This article from The New York Times talks about how nonprofit theatres in NYC are resorting to raising ticket prices and collaborating with commerical producers in order to recoup financial losses. The latest nonprofit theatre company raising ticket prices is Roundabout Theatre with their restaging of Cabaret, which originally ran from 1998-2004. Read the article here.
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Whistler in the Dark Closes After Nine Seasons
Boston theatre staple Whistler in the Dark closes its doors after nine seasons of shows. Artistic Director Meg Taintor wrote a letter to those who’ve supported the theatre company since 2005. Here is her letter:
Dear Friends,
We’ve been singing the beautiful Irish folk tune The Parting Glass at rehearsals for Far Away and it has taken on a certain extra amount of poignancy for me.
In the late summer of 2005, three college friends came together to dream up the idea that would become Whistler in the Dark Theatre. The dream was to gather together an ensemble of artists who were interested in growing together over time and producing challenging texts that celebrated a poetic exploration of life.
Over the years, the company has shifted and re-arranged itself organically, with new collaborators joining us each season even as old partners-in-crime move on to other ventures in other places. And as the ensemble has grown and evolved, so has our community of audience members. It has been a joy to work and grow with our audience, and to always know that whatever challenges we put forward with the work we produce, there is a vibrant community ready to watch and respond and challenge us right back.
It is with gratitude to this amazing community of collaborators and audiences that I announce that after our upcoming production of Far Away – after nine season, 25 productions and hundreds of artistic collaborations – Whistler in the Dark will be disbanding and closing our doors. The artists who have made Whistler their home continue to work, both in Boston and other cities around the country, but this phase in our lives in ending.
We are in a very special place right now – a place that few companies get to inhabit. While we look towards the future and see the closing of the company, we still have three months of work – months filled with our most challenging production to date as well as a series of radio plays performed live – and so we are in this unique moment of getting to be both generative and nostalgic at the same time.
Please join us in celebrating all the work that has gone before – and all of the memories you have of our time together – and then join us in the theatre for this one last production. Following the close ofFar Away, we plan to host a wake of sorts – a celebration where we gather our community to tell stories, and to relive the good, the bad and the truly transformative. I’ll keep you posted on plans for this as they solidify.
Thank you for your belief in and support of our company. It has been a true joy to create work together over the past nine years.
Good night and joy be with you all…
Meg Taintor
Artistic Director
IBTimes: Unpaid Internships Offering Few Benefits
In this International Business Times article, the successful NYC production of Sleep No More comes under fire for its lack of compensation both monetarily and educationally for its unpaid interns. Read the article here.
Drama Lit Blog: Paying Actors for Promotion
In this posting from the Drama Lit Blog associated with BU’s dramatic literature courses, one student describes a theatre model that would entice actors to promote their shows in exchange for a percentage of the profits. Read the posting here.
HowlRound: Talkbacks and an Artist’s Safety
On HowlRound, playwright Lauren Gunderson discusses the violent nature of a recent comment at an audience talkback after one of her play’s performances and how we need to protect our artists. Read the article here.
Broadwayworld.com: Keen Company Announces First Playwrights Lab
Company One alum playwright Qui Nguyen (She Kills Monsters) has been announced as one of the inaugural members of Keen Company’s Keen Playwrights Lab for the 2013-2014 season. All playwrights will conceive one full-length play that falls in line with Keen Company’s mission. Read the article here.
HowlRound: The Unsustainable State of Art
In this essay on HowlRound by A. Nora Long, associate artistic director of Lyric Stage Company, she talks about how the world thrives when art and culture are given importance and the consequences of treating art as a “hobby” instead of a job with “prestige” and financial benefits. Read her essay here.
Southern California’s Theatres Convene
On December 16, artistic directors from theatre companies in Southern California met to discuss the director’s role in diversity in the theatre and what can be done to make SoCal’s theatres more inclusive. Here’s the announcement.
You can watch the panel here: Livestream.
Finally, this blogger, The Fairy Princess, gives her opinions on what the artistic directors said at the panel about the struggle for diversity including a call for action and less talking. You can read her thoughts here.
Edmonton Journal: ‘Pig Girl’ on Race, Voice, Respect, and Artistic Freedom
This blog post from Edmonton Journal talks about the premiere of Pig Girl, a play by Colleen Murphy, that had its world premiere at the Theatre Network in November. Both the playwright and artistic director of the company, Bradley Moss, have received backlash for the play due to the title, representation of aboriginal women, and the fact that the playwright is caucasian. I think it’s important to note the feedback they received and how Murphy and Moss handled the question and answer session after a Friday night performance. Read the blog post here.
The Clyde Fitch Report: Is Your Theatre a Community or a Clique?
In this article from The Clyde Fitch Report, writer Laura Axelrod describes the differences between a theatre that functions as a community and a theatre that functions as a clique. She gives a checklist to see which category your theatre falls under. Read the article here.