Op-ed of bad ideas
In Sunday’s New York Times is an op-ed piece that pleads for tax breaks and other steps to save theater. No, to save the Broadway show. Playgoer dissects this piece well. In short, these ideas may or may not help the world of Dance of the Vampires, Mamma Mia! and such insignificant fare, but they will not help any ernest and interesting theater. Thanks, Playgoer, for setting things straight. We hope people read your rebuttal.
Tomorrow’s audience
The Christian Science Monitor, Boston’s best newspaper, has an article today about getting new audiences to the theater, specifically young audiences. One point is that students perceive the prices to be high, but I constantly see big student discounts to everything. Students of the world: Go to theater. Go to the symphony. Go to museums. Go, and go now because it will never be cheaper for you. The advertised price may be $90, but you can get in for just $15, you lucky dogs.
I note that this article highlights a recent promo at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, a place fond to me because I’m working there right now.
Props to Pinter
We pause to congratulate Harold Pinter on the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Congratulations, Mr Pinter.
Add this blog to your list
Actors’ Shakespeare Project is a new, notable theater group in Boston. They’re well-connected and well-funded, all things considered, and they put on excellent productions. You should go to any of their shows if you can.
You should also check out their new blog. The blog is remarkable because not many theater companies are blogging. And though the individual entries are not gripping, nor do they reveal keys to the rehearsal process that you’ve never thought of, overall the blog does offer an interesting glimpse into the process that went into their current, celebrated production of King Lear. Go A.S.P!
Reviews, powerless and otherwise
Over at BBC News, I just found an article about Ben Brantley, the influential New York Times critic. A good read, largely dealing with big-budget Broadway shows. But he also says this:
For real creative vitality, you have to look in some of the darker side streets of Manhattan these days… Often the most satisfying theatre is the sparsest. You get the inventiveness… For those smaller, more independent ventures, if you [the critic] are very encouraging about a production — you can certainly help it get grants, if not audiences.
We know! We invite you to our next production, Mr Brantley.