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THEATRE

Female Comics Say Russell Brand Is The Tip Of The Iceberg In Comedy

Six years on from the #MeToo movement, they say there remains a culture of misogyny and male privilege in the comedy industry that emboldens predators and prevents women from speaking out. - The Guardian

After Going Dark This Year, Cal Shakes Will Be Back In 2024 For Its Golden Anniversary

"California Shakespeare Theater plans to produce a show of its own in 2024, after operating exclusively as a rental house this year. The production, As You Like It, ... will mark the company's 50th anniversary and run Sept. 12-29 at the Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)

The Eddie Redmayne “Cabaret” Will Be Broadway’s Most Expensive Revival Ever

The budget is $24.25 million, and the box office will have to take in $1,2 million a week just to pay running costs — an intimidating prospect even for a Kander & Ebb revival, and their shows (e.g., Chicago) tend to do very well on Broadway. - Broadway Journal

The Critic Who Was Repeatedly Bopped On The Head With A Playbill (And Other Tales Of Audience Members Acting Out)

In yet another article pegged to Lauren Boebert getting thrown out of Beetlejuice: The Musical in Denver this month, former Chicago Tribune critics Nina Metz and Michael Phillips trade anecdotes and offer don't-do-this behavior tips for patrons. - Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)

Second City Will Open Its New York Outpost This November

"The improvisational comedy enterprise … will house its new nearly 12,000 square-foot entertainment complex in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Set to open on Nov. 16, the venue will feature two cabaret-style live theaters, seven Training Center classrooms, and a full-service restaurant and bar." - The Hollywood Reporter

Institutional Critique: Jeremy Harris And The Reevaluation Of Theatre

As the initial shock of the pandemic gave way to a reëvaluation of racial and other societal arrangements, Jeremy Harris became a kind of spokesman for the long-standing and suddenly stark unrest felt by his fellow-artists. It was a moment well suited to Harris’s natural, if somewhat paradoxical, penchant for institutional critique. - The New Yorker

After 62 Years, Ossie Davis’s Satire Of Racism In The Deep South, “Purlie Victorious”, Is Returning To Broadway

"Dad grew up in deepest Georgia, and had cause to be irate about the conditions there," (his daughter) recalled. "He tried to write a play that was full of anger and righteousness, but it just didn't work until he began to look at it and laugh.'" - The New York Times

Comedian Hasan Minhaj Says His Personal Stories Are Embellished

His admission is causing quite the freak-out online - but that's how comedy works: It doesn't have to be "real." - Los Angeles Times

How Putin Eliminated Theatre In Russia

New legislation has banned the use of obscenity in literary texts, theatre and cinema. They’ve also censored blasphemy, forbidden the promotion of “non-traditional” (a euphemism for LGBTQ+) family values to anyone under 18, outlawed any public expression of disrespect towards people or symbols representing the authorities and forbidden the representation of historical events. - The Conversation

Another US Regional Theater Company Drops The Traditional Directorship Model

"Crowded Fire is taking what might be its boldest step yet by dissolving its traditional hierarchical management in favor of a seven-person shared model where all have 'leader' in their titles. Mina Morita, (outgoing) artistic director, … was adamant about building a more sustainable workplace for her team." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)

No More History Musicals From Lin-Manuel Miranda

“I’ll give you a scoop: I don’t think I’m writing another history musical ever f - - - - - g again. You think I can top this?” said Miranda, visiting to promote the return of his worldwide smash and the aforementioned untoppable “Hamilton.” - Chicago Sun-Times

Belarus Free Theater Sets Up Shop In Warsaw To Help Out New Exiles

The company's co-founders fled the Lukashenko regime in 2011, settling in London and leading clandestine rehearsals in Minsk via Skype. Now that the rest of the company has left Belarus, they're working out of Poland's national opera house with other exiled Belarusian and Ukrainian artists. - The New York Times

An Initiative: 18 Communities And Theatre Around An Idea

Given the atomization of American culture, the communities will not present a single show — in fact, many of them are not staging shows at all — but they will each come up with ways to express something that connects notions of home with culture and with health on July 27, 2024. - The New York Times

So You Want To Make A Play. It’s Tough…

We quit on our work much more readily than our work quits on us. We walk away, we claim defeat, we belittle our inadequate attempts—and in many cases, we blame our own play for this turn of events! As though our play teased, tricked, or betrayed us. It didn’t. - American Theatre

What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Still Teach Us About Grief: Teju Cole On Seeing Aeschylus At Epidaurus

"'Tragedy,' in drama, is concerned with suffering, but there's more to it than that. ... Individuals inherit fallout from events in the remote past, through no fault of their own. The next move is the test: What do you do with the bad hand you've been dealt?" - The New York Times Magazine

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