"Comedian Arj Barker’s interaction with a mother who brought a seven-month-old baby to his comedy show in Melbourne on Saturday night has sparked outrage, sympathy and debate about the woman’s decision to bring her infant to the gig and his decision to ask her to leave." - The Guardian
"It was just after 3 AM on a Saturday night in South Philadelphia, and I was watching an angry inflatable chicken fight a Japanese otter mascot in the middle of a hastily assembled wrestling ring. Around me, several hundred other spectators chanted, 'Holy shit! Holy shit!'" - The Nation
"'The key learning moments for a playwright,' says writer David Eldridge, 'are when you first hear actors read the script, and when the play meets an audience. We’re incredibly rigorous in the rehearsal process. But somehow, when you put it in front of an audience, it exposes unnecessary overwriting.'" - The Guardian
In the Educational Theater Association’s most recent survey, 85 percent of American theater teachers expressed concern about censorship. Even Shakespeare is at risk: In Florida, new laws led to the restriction of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to grades 10 through 12 and “Romeo and Juliet” could not be taught. - The New York Times
“'I was like, as long as someone is musical, any idiot can be in a band,’ Butler said. ‘I can write to whatever level.’ Later Butler realized that this was perhaps naïve.” - The New York Times
The lobby became the Vault Bar, with an elevated stage and a rotating disco-ball eye. Upstairs is the Red Bar, with dancers behind beaded curtains. Then the Green Bar has sequined fruit on the walls. Dancers move between the spaces on a tightly choreographed schedule, accompanied by a trippy musical mix. - Variety
"Five Just Stop Oil protesters have been (convicted) of aggravated trespass after they stormed a performance of Les Misérables in London's West End. Two of (them) were also found guilty of criminal damage after standing on the orchestra pit netting. … The estimated cost to the theatre of cancelling the performance was £60,000." - BBC
Alex Burns of Philadelphia's Quintessence Theatre Group has been criticized by a number of female and trans actors for, in effect, robbing them of all-too-rare opportunities. He asks, "When does the community get to abort someone else’s creative impulse or vision or claim it’s not appropriate?" - Broad Street Review (Philadelphia)
"Russian theatre director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have been added to an official list of 'terrorists and extremists' as they await trial on charges of 'justifying terrorism' … (for) an award-winning play about Russian women who married Islamic State fighters." - Reuters
"Women dressed as priestesses are at the heart of the ceremony, first held for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Leading the group is an actress who performs the role of high priestess and makes a dramatic appeal to Apollo ... for assistance moments before the torch is lit." - AP
If Broadway feels more expensive than ever before, that’s because it is. Despite crowds that haven’t rebounded to pre-COVID levels, the average ticket price for a Broadway show reached an all time high: $128 in the most recent full season. - Gothamist
“Her plays, inventive provocations whose sometimes scathing visions of race and gender can unsettle audiences, have something to tell us about the troublesome relationship between individual identity and national community” - and they’re having a bit of a renaissance. - The New York Times
“You know, at Ford’s we have an obligation. We have an obligation to the facts. We have an obligation to truth, we have an obligation to, you know, be respectful and be reverential. This is a memorial site. It’s a national historical site.” - The New York Times
Some have attributed the trend to the tourists who fill many of the seats at Broadway shows; they may be less familiar with theater and therefore especially enthusiastic. But standing ovations are the default even at shows and plays that attract few tourists. - The New York Times
