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THEATRE

The Set Of “Slave Play” Had To Be Completely Redesigned For Los Angeles, And It May Be Better Than The Broadway Set

This staging, on the Mark Taper Forum's thrust stage, is the first time since playwright Jeremy O. Harris first workshopped the play at Yale. Here's a look at how the designer, director and staff adjusted to the new layout. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

What Jonathan Larson Taught Me About My Relationship With Theatre

Every time I encounter his work, it forces me to confront head-on the most futile labor that defines my occupation: finding language to describe art. As an artist, I hope my work will exceed definition, but as a critic, I need to do just that to the best of my ability. - The New York Times

“Fixing” Old Musicals To Fit Today’s Social Sensibilities?

Jed Perl’s “Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts” is useful in showing the problems with thinking of social justice as inherent to serious art rather than one of many forms it may take. - The New York Times

Edinburgh Fringe Needs More Regulation And An End To Open Access, Says New Study

A research report titled "Future Fringe" says that the world's biggest theatre and arts festival suffers from a lack of clear lines of authority and accountability, no "common set of standards", a growth-at-all-costs mentality, and a "pay-to-perform landscape." - The Scotsman

TCG To Make 200 Plays Available Online

The scripts, 110 already uploaded and the rest coming later this year, "join Drama Online's award-winning digital library, an online research tool for drama and literature students, professors, and teachers. … The collection includes work by David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Dael Orlandersmith, and Anne Washburn, among others." - Playbill

The Theatre Wisdom Of Stephen Sondheim

I learned all of these compositional principles from Babbitt. What it amounts to is, music exists in time, so how do you make it cohere? And that’s just as true with a three-minute song as it is with an hour-and-a-half opera, you know? - The New Yorker

Harper Lee Estate Loses $2.5 Million Case Over “To Kill A Mockingbird” Stage Adaptations

The arbitration case was brought by Dramatic Publishing, which licenses the decades-old Mockingbird play by Christopher Sergel, long popular with schools and community theaters. The estate had tried to stop local productions of that script as Aaron Sorkin's new version was headed to Broadway. - The New York Times

New York State Is Dropping Mask Requirements, But Broadway Is Not

"Broadway's mask and vaccination policy will remain in place through at least April 30, the most recent extension date for the policy announced last month. Broadway has required audience members to be be vaccinated and wearing a mask since its return last year." - Playbill

Royal Shakespeare Co. To Use TikTok To Market Low-Price Tickets To Young People

The "TikTok tickets" scheme will offer £10 seats, along with subsidized travel to Stratford-upon-Avon, to people aged 14 to 25 for this summer's productions of Richard III and All's Well That Ends Well. - BBC

How “Sleep No More” Has Changed New York Theater — And Itself

As the loose, famously immersive adaptation of Macbeth restarts after two years of COVID, Alexis Soloski considers the influence the show has had on Punchdrunk (the British troupe that produced it) and other companies — and the script alterations that audience behavior has forced on it. - The New York Times

For The First Time, The RSC Casts A Disabled Actor As Richard III

Playing the last Plantagenet king will be Arthur Hughes, 30 years old and born with radial dysplasia. (He identifies as "limb-different".) The production opens at Stratford-upon-Avon in June. - The Guardian

Tracking Broadway’s Uneven Reopening: Winners And Losers

The quick upshot: While the formerly $15 billion industry was still recovering, many shows made up much, if not all, lost momentum. But the gains were uneven; established brands saw strong sales while newer work, especially plays, struggled. - Forbes

One Way Singapore’s Theatre Actors Have Kept Busy During The Pandemic

Would you believe that interactive Zoom mystery theatre is a thing? Actor Bright Ong says, "The tectonic plates under have shifted, and the industry is changing." - BBC

What To Do On Broadway When Your Leads And Nearly A Third Of The Rest Of Your Cast Test Positive

As Music Man showed, you shut down for days; keep paying everyone; and hire great swings. "We had swings covering seven roles and trying to hold up that show. And they did." One swing "is 10 years old, and she was covering three tracks." - The New York Times

Following A Difficult Summer And A Staff Revolt, Williamstown Theater Festival Is Making Big Changes

Those changes include better pay equity and HR, safety training, hour caps, and, crucially, ending the ambitious seven-production summer season. The Festival's statement says its programming henceforth "will match its capacity to support the staff and trainees who make the Festival possible." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

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