“I have seen many cases where theatre companies didn't take into account everything they would need going into a production. Here are some tips to make sure your production at your small theater is adequately staffed and prepared".”

Dear Production Team,

Working actor here. I am writing because you have sent me an unnerving response. Instead of sending me an audition slot, or sides, or instructions for a self-tape, you have requested that I follow all your social media accounts before any of the above can even be discussed.

“Allegory, drama, scripture, midrash, passion plays, musical, parable. Adam and Eve, Tevye and Golde. These are stories about our lives. Stories that turn our lives into art. If that isn’t something to worship, I don’t know what is.”

Site-specific theater is not a new concept, but it’s ‘newer’ for some audiences in America. In the UK, immersive and site-specific theater is as ubiquitous as more traditional theatrical performances.  Much like the fringe circuit, these performances exemplify the concept that a performance only needs an engaging story. The fancy bells and whistles, the expensive scenery and costumes aren’t necessarily needed to make a great play or performance.  It always must be about the commitment to the story.

An actor in the cast of “American Psycho” admits that he vandalized the set of the show. However, there is much more to the story.

In November 2017, Big Brother Spain contestant Carlota Prado was summoned to the Diary Room, and told by “The Voice” that she needed to watch some video footage.

What Ms. Prado didn’t know, was that she was about to learn she had been raped the night before.

A Pennsylvania Catholic high school has decided to censor their production of “Rock of Ages” after reportedly a single parent complained that the show promoted gay values and prostitution.

This past week, a teen theatre community has been rocked by disturbing video clips of a director berating his cast of “A Chorus Line”.

The word brave seems somewhat cliche and at the same time insufficient to describe Anna Snapp’s raw telling of this tumultuous time in her life.  All in all, it is an honest example of how we all go through some difficult and tiring experiences that shape us into who stands before an audience of our peers.

Larger bodies seem to be the last frontier in the push for greater inclusivity in casting. The topic is only beginning to surface in the theatre community. And this is why the casting in the current Broadway production of The Rose Tattoo rubs me the wrong way, like my thighs on a hot summer day.

Thankfully in 2019, awareness of blackface, brownface, and yellowface have been heightened to the level that it’s almost universally understood that donning them is wrong.

Yet some people are showing a more delayed response in understanding that.

Reports and pictures of an opera production with actors dressed in yellowface, are going viral on social media. The images are from the Knoxville Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly, which closed last weekend.

At the beginning of each new school year, we here at OnStage Blog like to announce what we feel are the best performing arts for the coming year. For those of you wondering how we select these schools, it starts in the previous spring.