Patrick Healy wrote in the New York Times about Adam Pascal will take over the role of radio D.J. in Broadway’s production of Memphis.  Pascal will succeed chad Kimball who had disclosed that he would depart Memphis this fall after a two-year run on Broadway to heal from nerve damage and other physical stress from performing.  

Read more about the production on New York Times .com

Link:http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/memphis-to-turn-the-radio-dial-with-adam-pascal-as-new-lead-d-j/?ref=roundabouttheatercompany

The German company Cirle of Eleven brought their show “Leo,” a solo show featuring a gravity-defying performance by Tobias Wegner, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year.  ”Leo” was one of more than 800 theater productions in the festival and it won the 2011 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh award.  ”Leo” will also receive a fully mounted production in New York next winter.

The play is a wordless narrative about a man trapped in a room where the laws of gravity are skewed, pulling him not toward the group, but in other directions instead.  

Romulus Linney, playwright, has been associated with the Signature Theater company since its first season in 1991.  Linney was the companies founding playwright-in-residnece.

The Signature Theater Company is now an Off Broadway group, which presents full seasons of work by a single playwright. The company plans on naming a theatre for Linney who passed away in January.  They will name a theater for him at the Signature Center building which is planned to open in February on West 42nd Street in Manhattan.  The theater will be named The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater.  

Daughter and actress Laura Linney says that naming the theater after her father would make him very happy.  She also said that every night there will be theater in a building named after her father, and that is how it should be.  

Many people involved in the company are very excited about the naming of the new theatre.  Linney meant a lot to the Signature Theater Company.  

I find this article very cool. It is awesome how someone could make such a big difference in theater that people want to name a theater after him when he died. He made a huge impact on this company and the company in return made a huge impact on him.  

article: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/signature-center-will-have-theater-named-for-romulus-linney/?ref=signaturetheatercompany 

I read this article in St. Petersburg times.  

Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg has new management.  The city owns the Mahaffey theatre, and Bill Edwards now runs it.  Edwards says that 63 days in his music promotion company has spent $2 million on renovations, which includes; a new carpet, new bars, a fresh coat of gold paint for the lobbies, 13 plasma TVs, a new website, a new ad campaign, upgraded VIP lounges and backstage velvet rope areas, a new scent and an upcoming lineup that includes singers Marc Anthony and Don Henley, and comedian Cedric the Entertainer.  

Edwards estimates the theatre attendance will climb in the first year to 250,000 which is an increase of 45 percent.  

Mayor Bill Foster says that working with Edwards is a lot of fun and very fast.  Florida Orchestra president and CEO, Michael Pastreich says that when their patrons enter the Mahaffey, it is a better experience for them now.  There is a crispness from the moment they walk in, that wasn’t there before. 

It is said that the differences from the old management and Edwards is night and day.  Edwards is doing things for the company that has never been done before, changes that are positively benefitting the Mahaffey. 

The city is very pleased and excited for the future of Mahaffey Theatre under Edwards management.  There has been more progress in the past 63 days than there has been in the past 4 years under the old management.

Edward says that he is doing this because this is what he loves to do and what he wants to do, not because of the money.

It seems like Bill Edwards new management was a good change for the Mahaffey Theatre.  A lot of change is happening quickly which in my opinion is a good thing.  This can and hopefully will result in a quick turn around in attendance and income to the theatre.  

Check out the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/new-mahaffey-theater-management-cheered-by-st-petersburg-city-council/1199863 

This article is about Next Act’s new Fifth Ward theater and the many questions and subscribers have about the theatre.  

Managing Director, charles Kakuk, says there is a lot of parking right next door to the new theater and the street parking is completely free.  The address of the new theater is at 255 S. Water in Milwaukee.  The manager says that their subscribers trust what they do on stage they are just curious about the new location.    

Next Act raised more that $1.1 million to build its new home.  They were about to construct a theater without impaired sight lines or obstructions because the building had an open nature because of the buildings former purpose.  The new space has 150 seats with the potential to go up to 175 some day which is bigger than their old theatre of 99 seats.  

Check out this article I read in the New York Times:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/parents-and-kids-say-they-appreciated-autism-friendly-lion-king-matinee/?scp=8&sq=theatre%20business&st=cse

The Autism Theater Initiative, a program of the Theater Development Funt, the nonprofit organization that runs the TKTS discount ticket booths in New York City, sponsored an autism-friendly performance of “The Lion King”.  The fund’s executive director, Victoria Bailey, says it was the first time a Broadway show has sponsored an event specifically for autistic children and their families. 

Eric Piepenburg writes, “the company of ‘The Lion King’ and a panel of autism experts collaborated on ways to slightly modify the show to make sure autistic children did not have negative reactions to loud or sudden sound or light cues.”

Some modifications that the company of “The Lion King” made to the show were lower volume in the opening number and all strobe lights and lighting that panned into the house were cut.  Bailey noticed that there were more than the usual number of people getting up during the show to go to the lobby, but the audience didn’t seem frazzled. 

There were small activity and quiet areas set up in the lobby for childen who needed a break from the show and volunteers from local autism organizations were on had to offer assistance.  

Ron Vodicka, the show’s production stage manager, said that the show was also changed for the actors and crew.  The modified show was rehearsed about a week before the performance.  

I found this story very interesting.  It seemed like they company received good and bad responses to the autism-friendly show.  They received a lot of praise for taking on this challenge and they were also given suggestions from audience members how to improve a future autism-friendly production.  It is very cool that this theatre company took on the initiative to make autistic children feel comfortable in a Broadway production.  It was a great challenge for the company to take on this challenge and they didn’t know how people would react, but they did it and they made a difference to this group of people.  I find it very interesting that theater companies take on these challenges and show that theater is more that just a performance it can be a life changing experience.  

The Short + Sweet theater festival comes to Mumbai for the first time, from October 2 to 9 at the National Center of Performing Arts and the Primetime Theater Company: An Experimental Theater. The festival kicked off in Australia and has been moving around the region. It celebrates theater that is brief but scintillating.

The show selection process begins a few months before the event. The team judges the entries, participating directors then make their choices from the shortlisted shows, for which actors audition for roles.

The Short + Sweet festival provides opportunity and exposure to fresh talent in a stripped-down setting.

The director of the festival says that the project is pure theater where the actor communicates with the audience with text and without sets and props.

According to Alex Broun, the man responsible for getting Short + Sweet into the subcontinent, the focus of the festival is on realistic or truthful performances and there is an astonishingly high level of acting, directing, and writing. He also say there is a lot of incredible talent in Mumbai.

I think it is very cool that this festival has been traveling all around the region and that it was very successful in Mumbai.  It sounds like a great opportunity for new, young talent and it is a very unique experience.

Here is the link to the New York Times article:

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/at-mumbai-theater-festival-concision-is-the-key/?scp=7&sq=theatre%20business&st=cse

Chris Kelly wrote in the New York Times about the rise in popularity and review of the Dallas Theatre Company.  Kelly says that the Alley in Houston was the top theatre in Texas for the past couple of decades. The Alley won a Regional Theatre Tony Award in 1996.  The Alley is still making the big bucks in theatre in Texas but the theatre this year has sustained a high profile disappointment.  Kelly writes that the Texas theatre buzz has traveled to the Dallas Theatre Company.  Kelly also says that people are whispering about the possibility of the Dallas Theatre Company winning a Regional Tony Award of it’s own.  

Kevin Moriarty, Dallas Theatre Company’s Artistic Director was hired in 2007 and charged with reinvigorating the company as it moved to its new home in the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.  Observers say that much of the success of the Dallas Theatre Company is attributed to Moriarty.  He transformed an organization previously regarded as accomplished but aloof.

I find this article very interesting because this theatre company went through a complete transformation because of one man.  Mark Lowry, the co-founder and editor of an online magazine TheaterJones, says that Moriarty spent his first year as Artistic Director going to all the other theaters, getting to know the local talent pool and meeting with a lot of the critics. The growth of this company was a huge success.

This is the Dallas Theatre Company’s mission statement:

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 90,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. DTC also presents at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC engages, entertains and inspires a diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living by consistently producing plays, educational programs and community initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

Link: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/us/28ttkelly.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=theatre%20business&st=cse 

I read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Renaissance Theaterworks, a all women’s theater company in Milwaukee.  For the first time ever Renaissance Theaterworks performed a show written by, staring, and directed by all men.  The show was “In Acting Shakespeare” Shakespeare being one of the most popular names in theater and a man.  

Suzan Fete, one of the five female theater artists who founded Renaissance Theaterworks, says that working with DeVita, writer and actor of “In Acting Shakespeare”, gives the company a chance to work with an artist is respects.  Fete says that the companies first goal is to create moving theater. Their mission statement states: “Renaissance Theaterworks creates moving theater that awakens our recognition of what it is to be human - from classics to world premiers - with attention to roles for women onstage and off.” All of the artistic leaders, business leaders and board directors at Renaissance are women.

Fete and other Renaissance women saw the opening night of “In Acting Shakespeare.” He writes in his play about the feeling that you’re not good enough, a feeling that many women know or women in the past knew all too well.  

Over the past 18 years the Renaissance have had many great accomplishments. Fete says that 95% of its plays have been directed by women; 65% were written by them. The company has also given breakthrough opportunities to more than 50 local female artists as directors, stage managers, designers, and actors.

I found this article very interesting.  So many people criticized Renaissance Theaterworks for producing a play just because it was written, directed, and acted by men.  I understand that this may have went against the mission of the company but it was still a meaningful peace of art that made people think.  They didn’t actually go against their mission by producing this play.  The mission states that positions for women on and offstage were important but it isn’t it’s number one priority and throughout the life of the company they have accomplished so much in regards to their mission.  

I really enjoyed this article because it confronted the grey areas on mission statements in theater companies.  It is very difficult to create a mission statement and Fete says that it her and the other women of the company a long time to perfect their mission.  

Anyways here is the link: http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/118262929.html 

so i wanted to post something so my blog didn’t look bare