If you’re a playwright and you’ve been trying to get your plays produced for at least a few years now, you’re probably well aware that it’s not easy to get your play produced by a major theatre company. Even if you wrote a fantastic play, it takes months and months to even hear back from the theater after you submit to them, and even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a response saying that they want to produce your work. Often, if it ever gets produced by a theatre company at all, it might take a few times submitting to different companies before to hear back from one that says “yes”.

I was scanning through adverts for jobs in the theatre and I came across a post for Front of House staff at a big regional theatre in the UK. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it. It took me through to a listing on the theatre’s website. The job was paid at minimum wage (£7.50 in the UK) and was on a zero hours contract. No guarantee of shifts but the possibility of two per week. I was quite shocked by this and took to Facebook to vent which led to a massive debate about pay in the industry, what level the jobs were within the organisation, the responsibilities etc and it started to get quite heated. So I thought I would write a quick blog post to share some of the views expressed and my thoughts on the whole situation.

Recently Torn Out Theatre presented an all male production of Hamlet in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Here’s the kicker, this all male production performed the show naked! Yup, Naked Shakespeare in the park! You’re probably thinking one of two or three things, “what the hell is the world coming to?” “That’s a whole lot of dick!” Or “Yasssss show me the D.” 

I had the lovely chance to talk with Marcus Stewart who plays Ophelia. I asked him about stereotypes, and being naked… duh. 

The first time I saw Shakespeare, I fell asleep.

My high school theater class had just spent the whole day driving from Portland to Ashland (home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and then gone directly into a very long production of “Richard III”, and…. Okay, I don’t have an excuse. I have no doubt it was an excellent production. But I fell asleep. Afterwards, my teacher asked me how I liked the show. I avoided eye contact and mumbled something about the battle scenes (didn’t sleep through them—too loud).

Like many “Fansies,” I was excited to find out that Disney Theatrical Productions was screening the national tour of Newsies in movie theaters nationwide. This version included the return of many of the original cast I saw on Broadway including Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, and Ben Fankhauser. However, seeing Newsies five years later brought up a lot of emotions I had the first time, put now in a different context.

On Monday the 14th, a bunch of actors of color are coming together to showcase their talents and make their voices heard. Project Am I Right’s The White-List Cabaret. We will be singing some of your favorite, usually-played-by-White-people, show tunes.

Lauren Villegas, the creator of Project Am I Right (PAIR), is on a mission to make the theatre world aware of the perils of whitewashing.

Ithink we can all agree that it's wrong for local theatres to copy Broadway production design. 

While I agree there are some design elements that are necessary for every production(Les Mis' barricade for instance), many of these shows' licensing agreements allow theatres to be creative with their design. 

Controversy is not only exciting, but it generates discourse. If a subject isn't talked about enough, or if it's been talked about perhaps in the wrong way, one of the few things that can genuinely fix that problem, is controversy. My favourite source of controversy? 

Culture. Film, theatre, television, art, literature, whatever it may be. It's one of the best places to find controversy, it's practically a fountain for emotion, personal reaction (good and bad) and debate, a rich fountain one can dip in and out of whenever one wants, a fountain which must be protected at all costs. There's often debate about how much cursing should be allowed in certain productions for example. And this is just one of those things that I both hate debating and think it necessary to do so. Because of course, like many things, it should probably be decided on a case-by-case basis. However, I also think it necessary to point out a few things. 

In Vancouver this year it seems Jason Robert Brown is one popular composer with a production of Songs for A New Word (link to that article at bottom) Parade, Last 5 Years upcoming in the fall and two productions of 13 it seems this is the year for a more edgy musical scene in Vancouver, Canada. I sit down with Laura Reynolds, director of 13 (the first production of the two) which is being produced by Eternal Theatre Company, who's mandate is by youth for youth.

Today, the music world lost a legend. That term is often tossed around rather lightly, but in the case of Barbara Cook, it is supremely fitting. No one who has the claim of originating Cunegonde in Candide, Marian in The Music Man, & Amalia in She Loves Me; who has given fantastic, award-winning performances as Julie in Carousel, Anna in The King and I, as well as untold amazing concert appearances and recordings including a stellar turn in Follies with the NY Philharmonic, Sondheim on Sondheim...well, you get the idea - no one who has done all she did is anything less than legend. She gave us joy and wonder in every performance, with her final appearance at age 88, just last year.