Stay Thin & Shut Up : The Continued Brutalization of Women in Theatre
Last time I checked, it was 2015, not 1960.
For the past couple of years, incidents involving discrimination, domestic abuse and sexual harassment of women have been, thankfully, thrust into the public eye. Whether it's the ongoing incidents involving professional athletes, sexual assaults at an epidemic rate on college campuses or the debate over equal pay, these problems are finally being addressed on a national level.
However, while many organizations and industries are making leaps and bounds with how they treat women, the theatre industry still lacks progress in this area with some theaters taking egregious steps backward.
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Inside UVX: An Exciting New Combination of Cinema and Live Theatre
It often feels exciting to talk about what new forms of theatre – and what new forms of art and entertainment, generally speaking – may emerge in future society. Whenever this conversation comes up, it is always worth talking about how theatre could potentially be merged with the still relatively young art form of cinema, and become an audience experience unlike any other, and that is exactly why the UVX (the Ultimate Viewing Experience) w
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5 Things Every Actor Should Have At All Times
When you first get into theatre, it can be a lot to take in. Even after being involved in a few shows, you may not have everything together. And that’s okay! However, when getting into theatre, there are five things that might be useful to have in your arsenal as you find your place in the theatre world.
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Going to the Theatre Has Been Ruined for Me
This may be an extreme statement, but don’t worry-it’s not the actors or the directors, designers, playwrights or producers that have failed me. Imagine this scene: you’ve taken off an evening of work to go see a Broadway show. You’ve been waiting for weeks to have the time and the money to burn on a show you’ve been dying to see. You arrive at the theater a few minutes early, take time to use the restroom, chat with your date for the evening, check out the theater, or read a snippet of the playbill. At 8:00, the omnipresent voice announces to turn off all cell phones and refrain from unwrapping food or other disturbing noises. You oblige, quickly turn off your phone, sit back and eagerly anticipate the excitement that the next two hours will bring.
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Bringing an Immersive 'Cabaret' to Life
Tomo Suru's production is set in XY nightclub in the heart of Gay Vancouver's Davie Street Villiage. This immersive production has the audience in cabaret seats while performers perform the show. Onstage Blog Vancouver contributor spoke with the creative team Gerald Williams (Artistic Director), Jeremy Hoffman (Musical Director) and Lyndsay Britten (Choreographer) about the show.
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May I Suggest … Time and the Conways
May I suggest that while J.B. Priestley’s Time and the Conways (1937) is not the only play to rearrange time’s arrow, it may be the best?
Its rivals on this front include the 1934 Kaufman and Hart comedy, Merrily We Roll Along (not to be confused with the 1981 Sondheim and Furth musical that’s based on it), in which the clock is reversed so that we see the bitter ruins of a triangular friendship first, and its dewy-eyed origins last. But neither Hart nor Kaufman seemed able to manage the formal demands of such a piece or, for that matter, the characters and their relationships.
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Theatre Ghosts: Part 2 — The Ghosts We Conjure
I admit, the title to this column is a little misleading. I imagine that you might have expected me to write about Ouija Boards and midnight games of “bloody Mary,” séances and psychics, you know—real-life attempts to make contact with those on the “other side.” Though there is plenty of room for such a piece (seriously, if you don’t know about WB Yeats fascination with the occult, it makes an amazing read!), I want to write instead about something a little more philosophical and hard to substantiate. I want to talk about memory.
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Discovering and Re-Discovering 'Ghost: The Musical' - An Interview with WPPAC's Natalie Weiss and Steven G. Douglas
Playing iconic theatre roles is never easy. Now add the fact that the role is from an iconic movie, I don't envy the actors taking that on.
Usually, roles like these have intense fanbases who have the highest expectations when it comes to how these characters are portrayed. But such challenges also provide some incredible opportunities. The chance to explore these characters and put your own spin on them is something actors rarely pass the chance to do.
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"Jew-Face" - An Emerging Casting Issue?
Last year I was notified of a local production of Fiddler on the Roof which had an all-Christian cast and without a single Jewish person involved with the production. While I thought this was certainly eyebrow-raising, I would stop short of saying I was offended by it.
I have been a firm believer that when casting roles of color, they should be cast with performers of the role required race. But when it comes to religion, I find that my stance softens more than a bit. This is because I feel that one's religion is not usually tied to a race classification. There are Asian Christians, there are Black Jews, there are White Muslims. So if a role is described as being simply of being of a certain religion, I more than not, feel that it's an open race role. However, I understand if others feel differently.
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