax rebate up to $2-million (U.S.) for commercial producers of "pre-Broadway and long-run shows" beginning in July." Toronto Star 01/31/12

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London's West End - Record Box Office In 2011 (Attendance Down Though) "Takings topped £528.3m in 2011 - up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis on the previous year. Due to the closure of a number of theatres while new shows were set up, the overall attendance was 13.9m - down 1.73% on 2010." BBC 01/31/12

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How New York's Signature Theater Raised Money For Its New Gehry-Designed Home The company had some impressive models of their starchitect's design - but no place to show it off to prospective donors. Enter one of Signature's alumni - Oscar-winning actor Edward Norton. The New York Times 01/31/12

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Seattle's Intiman Theatre - This Week Is Do Or Die (Literally) "Intiman has had a tumultuous year. Last April, the company shut down in the middle of its artistic season. An independent consultant decided the theater just didn't have the money to keep going. In November, after months of soul searching, the Board announced it wanted to reopen Intiman this summer with a four-play festival. But Terry Jones says Intiman won't produce the festival unless it has all the money up front: $1 million." KUOW 01/28/12

email this story | Posted 01/30/12@06:58AM

Canada's Shaw Festival Posts Second Big Deficit "The Shaw Festival ended its 50th season with a $1.5-million deficit, the Niagara-on-the-Lake theatre company announced Friday afternoon at its annual general meeting. This is the second year in a row that the Shaw has ended a season more than a million dollars in the red." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/29/12

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A Good Episcopalian Boy, Living For Yiddish Theatre "It's not easy being the top non-Jew in the Yiddish theater. There are those letters to 'Miss Sheyna Baker' and the constant questions about why he would want to steep himself in Yiddish." The New York Times 01/27/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:33PM

Children's Theatre Isn't All Fun And Games - It's Serious Education "Facts are just facts and as a society, with a touch of the calculator or a hit of Google, kids can find a factual answer. But that can't teach a mind to be subtle and flexible." Practitioners and studies say that theatre can - and despite hits to the arts after No Child Left Behind, children's theatre thrives in many U.S. cities. Education.com 01/26/12

email this story | Posted 01/29/12@08:03AM

$25M Gift Means $25 Tickets At New York's Signature Theater The grant from the Pershing Square Foundation will allow Signature to keep admission at its new Frank Gehry-designed theater complex at $25 for the next ten years. The New York Times 01/26/12

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Almost Half Of Gay Actors In UK Don't Dare Come Out To Their Agents "Although the report found that 81% of respondents are out in their professional life, and that 94% are honest about their sexuality to their fellow performers, only 57% list their agent as someone they are open about their sexuality to. Comments left by respondents highlight how actors feel that telling agents and casting directors will limit the parts they are offered." The Stage (UK) 01/26/12

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