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THEATRE

Bob Dylan’s Art Makes Its Off-Broadway Debut

To get into Masquerade, you must go through Dylan’s door. Masquerade’s creative director, Shai Baitel, says that Phantom of the Opera and Dylan’s work have shared themes. For instance: “Bob is very connected to Paris. This is something that has influenced his entire career.”- Vulture

Zora Neale Hurston’s Play, Forgotten For Decades, Sees The Light Of Day At Yale

“Building these moments for the stage entailed leaps of imagination and acts of faith among the collaborators. ‘I’d say to the team, ‘Trust Zora.’ It’s in the play, it’s in the script, we just have to be able to see it.’” - The New York Times

What It’s Like Opening A Feminist Play On Broadway Amid, Er, Gestures Around

Playwright Bess Wohl: “I wanted to make a play that I wished existed: a good, interesting, complicated play. How many plays are there really about this time and this movement? Not that many, when you consider what a big deal it was.” - American Theatre

Why, With Broadway’s Stresses, Revive A Long-ago Flop?

Put simply, “Chess,” first produced in the U.S. in 1988, didn’t work on Broadway. So remounting the show, even though it’s become a cult favorite, is risky at a time when the box office is largely driven by long-running, big-brand musicals like “Wicked” and “Mamma Mia!” - Variety

Backlash Grows Against Comedians Who Participated In Riyadh Festival

Of course, some will argue that performing in authoritarian or oppressive countries is a means of reaching the masses; opening up art to those underserved. And while that may be true on occasion, it is a different thing entirely from being sponsored by the state itself to launder its sovereignty.  - The Guardian

Debates Around The Saudi Comedy Festival And American Comedians Are Frustratingly Vague

More than any other artists, comedians are alert to how language reveals meaning, and what all the explanations have in common is a maddening vagueness. What does this specific festival represent? - The New York Times

The Other Way That David Henry Hwang Is An American Theater Pioneer

It’s not just that he was the first famous Asian-American playwright. With Face Value in 1993 and then Yellow Face in 2007, Hwang took on the issue of onstage racial representation and explored the possibilities of autofiction years before either became ubiquitous in the American theater. - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Harlem Stage Undertakes Its First-Ever Tour

“The bus was hard to miss as it cruised purposefully, South to North, making pit stops at pivotal civil rights landmarks. Its exterior was all black with large pictures of Black actors and the words ‘Harlem Stage Presents FREEDOM RIDERS.’” - The New York Times

What To Be Aware Of As Broadway Faces Possible Strike

Actors’ Equity members have already voted to authorize a strike; American Federation of Musicians members are close to authorizing one. Box office revenue has hit an all-time high, and performers believe they deserve a piece of it; producers say new musicals have been failing at a shockingly high rate. - The New York Times

Louis CK Defends His Decision To Appear At Saudi Arabia’s First Stand-Up Comedy Festival

“There’s a woman who’s a lesbian and Jewish, who did a show (at the Riyadh Comedy Festival), and she got a standing ovation. … So, the fact that that’s opening up and starting to bud, I wanna see it, I wanna be part of it. I think that’s a positive thing.” - The Guardian

Broadway Shows Have Started Choosing Baltimore To Launch National Tours

“There are various reasons why, including Baltimore’s proximity to New York, the city’s revered venues and history as a theater town. ... More recently, another factor has helped lure Broadway productions ready to hit the road: Maryland’s Theatrical Production Tax Credit, which can earn up to $2 million back to a production.” - The Baltimore Banner

Theatre As Narrative? Why?

“I have a real problem with the idea that theater is meant to achieve narrative fluidity, as if it could somehow resolve the world’s chaos,” he said. “It drives me crazy. A show, to me, has to be a mass of contradictory elements.” - The New York Times

Did The Man Who Wrote The English Libretto For Les Miserables Ever See His Due?

Herbert Kretzmer's letters to Cameron Mackintosh would indicate he did not. “I must emphasise that Les Miserables is not a show translated or re-written, but a show reborn,” he wrote. (Truly, anyone who listens to the French and English-language versions might agree.) - BBC

Long Wharf Theatre’s Artistic Director to Step Down

Padrón, who joined the theatre in 2019, led the nonprofit through a period of change that included adopting a new producing model, staging performances in multiple venues, and expanding community partnerships. - Hartford Business

Amiri Baraka’s Most Incendiary Play, Staged In An Actual Sauna

Dutchman, written in 1964 (when Baraka was still LeRoi Jones), is set in a sweltering subway car years before air-conditioning. Recently, for the second time, Rashid Johnson staged the play in a setting hotter than an old C train in July: the sauna at Manhattan’s Russian and Turkish Baths. - The New York Times

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