WELCOME to the #TheatreClique Round Up — my (mostly) weekly newsletter dedicated to clicking on some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…
For this week’s opener, I lift the latest installation in Broadway actor Rob McClure’s reliably entertaining (and hilarious and impressive) “Conductor Cam” series. The series began in September 2020 as a #QuarantineLife creative outlet and, in this first episode of the second cycle, McClure takes a slightly different (and surprisingly moving) approach as he invites us to listen in on all that goes on over headset as “the show” readies to go on…
And now to this week's #TheatreClique-ing — marking the one year anniversary of a year like no other in the American theatre…
NYTimes reporters Matt Stevens and Jeremy Fassler expose the snarl of vulnerabilities experienced by arts workers relying on job-based health insurance • Lily Janiak considers the stark implications of two new studies — “Arts Workers in California” (from the Urban Institute) and “Key Findings” (from Californians for the Arts) — and how “the country’s default structures fail independent arts workers” • French arts workers occupy theatres and demand an end the government’s halt to performances • a presenter at César Awards telecast removes her garments on stage to express solidarity with the protesting arts workers • the California Department of Health (finally) specifies reopening protocols for live, indoor performance • an early casualty of the pandemic, Brown Paper Tickets agrees to pay $9 million in restitution to 45,000 customers “at both ends of the company’s business model: ticket buyers owed refunds and event organizers owed box-office revenue”…
AmericanTheatre listens to dozens of theatremakers as they reflect on an “alternately disorienting and clarifying 12 months” • OnStageBlog’s Margaret Hall captures the shutdown’s impact on five early-career theatremakers • Ashley Lee profiles Taylor Iman Jones and opportunites lost in the Los Angeles Times • NYTimes asks “seventy-five artists seven questions about one very bad year” • BuzzFeed profiles the “first Broadway usher to test positive for COVID” in March 2020 • Charles Isherwood reflects on “a year without Broadway” for BroadwayNews • columnist Catherine Rampell on missing the experience of being in a theatre audience • and Helen Shaw attends We Will Be Back — Thursday’s collaboration between the Times Square Alliance and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that marked both the one-year anniversary of Broadway’s shutdown and new optimism for a return in “near future”…
actor Daniel James Belnavis details the “multi-faceted trauma” he experienced working within the “white corporate machine” of Hamilton • Baz Bamigboye reports the latest on The Book of Mormon’s plans to “stage a rethink” of the show, subsequent a recent letter from Black cast members expressing concerns • VICE’s Graham Isador listens to five indigenous artists and their their thoughts about land acknowledgments • and rallies gather nationwide to recognize the one year anniversary of Breonna Taylor death…
Gus Cuddy delves into the centrality of “deliberate artistic scarcity” to arts economies (perhaps especially those underwriting theatre and live performance) • Laura Collins-Hughes issues a plea to (and offers a plan for) how Hollywood might help the American theatre in its time of need • John DeVore issues a call to venture capitalists in “a love letter to the T-H-E-A-T-R-E” • at a moment when the idea of “theatre on screen” is newly relevant, New York Public Library remembers the pioneering impact of Betty L. Corwin, the visionary founder of the NYPL’s “Theatre on Film & Tape Archive” • and Toussaint JeanLouisthreads a considered reflection in response to Nico Krell’s Happy Days (which has now been extended through the end of the month)…
Jonathan Mandell announces the inaugural recipients of The ACTAs — the American Connected Theater Awards — recognizing “theatrical storytelling created and presented online during the year between March 2020 and March 2021” • Bay Area Reporter’s Jim Gladstone profiles three queer Black artists — including Erika Dickerson-Despenza — currently staging work in the • Jeremy O. Harris “plots the year ahead” in Town & Country • eleven rising dancers send love letters to Misty Copeland in Glamour • and NYTimes declares that “drag kings are ready to rule”…
And, as we reflect on all that did and did not happen in the past year, I lift this reminder from curator Eric Colleary, who launched the #Theatre2020Project to document the work of theatremakers in all sectors of the American theatre during this extraordinary moment in history. I have made preliminary arrangements to transfer some of my own work from this year and I sincerely hope that you’ll do the same… (And even if you don’t think you have anything worth contributing, make an appointment with Dr. Colleary anyway. Really. Just do it…)
...and this week in Fornésiana: the New Shokan Kitchen Island Project has announced “Put a Woman on a Pedestal” — a monthly monologue reading series about twenty-six women “who deserve a statue.” The four-part celebration begins on March 19 and sometime in part two, three or four director/writer Lorca Peress is scheduled to present a monologue celebrating María Irene Fornés.
Adventures in Remote Theatre-going:
Wherein I highlight some of my personal priority destinations for the upcoming week.
X The Experience • “a meld of cinema, theatre, immersive entertainment & social media in an original story set in the not-so-distant future, using WhatsApp to engage the audience in the story in real-time” • time-specific presentations on Fridays & Saturdays through May • $50/$25
The Way She Spoke at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre • Isaac Gomez’s acclaimed play “fully designed, staged, and video captured for virtual distribution” • March 16 through April 11 • single tickets available for purchase March 16 (recommended donation $25+)
On This TheatreCliquer's Dance Card:
Wherein I shamelessly promote my own upcoming public events.
I’ll be the featured guest on Keen After Hours on Monday — 630pmET, March 15!
Definition Checks & What StinkyLulu Says & Voices from Behind Academentia’s Paywall & Buy This Book…
…will not appear this week, in observance of Princeton’s abbreviated spring break (or “Spring Blink” as the case may be)...because, well, I could use a blink…
Until next time, dear #TheatreClique, please share this newsletter with those friends, colleagues and students who might appreciate the opportunity to encounter the many voices gathered in each week’s edition. Errors and oversights published in the newsletter will be corrected in the archival versions. And, in the meantime, keep clicking those links — good writing needs good readers and our theatre clicks count!