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THEATRE

Broadway’s Costume Shops Rush To Prepare For Reopening Nights

"As Broadway rolls out its return, costumers are again busy with the meticulous, mess-making handiwork that makes the industry sparkle onstage. … 'When you need a costume for Hamilton, … you can't just buy it from the 18th-century clothing shop down the street.'" - The New York Times

We Can’t Address The Problems With Classic Musicals Just By Casting A Few Nonwhite Actors

"It would be absurd to call for them to be abandoned entirely. But if they're going to be embedded in the fabric of musical theater forever, then we shouldn't shy from putting the ugly parts of them on display" the way that Daniel Fish's revisionist Oklahoma! did. - Slate

A Shakespeare Company Of Black Women Wants To Transform Theatre

The British Mawa Theatre Company's "goal is to change the industry from within, creating more space for marginalized voices in a field that is all too often dominated by privileged white men." - Vogue

As It Gears Back Up, Here’s What American Theater May Have Learned During Its 18-Month Break

"The pride-in-resilience, show-must-go-on attitude has started, at last, to be paired with other questions: Whose show? Why must it go on? Last year's reckoning revealed the shoddiness of the American theater system: baked-in racism, pay scales that undershoot the cost of living, a rigid gerontocracy." - New York Magazine

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Revamps Its Artistic Directorship

Three associate artistic directors, Scarlett Kim, Mei Ann Teo, and Evren Odcikin, join artistic director Nataki Garrett "to serve as a nonhierarchical team working to transcend traditional text-centric models and give priority, resources and space to theater artists across media and professions." - The Mail Tribune (Medford, Oregon)

Professional Theatre Deep In A French Mountain Forest

"Hundreds of productions have been performed at the Théâtre du Peuple, a 126-year-old playhouse 45 miles from the German border. Yet no matter how good the actors, they are often upstaged by the theater's unusual backdrop: a steep forest, visible right behind the stage." - The New York Times

They Waited Over A Year, But They’re Finally Making Their Broadway Debuts

Laura Collins-Hughes interviews four young performers who were just about to start living their dream when COVID shut Broadway down. (The youngest of them, now 13, spent months worrying that his voice would change or he would outgrow his role.) - The New York Times

‘Rodeo Clowns Are The Best Athletes In The Arena, And They Save Lives’

"Their work is just as dangerous and exciting as the bull riders they're employed to protect. Working in teams, their job is to distract an enraged bull from attacking the rider who's just been catapulted to the dirt." - Texas Highways

Is Seeing Live Theatre Worth All Of The COVID Precautions And Stress?

Charles McNulty, in Los Angeles, says yes, but: "Anticipating the stress of the new COVID-19 protocols, I forgot the old stresses, the lunatic driving at Hollywood and Vine, the $25 parking fee ('credit card only, please'). The woman sitting behind me returned after intermission with a bag of potato chips." - Los Angeles Times

Broadway Wants Locals Back

But will they come in the midst of a Delta surge? - The New York Times

The Funny Thing Is

Asian American stand-ups fight back against violence and bigotry with ... comedy? - Los Angeles Times

Broadway League Turns To Oprah To Convince Theatergoers To Come Back

Winfrey is narrator for the audio and video components of a multi-million-dollar campaign across print, broadcast, and social media to convince COVID-wary audience members to go ahead and see a show. - The New York Times

Actors Stranded In Sydney With No Work Or Money By Lockdown And Border Closures

With the Delta variant on the rise in the city, many Melbourne-based actors who had been performing in Sydney were contractually obligated to their shows. Now theatres are closed, the border between New South Wales and Victoria states has slammed shut, and they're stuck. - The Guardian

The AI Program That Wrote A Guardian Essay Is Now Writing A Play

"The GPT-3 system argued (in the article) that humans had nothing to fear from robots. Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic, read it and felt inspired." A year later, GPT-3 is now co-author and co-star of the Young Vic's current show. - The Guardian

Luis Alfaro’s Plan To Make LA A Theatre Dynamo

“A theater is best expressed by the work it initiates. I think it’s really important that we not just bring in the great work but that we make the great work. We haven’t even begun to express the city and its fullness.” - Los Angeles Times

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