Theater Talkback: Is It Fair to Jeer?

NYTimes.com: "You hear it at Bayreuth and at the Met. Some places in Italy are so famous for it you’d be disappointed not to hear it. Booing at the opera may seem like a breach of protocol, but for better or worse it’s a tradition. In some circles, it’s even a sign of good taste.
So I wonder … if we hear booing at the opera, why don’t we hear it at the theater? And — dare I ask — should we?"

Theater Talkback: Highlights From a Decade of Watching Shakespeare

NYTimes.com: "Shakespeare surrounds us this season, perhaps even more than usual. Every summer brings the usual array of Shakespeare productions in parks and outdoor amphitheaters and, in New York at least, parking lots. The fare naturally tends toward the lighter and friskier side of the Shakespeare canon: on any given summer day, somewhere in America, you can see fairies frolicking alongside young lovers in flight from Athens in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”"

Production Manager- Blue Man Productions

The Producer's Perspective Classifieds: "Blue Man Productions is seeking a hands-on Production Manager. Reporting to the Director of Production, the Production Manager is responsible for coordinating project specific production and technical elements for our shows, corporate and press engagements, and show logistics. This role also will help departments create and maintain a company wide data base for all technical areas."

Oregon Shakespeare Festival To Re-Open Bowmer Theatre

Stage Directions: "The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is thrilled to announce that the Angus Bowmer Theatre will re-open today with a matinee performance of Measure for Measure at 1:30 pm and an 8:30 pm performance of The Imaginary Invalid. The Bowmer has been closed for six weeks and three days because of a major crack in the main supporting beam of the theatre that occurred on June 18. For a complete recap of events, visit our website."

Canadian theatre comes into its own

guardian.co.uk: "Back in the late 1970s I was a regular visitor to Canada's two big theatrical jamborees: the Stratford Shakespeare festival and the Shaw festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In those days, if I'm honest, the big draw at Stratford was the luminous presence of Maggie Smith, which was then run by her fellow Brit, Robin Phillips. Paying a whistlestop return visit last week to both festivals, I was staggered by the changes. Both Stratford and the Shaw have grown in scale: each town now has four theatres offering a combined total of 23 productions. And, although Stratford is run by the part-American Des McAnuff and the Shaw by the Belfast-born Jackie Maxwell, both festivals now rely much more on home-grown talent. I never once heard those agonising debates about cultural identity that were a feature of my first visits."

Mary Poppins floats off with eight awards

theage.com: "THERE were few surprises at last night's annual Helpmann Awards in Sydney as the musical Mary Poppins proved the night's big winner.
The lavishly produced Walt Disney musical won eight of the 12 categories it was nominated in, including best musical, best musical direction, best male actor in a musical for Matt Lee, best female for Verity Hunt-Ballard, best choreography, best sound design and best direction."

Met Opera, Orchestra Union Reach Contract Accord

Backstage: "New York City's Metropolitan Opera and the union representing its orchestra have reached a contract agreement."

Jesus and Judas get ready to rock 'n' roll

PostGazette: "Doug Kreeger walked into the Pittsburgh CLO conference room with a bright red gash running down his neck.
'That cross gave you a nice scratch,' Josh Tower observed.
A performer's battle wound, if you will.
Apparently Pittsburgh CLO's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' requires grappling with rather vicious props, or at least that's what Mr. Kreeger's injury would suggest."

Quantum finds another sweet spot for Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'

PostGazette: "Shakespeare might have been an ad man hired to write Quantum Theatre's slogan when he penned the opening line to 'Twelfth Night': 'What country, friends, is this?'
The setting the Bard had in mind for his play was ancient Illyria, along the Adriatic Coast. Quantum's 'Twelfth Night,' necessarily rerooted for the found-space company, will bloom in the concrete-paved courtyard of the dormant West Penn Hospital Foundation Research Facility in Bloomfield."

The Big Bard Fest in the West is more than just Shakespeare

PostGazette: "This may seem like a long way to go for Shakespeare, but the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, founded in 1935, is the big one. It may not be the oldest Shakespeare festival in the United States, but it has the biggest audience, longest season and biggest budget."

Review: Quantum's 'Twelfth Night' seems to play with time, space

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Turn off Bloomfield's bustling Liberty Avenue and follow the twists and turns of Gross Street into an isolated hollow beneath the South Millvale Avenue bridge.
There you'll find an abandoned building of sharp edges and right angles on the brink of being overtaken by a primeval tangle of vines and greenery that may well have you asking, as Viola does, 'What country, friends, is this?'
The answer is Illyria, the setting for Quantum Theatre's open-air production of 'Twelfth Night' that's being performed in the courtyard of the former West Penn Hospital Foundation Research Facility."

Quantum Theatre releases emotions in 'Twelfth Night'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "When Quantum Theatre artistic director Karla Boos first encountered the towering, sharp-angled structure flanked by a steep hillside of cascading greenery, she found herself asking the same question that Viola does near the start of 'Twelfth Night' -- 'What country, friends, is this?'"

'Rapunzel' a chance for cast to let their hair down

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The executive producer and owner of Apple Hill Playhouse wears a new hat in the Delmont community theater's latest children's production, 'Let Your Hair Down, Rapunzel.'
It's a witch's hat."

How to be a Great, Not Just Good, Set Decorator

Props: "I don’t have the author of the following piece, nor could I locate the original source. In fact, it doesn’t seem to appear anywhere on the internet. So if anyone knows the originator of the following essay, I would love to hear about it. And for the rest of you, it’s too entertaining not to share."

Theater eating its young, part II

WBEZ: "The responses to news of the closing of Infamous Commonwealth Theatre pointed out the indisputable fact that there are always new theater companies coming along. That's always been cited as one of Chicago's competitive advantages in supporting a theater industry: that the barriers to entry are so low. But are they, really?"

Broadway Actors Use Twitter to Connect with Friends, Fans, Industry

Backstage: "What if 'Catch Me If You Can' actress Kerry Butler is prancing around on stage and, say, her shoe falls off. As you expect from a Broadway pro like her, without skipping a beat she would finish the scene. That's what top performers have always done."

Flop Broadway Musicals Find Life Overseas

NYTimes.com: "IT was the most expensive musical ever mounted on Broadway, staked on a character that was wildly popular from movies and books. Yet the lavishly designed show opened to a crush of negative reviews, leaving producers wondering how they would earn their money back once tourists stopped buying tickets."

Rehearsals, Side by Side and Glorified

NYTimes.com: "FORTY-SECOND STREET has long catered to the needs of New Yorkers, tourists, theater lovers, moviegoers, small-time hustlers, global corporations, shoppers, restaurateurs, news hounds, thrill seekers, hopefuls and has-beens. But until the New 42nd Street Studios was completed in 2000, there was precious little space for performing artists to rehearse."

Batman battles Bane on streets of Pittsburgh

TODAY.com: "The residents of Pittsburgh got a sneak peek of the highly-anticipated “The Dark Knight Rises” on Sunday, when The Caped Crusader was spotted battling his latest foe on the streets of the Steel City."

'Deliberative Theater' to tackle Marcellus Shale

PostGazette: "Two words guaranteed to spark debate in Western Pennsylvania: Marcellus Shale.
Tonight there will be, in the words of one of the event's organizers, a 'robust discussion' on the subject, but this foray into public discourse won't abide shouting or grandstanding.
'Managing Marcellus: A Deliberative Theater Event' promises measured, civilized response from many sides of what has become such a hot-button topic. And that in itself is remarkable."