Strangers in Strange Lands: Production Live! Recap

Pollstar: Returning to the road after the pandemic shut down live entertainment touring has been a tricky act of balancing limited human and other resources against the old adage, the show must go on.

New York Relaxes Face Mask and Vax Rules; Broadway Does Not

www.ticketnews.com: New York Governor Kathy Hochul removed the statewide mandate requiring businesses either ask customers for proof of full COVID vaccination or that a face mask be worn at all times indoors – but Broadway isn’t along for the shift. The Broadway League has decided to keep its requirements in place for all those who attend as well as cast and crew members.

Photos: See Inside a Retired Boeing 747 'Party Plane'

www.businessinsider.com: The iconic Boeing 747 jumbo jet has been an unfortunate casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many airlines speeding up its retirement over the past two years.

Hollywood's COVID Restrictions Are Not Easing Up Just Yet

Variety: The omicron wave has peaked across the country, and states including New York and California are once again easing up on their COVID restrictions. But in the entertainment industry, there is no rush to get back to “normal.” The studios and unions are largely holding firm on the set of COVID production protocols that has been in place since the summer of 2020.

Magic Mike Live Australian tour cancelled

theatre people: The US producers and Australian management team of Magic Mike Live have made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Australian tour. The decision to close the tour was made due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Victorian Government and the lack of certainty surrounding the tour’s ability to perform any of its announced dates.

Go Inside Broadway’s COVID-19 Vaccination Center, Run By and For Theatre Industry Workers

Playbill: Behind transparent face shields, Broadway veterans Charl Brown, Joel Perez, Kris Coleman, and Matthew Amira approached the modulation of Kander and Ebb’s “New York, New York” in tight harmonies, their voices ringing out in Times Square April 12. The performance heralded the opening of New York City’s latest COVID-19 vaccination center, located in the heart of the theatre district and designated for performing arts workers. The site itself is also a harmonious feat, signifying a collaboration between the city government and various theatre unions, with their members taking on new but familiar roles.

As theater reopens, a need for healing

Chicago Tribune: Testing. Masks. Vaccination passports. Capacity restrictions. Social distancing. Union rules. CDC recommendations. As Chicago’s theaters and venues prepare to reopen — a few this summer, en masse come the fall — those important COVID-19 considerations are sucking up most of the energy. And for good reason. Artists need to get back to work. People deserve to feel safe.

Application process for Shuttered Venue Operators Grants will not restart this week

Broadway News: The application process for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grants will not reopen by this weekend, a spokesperson for the Small Business Administration told Broadway News Thursday.

California’s New Guidelines For Performers, Crew At Indoor Live Events

Deadline: Starting Thursday, attendance at indoor concerts, sporting events, theater performances and conferences is allowed with certain capacity limits based on local Covid-19 infection rates. Those limits were announced on April 2. As venues reopen today, the State of California also issued detailed guidance for performers and crew at those events where attendees are seated.

Local small businesses emerge stronger after the lockdown

nextpittsburgh.com: Ben Peoples got an early warning. He’s a provider of theatrical and architectural lighting, with suppliers in China. He closely watched that country’s winter shutdown. When COVID-19 reached the U.S., he wasn’t shocked that Broadway — the source of much of his business — closed for the spring.

Broadway's Nail-Biting Return: The Longest Overture in Theater History

thebroadwayblog.com: It’s the longest overture in modern theater. With theaters shuttered for more than a year, culture-craving audiences are eagerly anticipating when the curtain will rise once again. Recent developments offer a cautiously optimistic outlook, while Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the labor union representing American actors and stage manager, is tired of waiting in the wings.

Where Does Immersive Theater Go From Here?

Dance Magazine: It's 9:30 pm on a Thursday night in November; my eyes close as I hear the familiar, haunting notes of the closing music for Then She Fell. Music I've heard thousands of times before. Eerie, swelling strings that have signaled the beginning of a dinner break with fellow castmates, or the end of a long night. In this particular moment, on this particular evening, my mind begins to unwittingly sift through memories like yellowed papers in an old filing cabinet, the ink smeared just barely, the pages crumbled in a perfectly satisfying and familiar way. I have been here countless times before and yet this time is remarkably different.

1 Pandemic, 2 Productions Of 'A Chorus Line,' Plenty Of Teen Resilience

NPR: A year ago, Jada-Lynn Pledger was ecstatic — then a sophomore at The Akron School for the Arts in Ohio, she was cast as Judy Turner in A Chorus Line, the big spring musical. "She was my first sort of supporting role ... I was like, oh yeah, like I'm with the big dogs, you know? ... " Pledger recalls. "And then, March 13th, Friday the 13th, is when we got the news that school was closing."

A Year Into the Pandemic, What Is the Future of the Corps de Ballet? Here's Why It Matters.

Pointe: Occasionally, in my dreams, I relive the entrance of the Shades from La Bayadère. From the quiet, hypnotic buildup of arabesques snaking down the stage to the prayerlike moment when the entire corps de ballet freezes in a front tendu, arms crossed and eyes turned upwards, it is where my mind goes for rest and contemplation, more so than any extraordinary variation.

'It has been a sort of nightmare': how major theatres abroad fared in the pandemic

Stage | The Guardian: In the disUnited Kingdom there are glimmers of light for the theatre. Some openings are scheduled for 17 May; with further relaxation of restrictions, more are likely to follow in June. The support in Rishi Sunak’s budget, which announced an additional £300m for the culture recovery fund, is welcome. Still, there are painful gaps. Some had hoped for a government-backed insurance scheme, and for an increase to the rate of theatre tax relief. Neither were forthcoming.

Working with Hands from Uber Works

SoundGirls.org: 2020 brought a variety of topics concerning gig workers in the US to light. From addressing unemployment for independent contractors to the House of Representatives introducing the P.R.O Act, Covid-19 is changing the conversation for the classification of gig workers. Florida introduced Uber Work, Uber’s new on-demand staffing business, in December 2019 to launch in its second city ever, Miami.

The Actors Fund Distributes A Record $19 Million In Year Of Covid

Deadline: In the year since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the Broadway industry, The Actors Fund has distributed more than $19 million in direct cash assistance to more than 15,000 people, with more than 40,000 individuals receiving assistance of one form or another from the Fund, a massive 71% increase from 2019. The 2020 distribution of funds is nine times that of an average year.

‘The theater is a place for healing’

Chicago Sun-Times: For a solid year, the ghost light on the stage of the Goodman Theatre has shone in lonely silence on a classroom at the Aburi Girls’ Secondary School, the set for Jocelyn Bioh’s “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play,” nipped in the bud last spring. “Just a wonderful play,” said Robert Falls, the artistic director of the Goodman. “We were in previews, and the audience was loving it. We were three days from opening.”

Adapting to Pandemic Regulations

HowlRound Theatre Commons: In the Netherlands, as well as in the rest of Europe, many restrictions have been imposed by the global pandemic. Since everybody has been handling these restrictions differently, when I saw advertisements for the latest performance by the Netherlands-based dance company Club Guy & Roni, I was excited to see how they were going to execute it. The piece was an adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1875–76 ballet Swan Lake, running from September 2020 until January 2021.

Beginning April 2, Event, Arts and Entertainment Venues in New York Can Reopen at 33% Capacity

www.broadwayworld.com: During a press conference that New York governor Andrew Cuomo held today, it was announced that New York event, arts and entertainment venues holding less than 10,000 people would be allowed to reopen at 33% capacity beginning April 2. Up to 100 people will be allowed indoors, and 200 people will be allowed outdoors.