Adapting Giovanni’s Room hasn’t been easy. “The room is as much a metaphorical space as it is a physical location, marked by the feelings and experiences of the two lovers. So how do you replicate such a setting, so viscerally described?” - The New York Times
“‘We’re both interested in the accessibility of the arts,’ said 25-year-old Sian, who had come with her drama-school buddy. ‘I don’t know the show, but I know that the context of the song is her singing out to the peasants. And we’re the peasants!’” - The Guardian (UK)
Like its better-known counterparts in Bali and Java, the wayang kulit of Kelantan in northern Malaysia tells the stories of the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana — which is why the conservative Muslim government has suppressed it. Kelantan’s last wayang master has trained (unusually) a female puppeteer who’s updating both stories and puppets. - Hyperallergic
At the Vienna Festwochen, director Milo Rau and dramaturg Servane Dècle presented The Pelicot Trial, a seven-hour reading of excerpts from the courtroom proceedings, interviews, and commentary about the trial of Dominique Pelicot dor drugging his wife, Gisèle, and allowing dozens of men to rape her while he watched. - The New York Times
“The audience inside — who have paid up to a whopping £250 ($336) a ticket — are left with a livestream of the number. Those on the street below, some waiting for (Rachel) Zegler and some lucky enough to have been passing by, get a free performance from a Golden Globe-winning actress.” - The Hollywood Reporter
Before leading the festival, Gabriella Calicchio had more than 25 years of experience in the arts, including as managing director of Minneapolis’ nonprofit Children’s Theatre Company and as chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Family Museum. - The Oregonian
While the actors are high-profile, the production costs are kept down: small casts, minimal sets, simple tech, smaller Off-Broadway venue. A quarter of the tickets are free, distributed to community groups; another quarter are sold on show day for $35. Also, equal pay for actors, no star billing, no designated press nights. - The Guardian
Sunset Boulevard has seen its weekly gross up more than $400,000 to $1.7 million. Purpose and Oh Mary! had grosses rise by well over $100,000, a large sum for spoken-word plays; Maybe Happy Ending got a smaller boost. Real Women Have Curves, on the other hand, is now closing early. - The Hollywood Reporter
In this case — the Montreal-based troupe The 7 Fingers, rehearsing in New York for a show opening in two days — the injury didn’t happen to the aerialist making a daring drop from a trapeze to the ground. It happened to one of the guys on the ground catching her. - The New York Times
But federal funding cuts are threatening national history: "A scramble for stopgap funding from donors and bake sales allowed all qualifying teams to attend the national finals this year. But what happens next is unclear.” - The New York Times
Sydney Theatre Company has recorded a $10m boost to revenue after its Dorian Gray production became a West End hit, and is poised to reap millions more when it receives a cut from this year’s even more lucrative Broadway run. - The Guardian
Sonia Friedman, the producer behind, among many others, last season’s game-changing revival of Merrily We Roll Along, the revival of Sondheim’s Company with a female Bobbie, and this season’s Dead Outlaw, discusses why New York’s model is dysfunctional and how box-office reporting makes things worse. - TheaterMania
“How are New York City’s theatres really doing in the wake of pandemic disruption, economic instability, and social upheaval? (This report) dives deep into this question using three years of comparative data (2019, 2022, and 2023) from more than one hundred nonprofit theatre companies across the city.” - SMU DataArts
Venezuelans suffering through the worst of Maduro saw themselves in the show, but so did committed Chavistas. Same for anti-Lukashenko protesters in Belarus, Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring demonstrators, Jan.6 insurrectionists, anti-Beijing Hong Kongers, and Mormons. Zachary Pincus-Roth considers what they all see in the show. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Tracy Young: “I’ve seen nothing to counter the notion that Shakespeare was a populist. All about the people, and the audience’s kind of theater guy. … That to me was the real affirmation of why Play on Shakespeare is worthy. I have no complicated feelings about the rightness or wrongness of it.” - TheaterMania
