Theatre

Plays that explore broken institutions, social unrest, and isolation may be uniquely suited to the Zoom platform with its fractured screen of boxes and its disruptive glitches, hiccups, and delays. – Howlround

“In the pause, you question things and understand why they happen instead of just going along with it, in terms of structures and roles and pay. It’s going to be a really hard couple of years rebuilding, but there might be positives that come out of it. Well, there will be – because we will see change.” – The Guardian

What is on offer from our stages, via podcasts, Zoom presentations, and the rare live productions? Mostly escapes to comfy territory rather than confrontations with the difficult present. These approaches often reflect a yearning for the ‘old normal’ via a focus on Boston’s history. – ArtsFuse

We are in increasing danger of reducing public language to spectacle. We are urged to judge performance in terms of crowd-pleasing; we don’t want to see our leaders engaged in reflection, or inviting us to look behind and around issues. Fascism is one of the most extreme forms of the triumph of spectacle. In such a context, theatre is all the more vital. – New Statesman

“The Institute for Counterfeit Memory” cannily employs the devices it provides to bring you back to the feeling of being in a room with other spectators, even as it reminds you that you are alone. Its ministrations so impressed me that when I turned over the final cue card instructing me to applaud, I actually did. – Washington Post

“With many circuses sustained by performers and backstage crew from outside the UK, Brexit is a cause for concern. But as the UK’s leading circus directors tell Douglas McPherson, it is also a chance for them to make their mark.” Why? “Circuses thrive in a recession.” – The Stage

“‘In a period of time [during the lockdown] when nothing was happening, we were receiving dozens of complaints from groups and artists, and we’re still receiving them now,’ said [union general secretary Paul] Fleming. ‘There has been a huge amount of dignity issues around hair and makeup through to reports of casual racism in dressing rooms and racist language in casting processes when people are at their most vulnerable.'” – The Guardian

“When I tune into a play or a devised theater piece, I’m not looking to be dazzled by computer graphics. Clever Zoom backdrops don’t seize my imagination. I want what I always want from the stage: a confrontation with what it means to be human.” – Los Angeles Times

The Rob Guest Endowment is Australia’s most prestigious musical theatre prize, offering $50,000 (Aus) offers in scholarship money for professional development. In August, a field of 30 semifinalists was announced, and an outcry arose — supported by the candidates themselves — because none of the 30 were BIPOC. Now the Endowment, claiming concern for the semifinalists’ mental health because some have been “targeted and intimidated,” has suspended the award until 2022; the competitors themselves say that they had been about to withdraw en masse. – Limelight (Australia)

Nicholas Edwards, who took the role of Jesus in the Berkshire Theater Group’s socially distanced staging of Godspell this past summer: “Every day you feel like the whole world is watching you. … Usually the stage is a safe place where we feel most at home and normal, but it became a place where I was anxious all the time.” – The New York Times

Kara Young’s story has a few twists and turns, but right now she’s enjoying the chance to rehearse again – even if it’s on Zoom. “I love rehearsal — it’s my favorite thing in the world. … It’s an actual playground for me: I’m available to play with people. You don’t call it that, but it’s magic.” – The New York Times

Peter Marks: “The hires and promotions mark what may be a turning point for a field coming to grips with a challenge from Black, Latinx, Asian American and other racial and ethnic groups: to examine its White bias and bring more diversity into its leadership ranks.” – The Washington Post

“In the relationship between ancient theater architecture and nature, one can discern in the Greco-Roman school of thought a particular interest in creating the conditions for a salubrious experience of drama. … As an extant example of a remote, outdoor theater flushed with fresh air, Epidaurus has become something of a touch point for theater producers, designers and historians looking to the past to find a way forward.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

The projects, The 51st State from Arena Stage and an anthology of short videos that Studio Theatre simply calls creative responses to the August 28 March on Washington, “have propelled stage artists in new directions,” writes Peter Marks, “to memorialize galvanizing public events … [with] the fresh lens these companies have been able to train on their convulsed city.” – The Washington Post

Lindsay Posner writes about how, stuck in London thanks to pandemic travel restrictions, he fulfilled his contract to direct Twelve Angry Men in Tokyo, thanks to Zoom and an ace translator and assistant director. – The Guardian

“We’re working with authors, artists and companies we’ve always wanted to and reaching audiences around the world in numbers that would be completely unattainable with previous ways of working. This is our working practice now. It’s not an addition – it is the core.” – The Stage

Relieved. Worried. Excited. Frustrated. In short, ambivalent. “Performers are constantly living on the edge, even without COVID so now there’s even more pressure than ever to get back to work.” – The Guardian

The theatrical corporation Nimax announced that it would open the doors of six of its West End theatres, restarting such shows as Six (the pop musical about Henry VIII’s wives), The Play That Goes Wrong, and Magic Goes Wrong at roughly half the usual seating capacity. – The New York Times

The European Union was a remarkable human artifact—still is. And for us to smash down our part in it is . . . I suppose you just have to expect that people can’t sustain positive actions for very long. Sooner or later, they just want to behave badly and do something very simple, kick something or hit someone. – The New Yorker

It is exceptionally unusual to find a theatre that charges playwrights to read their script through conventional submissions. But look around at contests, competitions, workshops, residencies and more, and you’ll spot submission charges without having to look too hard. – The Stage

“Traditionally, eligibility rules required in-person productions. This year, plays that were scheduled to be produced in theaters during 2020 but postponed or canceled due to the pandemic, as well as plays produced and performed in places other than theaters, including online, outside or in site-specific venues, will be considered.” – Deadline

“‘This pandemic pause … seemed to me like a good moment to slip out the door,’ Brantley said in a statement. … [He] joined the Times as its second-string theater critic in 1993, taking the chief critic job three years later. His last day on the job will be Oct. 15. The paper’s newish co-chief critic title currently is shared by Brantley and Jesse Green, who will remain on board.” – Deadline

“We simply have to get our arts sector back open and running … We are at the point of no return, really,” he told Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee by video. “There comes a point when we really can’t go on anymore. Theatre is an incredibly labour-intensive business.” – HuffPost

The task has proved far more daunting than anyone could have imagined, amounting to a struggle of wrenchingly complex proportions with no reliable end in sight. And at this point, though, Broadway — the ultimate land of make-believe — is holding on to a hope that early 2021 is still feasible. – Washington Post

As one design-and-production professor puts it, “One thing we’ve learned is there’s a lot of technology that we haven’t utilized because we’ve had the luxury of being together in a room.” Says another, “It’s given us the headspace to shift our daily routine, which in turn I think is going to really benefit and shift the student experience quite a bit.” – American Theatre