"It emerged on the eve of this year’s festival that Creative Scotland faces cuts of up to £10m this year, amid widespread spending reductions across the public sector following the general election." Protest messages have been read onstage at both the International Festival and the Fringe. - The Guardian
One performer who was new to the 2024 Fringe: “Everyone is telling me you can’t understand the Fringe until you go to the Fringe. … I’m hoping to make the right decisions and I’m very excited, but I also feel like throwing up every day, which I guess is part of the process.” - The New York Times
Well, Second City doesn’t really do a ton of political comedy, per se. However, if someone shouted out Tim Walz: “We know he likes white-guy tacos. … Truly - yes. Present him as very cool uncle. So, yeah, I'd probably go straight to Minnesota.” - NPR
“Adam thought that solo shows should answer the question: What is our place in the world? I looked after the jokes, and he looked after that.” Then the show went to Broadway - and Adam Brace suddenly died. - The New York Times
While the international plays are overtly political, encompassing disability rights, antiracism and ecology, the homegrown works explored the more personal terrain of addiction, recovery and self-care. - The New York Times
Over its thousand-year history, wayang kulit has been at once high art and popular entertainment; both exemplified and parodied elites and common folks, invaders from other islands and European colonizers; transmitted rulers' messages while undercutting them; embodied the old ways and incorporated pop culture. - Tablet
The International Theater Amsterdam, where he was artistic director from 2001 (when it was called Toneelgroep Amsterdam) to 2023 and continued as a salaried artistic advisor, cut ties with him after two reports revealed a longstanding culture of bullying there. The theater's entire board has resigned. - The New York Times
An uplifting play about depression, Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing has become a global phenomenon since its Edinburgh fringe debut 10 years ago. It has been performed in 63 countries in around 400 professional productions. - The Guardian
"It began over a pint in a Bedford pub. Fifty years later, Paines Plough is a theatrical trailblazer. … To mark its half-century, the key players remember the company’s fights, firsts and furious creativity." - The Guardian
The ratio of independent producers to new plays being written, and people wanting to make them, is completely out of kilter. And as subsidies dwindle and support for the arts in general wanes, the number of us – people willing to run a small business producing independent theatre – is decreasing too. - The Stage
"The first thing we do is make sure that they can see plays that reflect their lives," says artistic director (and Oscar winner for Moonlight) Tarell Alvin McCraney about his Theater as a Lens for Justice initiative, which offers free tickets to "populations impacted by incarceration." - The New York Times
“We’re expanding the size of the theatre; we’re not creating a competitive product." Now, with unions across the field adopting streaming provisions, the second-best seat in the house might be at home. - American Theatre
Skipping the interval (as they call it over there) is somewhat controversial: some producers and directors think that offering a shorter evening may bring back patrons who've been staying away since the pandemic, while many theatres depend on the income from bar sales during the break. - The Guardian
"These natural basement-dwellers have been flushed out of their venues by various fire alarms and outages, including a city-wide power cut that caused the partial deflation of the giant purple cow inflatable in George Square. Oh, the humanity." - The Guardian
