Paul Sills, son of Viola Spolin and one of the fathers of Chicago style improv comedy through his work with The Compass Players (who sort of morphed into Second City) and through his Story Theatre work has passed away at age 80. Chicago has lost two of its legends in one day.
posted on Jun 2, 2008 - View this thread

Atlanta's Theat(er|re) community is unloading on a local Christmas show.
posted on Dec 11, 2007 - View this thread

Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

Theatre composer imitates teen heartthrob to plug his upcoming Broadway show. Features a cameo from one of Broadway's teen heartthrobs.
posted on Oct 4, 2007 - View this thread

Photographs of the dancers, actresses, cafe-life figures and prostitutes who were the subjects of Toulouse Lautrec's paintings, including such luminaries as Sarah Bernhardt, "La Goulue" (Louise Weber; remember this?), and Jane Avril, who was the model for this last, iconic, Lautrec poster. View pages of the art matched up with photos, here, here, and here, and go to this page to rummage around in even more collections that include photos of Lautrec, his friends and family, street and location scenes, and lots of other tidbits. [Spanish language site; NUDITY]
posted on Jul 5, 2007 - View this thread

Broadway.com has been doing a video diary of Legally Blonde: the Musical as it moves toward Broadway. See the first rehearsal with director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, visit a costume fitting, or catch a sneek peek of the show's pre-Broadway tryout in San Francisco. Legally Blonde starts performance in New York City on April 3rd.
posted on Mar 26, 2007 - View this thread

The Black Light Theatre of Prague ("Černé Divadlo" or simply Black Theatre) is a Czech performance style characterised by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light trickery. Although this performance style can be found in many places around the world, nowhere is it more prolific or specialized than in Prague. Some sample images: 1 2 3 4. YouTube: 1 2 3.
posted on Feb 8, 2007 - View this thread

How are you celebrating Ibsen Year 2006? Reading Henrik Ibsen’s plays? His poems? What about his paintings? There’s always Peer Gynt: The Videogame.
posted on Apr 12, 2006 - View this thread

“The Emperor Jones was a landmark drama, not only in conception but also in production: a black actor, Charles Gilpin, was permitted for the first time to enact the leading role in a New York drama.” James Earl Jones and collaborators discuss and rehearse a later production. Currently Elizabeth LeCompte directs Kate Valk, a middle-aged white woman in blackface, in a contemporary production from the Wooster Group. They’ve courted this type of controversy before. The NYTimes loved the show, this review isn’t as glowing.
posted on Mar 28, 2006 - View this thread

At what point did the muse disappear and become replaced by the dramaturg? "Scripts aren't written, they're rewritten", goes the cry from all the script gurus - all the literary managers, editors, producers, dramaturgs - not just in theatre but film, too. Why do they say this? Because their jobs depend on it. If scripts were left alone, what would they do? Dominic Dromgoole writes about playwriting in the UK.
posted on Dec 19, 2004 - View this thread

After a three-year absence and $108 million in renovations, Europe's premier grand dame of opera houses, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, will reopen on December 7, 2004. The honor of the opening night opera has been delegated to Antonio Salieri through his obscure opera-ballet Europa Riconosciuta, which is the very same opera that inaugurated La Scala's first season in 1778, and has not been performed in 226 years.
posted on Nov 30, 2004 - View this thread

"A Shoggoth on the Roof," a musical theater adaptation of HP Lovecraft's work, was set to be staged this fall by Chicago's Defiant Theatre, but the production has been scrapped due to legal threats by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, the creators of "Fiddler on the Roof".
posted on Jul 15, 2003 - View this thread

The Exonerated
Want to see some great theater and learn a bit about our great system of justice and capital punishment? Then The Exonerated may be the show for you.

The other night I went to see The Exonerated, which has been playing Off Broadway since last fall and is also appearing in theaters around the country this year. Composed wholly from court records and interviews by playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, this documentary drama recounts true tales of horror from the American criminal-justice system. The actors sit downstage and read their parts as the stories of six innocent citizens condemned to death row unfold. If this sounds like a worthy endeavor, it is; if it sounds dull or didactic, it isn’t.
posted on Jul 3, 2003 - View this thread

Jerry Springer: The Opera? You know, whenever I happened to have this misfortune to watch Springer, I too thought "It's got tragedy. It's got violence. There are people screaming at each other and you can't understand what they're saying." but I didn't quite make the leap that "It's perfect for opera."

But now on an operatic journey that takes us the tv studio to hell, the British National Theatre is realizing this vision.

To quote from the libretto: "This is a Jerry Springer moment!" sing the chorus. "We don't want this moment to end, so cover us in chocolate and throw us to the lesbians."

Skeptical? Read the reviews!
posted on Apr 18, 2003 - View this thread

The Federal Theatre Project Collection. "The Federal Theatre Project was the largest and most ambitious effort mounted by the Federal Government to organize and produce theater events. It was an effort of the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide work for unemployed professionals in the theater during the Great Depression which followed the stock market crash of October 1929." Arguably the high water mark in the history of live theatre in America, The Federal Theatre Project was a program introduced as part of The New Deal. The production archives for three of the major productions (two by Orsen Welles) are of particular interest. The success of Tim Robbins' The Cradle Will Rock may have influenced other's perceptions about the importance of Mark Blitzstein's lackluster (but controversial) play of the same title.
posted on Dec 18, 2002 - View this thread

That Show-Stopper: The Bloody Audience! Interrupting a performance of Hamlet, John Barrymore once threw a large fish at a group of coughing members of the audience, shouting: "Busy yourselves with that, you damned walruses!" Stephen Pollard, in The Independent, suggests people now behave in public as they do at home, oblivious of their fellow concert or theatre-goers. Art-house audiences are equally annoying. Perhaps show rage will become the road rage of the 21st Century? [The main link, addressing rock audiences, comes in very small type but is worth reading all the same. The third link is an amusing mini-play about audience harrassment.]
posted on Dec 5, 2002 - View this thread

Vaudeville Slang. A boffo glossary of the language of American Vaudeville. Visit the main site for tons of links to famous performers and theatres. For more hokum, you can visit here to watch and hear some actual Vaudeville acts. No applesauce!
posted on Nov 21, 2002 - View this thread

"A play? In Gaza? About feminism? With Palestinian actresses? Unbelievable!"
posted on Oct 23, 2002 - View this thread

Ray would stay. Hawai'i actor Ray Bumatai's brain tumor hemorrhaged on stage. He finished the show blind and returned, after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, to finish the run of the play. Is this taking the old "the show must go on" adage a little too far?
posted on Aug 30, 2002 - View this thread

Puppetry of the Penis: Tackle Happy (2001) Any Australian Metafilterians care to explain this? I found a rave review of this DVD on Amazon.com's Future Bestseller's list. "Organ Origami", "The Fine Art of Genital Manipulation" and "Performances with Road Companies at Major Festivals Throughout The World"? I think the world's citizen's are owed an explanation.
posted on May 30, 2002 - View this thread

Ouch, it hurts to watch! Going to NYC? Wanna take in a Broadway show but aren't interested in the normal fare? This might raise your spirits. Or not.
posted on Jan 14, 2002 - View this thread

The Roundabout Theater postpones its Assassins revival. This was probably the right decision, though for those who know the show--and that might not be many--it happens to address better than most things all the issues our country is currently facing. Check out Sondheim.com where they've changed the page to simple text featuring perfectly fitting lyrics for the moment we're in.
posted on Sep 16, 2001 - View this thread

Tantalus , one of the longest theatrical experiences ever has finally opened in London, and according to one critic, there is no greater endurance test. Always looking for an angle, The Guardian sent four journalists around London on May Day to see what other culture can be experienced in 12 hours, 40 mins. Merope Mills did film - "9:15pm. Both Dennis and Annette are working at the box office and, on seeing me again, Annette throws me the look of a concerned landlady, as in, "Haven't you had enough yet?" I, drunk on moving images, defy her concern and head straight back in. I might as well not have moved - it's straight back to screen five where I'm feeling rather territorial about the sudden influx of people. Nod off in the epic Traffic (18) for 15 minutes but dream about Michael Douglas so decide this little discrepancy still counts."
posted on May 3, 2001 - View this thread