Actors get temperature-taking robots; there's Hamiltizer for your hands if you're rehearsing Hamilton; and then there are the actors who can't hug - so Olaf and Elsa flash each other peace signs instead. Audience members have their own rules, and they won't be at the stage door begging for selfies now either - but sales in Australia are strong...
"'I am calling you for a poetic consultation,' said a warm voice on the telephone. 'It all starts with a very simple question: How are you?' Since March, almost 15,000 people around the world have received a call like this. These conversations with actors, who offer a one-on-one chat before reading a poem selected for the recipient, started as...
"Across the country, and beyond its borders, many theaters say new audiences for their streaming offerings has been an unexpected silver lining — one that could have ramifications for the industry even after it is safe to perform live again and presenters try to return patrons to their seats." - The New York Times
"In a country where Turkish is the only official language, speaking Kurdish is sometimes seen as an act of rebellion." (It is the mother tongue of nearly 20 million people in the Turkish Republic and another 20 million in neighboring countries.) "Teatra Jiyana Nû, or New Life Theater, has struggled to find stages to perform its repertoire, which includes...
"I’ve debated different scenarios in my life about “What is Native?” And that is like the million-dollar question, at least within Indigenous communities at this moment. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus, and I love that, because it just demonstrates how diverse we are — that there is no singular definition — and that’s okay." - New York...
In a feature interview for The New York Times Magazine, the co-founder of the famed, and now troubled, improv company and school said, "It’s been brutal for us. We're basically using the fire of COVID to start some new version. We're changing our school and our theater to not-for-profit." (She and her co-founders have said they'll give up leadership...
It's an honorary, spokesperson role during a year when Fringe Fest may be online or may be in-person, or both, depending. Fleabag got its start at Fringe in 2013. Waller-Bridge: "From leaking caves to cobbled streets to the glamour of the Traverse Theatre up to Arthur's Seat, this festival is a beating heart of an industry that has been...
This sounds wildly exotic and dangerous to most theatregoers in the U.S. right now: "A few days ago, Kylie Estreich went to a theater in Sydney to see a Broadway show. In person. With hundreds of other people. She showed her ticket, went to her seat, and sat elbow-to-elbow with her masked mother on one side and a masked...
A Broadway stage manager who's now in graduate school for (logically) organizational leadership project management: "I initially thought, well, I'll get a class or two under my belt and then we'll be back. Well, now it appears that I will be graduated before." - NPR
Ethan McSweeny has served as artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center since 2018. He announced his resignation effective Feb. 11, 2021. - Washington Post
"Following his enlistment in the military in World War II, only ten days before he would age out of eligibility for active service, Wilder reported for training in Miami, Florida, on June 27, 1942, having completed the screenplay for Shadow of a Doubt. In what was surely a most unusual training exercise, Wilder quickly participated in what was referred...
Chris Jones: "The issue now is the future of an institution that is not just a major tourist draw to Chicago but one of the very few avenues for diverse, Chicago-based comedic talent to move to a national stage. A decades-long success record needs no reiteration here, nor does the entertainment-industry dominance asserted by the coastal cities that typically...
"This present moment places us in an exciting crossroad between former traditions and the emergence of technical and multi-platformed storytelling. I do not believe we are in a purgatory until we return to in-person venues, but instead that we are on the precipice of incredible innovation. The future of our art form will be deeply impacted by the ways...
Yes, it's because of Brexit: a statement from a company spokesperson said that "the potential additional costs for visas and current uncertainty around social security contributions mean regrettably it is currently not financially viable. We hope that in future we'll return to tour in Europe. However, that will not be possible until we have further clarity on these points."...
Last summer, after the pandemic led to the layoff of two-thirds of the company's staff and accusations by alumni of color of serious race issues, co-owner and executive producer Andrew Alexander resigned; in October, he put Second City up for sale. Final purchase negotiations are now reportedly underway with private equity firm ZMC, which is owned by the CEO...
