Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

The Joffrey Ballet's Nutcracker Has a New Role for Dancers With Disabilities

Dance Magazine: Marie and Franz have a new guest at their Christmas Eve party this year. Emma Lookatch and Larke Johnson, both dancers in the Adaptive Dance Program at Joffrey Academy of Dance: Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, are alternating in the new role of Worker Girl. It is a permanent part created specifically for students with disabilities in Christopher Wheeldon's version of The Nutcracker at The Joffrey Ballet.

Posted by David at 12/06/2019 10:38:00 AM

4-day firestorm of controversy ends with Utah Rep closing its doors

Gephardt Daily: Four days after an actor vandalized the Utah Repertory set of “American Psycho,” and one day after that actor posted the reasons for his act on Facebook, the theater has closed down all operations.
“Utah Repertory Theater Company closes its doors after seven wonderful years of productions,” says a theater Facebook post issued in the early hours of Tuesday.

Posted by David at 12/06/2019 10:54:00 AM

College yanks student-directed play at last minute because it depicts KKK

The College Fix: Is ‘The Sound of Music’ banned now, too?
A private college canceled a student-produced play that satirizes the Ku Klux Klan an hour before its final dress rehearsal, saying it could trigger some people on campus.
Maryland’s Washington College denies that the last-minute decision amounted to censorship that will chill the expression of other student artists.

Posted by David at 12/05/2019 02:27:00 PM

'Tarzan' high school musical dropped, amid racism concerns

www.lohud.com/story: What happened at Alexander Hamilton High School last week was either a district acting sensitively to parent concerns or the cancel culture at work.
Either way, Tarzan’s vine has been cut.
Alexander Hamilton High School’s drama club had set Dec. 4 auditions for the Disney musical adaptation of “Tarzan” when two parents complained, one to Principal Joseph Engelhardt, another to Rob Jacoby, the club’s music director and producer.

Posted by David at 12/05/2019 02:25:00 PM

When Department Stores Were Theater

The New York Times: After the hundreds of jobs going poof and the thus-far inadequate discounts, the saddest thing about the closure of Barneys New York is that its signature naughty window displays will recede even further in collective memory.

Posted by David at 12/03/2019 10:59:00 AM

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

'Like dance, but with more pointy objects': Learning swordplay for the stage at SDSU

The San Diego Union-Tribune: A voice rings out across the Don Powell Theatre stage early one morning at San Diego State University, issuing a terse command: “Assume the position of attention.” But for an observer witnessing a dozen people suddenly brandish swords and daggers as they step into warrior stances, attention is not really an issue. The weapons, as it happens, are real (more or less). But the purpose is the pursuit of art rather than some poor foe’s arteries.

Posted by David at 11/29/2019 11:09:00 AM

Ms. and They: Coming to Terms with Terms of Identity

www.clydefitchreport.com: As the only white dancer in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater circa 1969, my moniker was “Miss Scarlett.” Fresh from high school, I remember thinking it hilarious at the time. While touring Africa, the company played 12 countries, including Kenya, where there was a press conference at the embassy before opening night (you may remember this tale from a story that I wrote for the CFR last April). A reporter asked Ailey, “Do you want to be known as ‘Negro’ or ‘Black’?” I saw him struggle with frustration as he searched for an honest answer. Finally, he said, “I want to be called Alvin Ailey, the choreographer.” This began my lifelong fascination with the profound impact of identity on our deeper selves, whether it is personal or within society.

Posted by David at 11/29/2019 11:06:00 AM

How Seeing Shows Is Changing These Veterans

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: James Faulkner recalls his wife and daughter going to the theatre, but the Korean War veteran admits he didn't join in. "I never did go with them there, or to the Statue of Liberty or, you know, a lot of places," he says, explaining his experience as a prisoner of war left him a bit introverted. "My wife was a big talker, not me."

Posted by David at 11/29/2019 11:02:00 AM

What Makes Site-Specific Revivals So Powerful?

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: This week, TDF Stages Editor Raven Snook geeks out (via Facebook Messenger) with Juan Michael Porter II, a dancer, teacher and playwright who's contributed articles to Time Out New York, Broadway World, HuffPost and TDF Stages. Today's topic: The coolest site-specific revivals we've seen, wish we'd seen or would like to see!

Posted by David at 11/29/2019 10:59:00 AM

An American Revolution at Sing Sing

Reasons to be Cheerful: “This is a revolution, dammit!” shouts John Adams, his voice thundering against the fluorescent lights in the acoustic-tile ceiling. “We’re going to have to offend somebody!” The original congressman from Massachusetts is addressing his fellow founding fathers, twenty of whom are huddled on a 16×20 foot platform, arguing over word choices in the newly-written Declaration of Independence. Adams’ long dreadlocks are twisted into elegant coils as dignified as any powdered wig.

Posted by David at 11/28/2019 10:58:00 AM

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Studies Show Big Impact of Small Theatres in NY, Chicago

AMERICAN THEATRE: Two new studies of two different metropolitan areas give hard numbers to what many suspect: that small theatres have an outsized influence not only on the theatre business but on local economies as well. A study published by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office of media and entertainment shows that the city’s theatres and their artistic output contribute $1.3 billion annually to the local economy. And in Chicago, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune found that small theatres contributed $80 million, based on a study released by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. To give a sense of scale, New York’s commercial Broadway theatres are estimated to contribute $12.63 billion to the New York City economy, while Broadway in Chicago—a production company in the Windy City owned by the Nederlanders—brings in $635 million.

Posted by David at 11/21/2019 12:59:00 PM

Anita Hill’s Commission Launches Survey on Sexual Harassment

Variety: “Due to the heroic and brave work of many, we all now know there are serious problems of harassment, bias and mistreatment of others in Hollywood,” Hill said. “What we need to get our arms around, if we’re going to come up with effective solutions, is reliable data that reveals the specific nature and actual extent of those problems as well as the cultural environment that enables and hides them.”

Posted by David at 11/21/2019 01:07:00 PM

Behind the Scenes Announces Remarkable Response to Mental Health Survey

Stage Directions: Behind the Scenes announces that its recent Survey to Assist in the Development of a Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Initiative in the Entertainment Industry received an incredible response from the industry with over 3,300 people completing the survey. We are humbled by the amazing number of people who shared their stories with us about personal challenges and struggles or those of friends and family.

Posted by David at 11/19/2019 10:43:00 AM

Are we headed for a high-tech version of Hollywood's bad old days?

theweek.com: On Monday, the Department asked a court to jettison a series of decrees dating back nearly 70 years. These "Paramount decrees" arose from a Supreme Court case in 1948, in which Paramount Pictures was the main plaintiff. The decision forced the big Hollywood studios to give up anti-competitive practices that dictated terms to the theater chains, or owned them outright. A series of subsequent agreements with the Justice Department solidified the new rules for the film market.

Posted by David at 11/21/2019 01:09:00 PM

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Expansion of Creative Forces Healing Arts Network

NEA: Creative Forces is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs as well as state and local arts agencies to provide access to creative arts therapies—art, music, and dance/movement therapies, as well as creative writing instruction—for service members and veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Through telehealth, creative arts therapists connect with patients in rural and remote places via video conferencing platforms.

Posted by David at 11/20/2019 10:42:00 AM

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

The TBA Awards, and why gender disparities in acting are everyone's problem

Datebook: The profession of acting hasn’t always treated women well: fewer roles, less interesting roles, less pay for similar work. But in the theater world, that might be changing. Take the 15 performers in ACT’s main-stage season thus far, in “Top Girls” and “Testmatch.” All the actors were women or nonbinary, and they all played female characters. It’s hard to imagine that, 10 or even five years ago, a major company would have opened its season with so many women.

Posted by David at 11/13/2019 12:25:00 PM

Opinion: What people of color experience at the theater

Broadway News: I’ve been working professionally as a theater critic since 2013; I’m a board member of the Drama Desk (where I also serve as part of the nominating committee), and I’ve written for every reputable publication in town. For as long as I’ve been attending theater in the city, my name and brown skin have made me the target of bullies and racists.

Posted by David at 11/12/2019 11:00:00 AM

Are dark tourism performances of gulag life educational – or voyeuristic?

theconversation.com: Dark tourism – involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy – is on the rise worldwide. Increasingly, this does not involve only visiting such places, but also witnessing certain performances of dark pasts.

Posted by David at 11/13/2019 12:24:00 PM

Chicago bar installs over 70 Big Mouth Billy Bass to sing popular songs in unison

WGN-TV: Remember the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish that was so popular back in the 90s? Well, a bar in Chicago now has more than 70 of them hanging on a wall singing popular songs in unison.

Ashley Albert, a co-owner of the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, said coming up with the idea and finding the fish was one thing; choreographing the fish was another.

Posted by David at 11/15/2019 10:44:00 AM

What is ‘Devised Theatre’? 

At This Stage: There are so many different and new forms of artistic expression emerging from theatre. In traditional theatre, actors would show up on the first day of rehearsals expecting two very important resources at their service, a script and a director. Scripts and directors equip the actor with their lines and stage directions, which pretty much tell the actor much of what they should be doing on stage. But a new form of theatre-making is emerging, many are calling this method “devising”.

Posted by David at 11/13/2019 12:20:00 PM

Worth a Look

Here are a couple of posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Ivo Van Hove and Broadway's Secret Reliance on State Funding

The Atlantic: Ivo Van Hove is arguably the most sought-after theater director in the world. In February, his version of West Side Story—with new choreography—will open on Broadway. His adaptation of the film Network was nominated for five Tony Awards last year (winning one). Before that, he directed Gillian Anderson and Lily James in All About Eve, Ben Whishaw and Saoirse Ronan in The Crucible, and Mark Strong in A View From the Bridge.

Posted by David at 11/07/2019 10:46:00 AM

Designing Safer Social VR

Immerse: Imagine it’s your first time entering a social virtual reality experience. You quickly set up an avatar, choosing feminine characteristics because you identify as female. You choose an outfit that seems appropriate, and when you’re done, you spawn into a space. You have no idea where you are or who is around you. As you’re getting your sea legs in this new environment, all the other avatars look at you and notice that you’re different. Strange avatars quickly approach you, asking inappropriate questions about your real-life body; touching and kissing you without your consent. You try blocking them, but you don’t know how. You remove your headset fearing that you don’t belong in this community.

Posted by David at 11/05/2019 11:12:00 AM

Representing UK Inclusive Dance in the United States

Disability Arts Online: I first heard of Step Change Studios in 2018 through media coverage of their London show at Sadler’s Wells: ‘Fusion’. I knew this was something I’d like to be a part of, so I contacted Rashmi Becker, the founder, to ask about applying for their next production ‘Fairy Tales’ in 2019. We met in person a few weeks later to talk through the details of the project and what would be expected of me.

Posted by David at 11/05/2019 11:05:00 AM

A Hack At The Opera

Butts In the Seats: No, no, no, this isn’t a story about someone with little talent and unoriginal ideas, quite the contrary.

Recently my Arts Hacker colleague, Ceci Dadisman, had linked to an article about an Opera Hack-a-thon that happened at the end of July.

Posted by David at 11/07/2019 10:52:00 AM

DC's Director of Nightlife and Culture Reflects on First Year

On Tap Magazine: To embark on any new endeavor – creative, personal or professional – can be a daunting hill to climb for anyone, and DC government is no exception. Even with the support of Mayor Muriel Bowser and others, Shawn Townsend, who became the first-ever director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture (MONC) early this year, has a lot on his plate.

Posted by David at 11/05/2019 11:11:00 AM

Worth a Look

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#PayUpHollywood: Why You Should Be Fed Up with Low Assistant Pay

Ms. In The Biz: It’s a Thursday at the end of the month, which can mean only one thing if you’re an assistant in entertainment: payday. After pulling a long 60-hour week plus overtime, you are counting on every penny of this check to pay your rent, your car payment, your student loan bill, and pray you have enough left to make a small dent on that credit card. You check your bank account for the deposit…

Posted by David at 10/31/2019 10:51:00 AM

Andy Grammer's Open Letter To The Males Of The Touring World

Pollstar: With my wife being recently pregnant (with a little girl) and watching her go through a super tough pregnancy, it’s been fresh on my mind how wildly different life in general can be for women. So, for the first time in my eight years of touring, there was a sit-down with the women on tour (there are five) and they were asked a super simple question: Is there anything we can do to make this tour better for you?

Posted by David at 10/30/2019 11:04:00 AM

Bathrooms at ‘Hamilton’: Can 200 women make it through 16 stalls in a 20-minute intermission?

www.inquirer.com: The house lights flash on, signaling the end of the first act of Hamilton, and women dart out of their seats.

They try not to trip as they rush down staircases and weave through crowds, leaving behind friends and family to fulfill nature’s call.

Posted by David at 10/30/2019 11:02:00 AM

Why you should see theater in languages you don't speak

Datebook: I had a feeling there would be jokes and references I wouldn’t get at Tagalog 2019, Bindlestiff Studio’s festival of one-act plays performed in Tagalog, which I don’t speak. The Filipino American performing arts company, now celebrating its 30th year, planned to project English supertitles during the show, but I was anticipating that some concepts would defy translation, and that my brain might not always be able to toggle quickly enough between reading text and watching performance.

Posted by David at 10/30/2019 10:56:00 AM

'Color Blind' Assessments of Grant Proposals Don’t Work. Here’s a Better Idea.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: My organization, Nonprofit Finance Fund, has for decades urged grant makers to take financial analysis seriously when figuring out which grantees to support and how to support them. We believe that is still an imperative. But we also now recognize that colorblind financial analysis too often unintentionally exacerbates racial inequality and ends up hurting the nonprofits who can do the most good in advancing justice.

Posted by David at 10/31/2019 10:59:00 AM

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Behind Every Film Production Is a Mess of Environmental Wreckage

VICE: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom didn't make much of an impression with critics, but the $300 million blockbuster represented an immense undertaking. Preproduction started in 2015 and included the film’s writer taking a cross-country road trip to hash out story details and a four-week working trip in Barcelona, where director J.A. Bayona and production designer Andy Nicholson figured out visuals like set design and framing shots.

Posted by David at 10/21/2019 10:49:00 AM

A Fresh Cup of Tea: How to Make Nutcracker More Inclusive

Dance Magazine: It's Nutcracker time again: the season of sweet delights and a sparkling good time—if we're able to ignore the sour taste left behind by the outdated racial stereotypes so often portrayed in the second act.

In 2017, as a result of a growing list of letters from audience members, to New York City Ballet's ballet master in chief Peter Martins reached out to us asking for assistance on how to modify the elements of Chinese caricature in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker.

Posted by David at 10/23/2019 10:40:00 AM

#PayUpHollywood: How Unionizing Has Impacted Assistants’ Salary Fight

Variety: Writers’ assistant Olga Lexell used to rack up around $10,000 a year in medical bills to manage a chronic condition, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, that requires her to sit through thyroid X-rays and frequent blood tests. While her show was on hiatus, she would pay $500 a month to extend the insurance that the studio offered, even though it was “never that good.” It wasn’t until writers’ assistants and script coordinators banded together in early 2018 to unionize under the banner of IATSE Local 871 that her healthcare costs shrunk dramatically.

Posted by David at 10/22/2019 02:33:00 PM

Setting the Story Straight on Trigger Warnings

Exeunt Magazine: This month, CPT is hosting our all-new ‘Handle with Care’ festival, three weeks of performance exploring the hotly contested concept of the so-called ‘snowflake generation’ and all that comes with it – trigger warnings and safe spaces, microaggressions and no-platforming. You would imagine that, embarking on this season of programming, we must have our own story straight – on how, when and to whom trigger warnings should be administered in a theatre context?

Posted by David at 10/22/2019 03:10:00 PM

What Our New Plays Really Look Like

HowlRound Theatre Commons: The goal of this study is to use data to capture trends in new play production at the seventy-five LORT (League of Resident Theatres) member theatres and the thirty-two NNPN (National New Play Network) core member theatres. In working, I set out to answer three questions: Who is being produced on our stages? What kinds of characters are appearing on our stages? And what do these plays look like in terms of form and thematic content? By measuring where new play production is currently at, I hope to create an awareness of not only what is happening on our stages but also what is missing from them.

Posted by David at 10/23/2019 10:41:00 AM

Worth A Look

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Barcelona Dance Company Speaks Out On Being Barred From Performing At The Los Angeles Theatre Center By Immigration Officers

www.broadwayworld.com: A year ago, José Luis Valenzuela put his plans in motion to bring the award-winning performance artist, Marta Carrasco and her acclaimed political dance-theatre production Perra de Nadie (Nobody's Bitch) to Los Angeles. The trip, Carrasco's third as an artist produced by Valenzuela, was meant to be her farewell performance.

Posted by David at 10/17/2019 11:01:00 AM

Behind the Scenes begins development of a Mental Health and Suicide Prevention initiative

Protocol: BEHIND THE SCENES was created so industry members could look after each other in times of crisis. The charity originally defined crisis as entertainment technology professionals, or their immediate dependent family members, who are seriously ill or injured.

In 2016, Behind the Scenes was approached by a concerned individual, Karen Sherman, who was seeing too many of her colleagues dealing with depression and substance misuse. She wanted to find a way to encourage individuals to seek counseling at the start of problems, before they became a crisis and, in an expansion of its mission, the BTS Counseling Fund was created to help ease the financial burdens associated with seeking treatment.

Posted by David at 10/17/2019 11:00:00 AM

Shakesqueer - A Queer, Feminist Reading

At This Stage: For hundreds of years Shakespeare’s plays have dominated the theater industry. Scholars, conspiracy theorists, and flat out fanatics have speculated on the playwrights identity for quite some time now. But was Shakespeare really queer? And does it even matter? It is nearly impossible to say for sure. Given how little historians have been able to document on the life of William Shakespeare, we are not even sure of his exact date of birth. But what we have for sure are countless dirty jokes, a fury of queer desire, and gender-fluid romance strung between 37 plays and 154 sonnets, half of which are explicitly addressed to men (Arden Shakespeare Complete Works). It’s all things lude, crude, and lascivious. This article will provide a queer reading of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and fan favorite characters. Who is the gayest in the canon? And what does this say about the man himself?

Posted by David at 10/16/2019 10:38:00 AM

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 820 – Fire, 1912

Drypigment.net: From 1905 until Al Ringling’s passing in in 1916, Thomas G. Moses completed several designs for the Ringling Bros. grand circus spectacles. In 1912, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Went to Sterling to catch Ringling to collect $1,200.00. As I went to the tent to find Al Ringling, I discovered everyone watching a fire – a stable at least four blocks away. A spark was blown towards the tent, the top of which is prepared with paraffin to make it waterproof. It soon ignited from the sparks and in less than thirty minutes the big tent was destroyed.

Posted by David at 10/15/2019 03:02:00 PM

Solving the "Lulu" Problem

The Theatre Times: Frank Wedekind’s Lulu is the archetypal modern classic about a sexy woman. Precisely for that reason, it’s a very tough nut to crack today, no less for adaptors than for directors of the original texts.

Wedekind’s first version, a 5-act “monster tragedy” written in 1894—about a sensuous young woman exploited, objectified and loved by a series of husbands and other men before being murdered by Jack the Ripper—couldn’t get past the German censor. So Wedekind fiddled with it for years, eventually expanding it into two plays (Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box) that amplified the story’s lurid details and added background information that, in a teasingly neutral way, provided social commentary.

Posted by David at 10/17/2019 10:13:00 PM