How Dancers Can Keep Up with the Evolution of Broadway Choreography
In part three of this series, Chita Rivera, Andy Blankenbuehler, Wayne Cilento and more explore the training of today’s dancers. RUTHIE FIERBERG August 27, 2023 The original Broadway company of “Moulin Rouge!” (Credit: Matthew Murphy) Though the use of choreography on Broadway has fluctuated and choreographic styles have transformed and expanded, there has also been an overall […]
Breaking Down the Ever-Changing Style of Choreography on Broadway
In the second of this three-part series, Tony Award-nominated performer Robyn Hurder, actor Clyde Alves, Tony-winning choreographer Casey Nicholaw and more weigh in on how the style of Broadway dance has changed. RUTHIE FIERBERG August 25, 2023 (L-R) The company of “Some Like It Hot” on Broadway and the company of “KPOP” on Broadway (Credit: […]
How Does Broadway Choreography Today Match Up to the Heyday of Dance on the Main Stem?
In the first of this three-part series, director-choreographers Andy Blankenbuehler and Wayne Cilento discuss how dance has evolved on Broadway in recent decades and the state of choreography today. RUTHIE FIERBERG August 24, 2023 (L-R) The original 1978 company of Broadway’s “Dancin’” and the company of “Hamilton” on Broadway (Credit: Courtesy of DKC/O&M and Joan […]
Direconomics – A Three-Part Podcast Series
Directors at their core are creators, leaders, and storytellers, and often the stories they share with audiences bring great success, both artistically and financially. However, the path to financial independence as a director isn’t as clear as one might expect. How can artists, producers, and patrons work together to create a more sustainable and tangible […]
BIPOC Directors—It’s Our Moment to be Seen
Introducing The BIPOC Director Database: a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive census of America’s community of theatre directors of color. “We are reckoning with a life in the theatre that has for too long been the exclusive purview of a select few. Artists of color are no longer willing to accept a career that will mean primarily working […]
Katori Hall + Steve H. Broadnax III on the Power of Black Direction in Theater
BY NIKKOLE SALTER | SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 4:00 PM | LAST UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 9:17 AM In 2016, I was commissioned by NJPAC via Luna Stage to write a play about the indigenous experience in New Jersey. I wrote a play called “Indian Head,” examining the use of mascots in sports. While writing that […]
The School That Camille A. Brown Built
A student in Every Body Move in Jamaica, Queens. Camille A. Brown started the classes in 2015 to teach social dance around the city. Credit…Flo Ngala for The New York Times By Salamishah Tillet Camille A. Brown can’t remember the first time she danced the Electric Slide. She only remembers doing it. “It just was,” […]
In Challenging Times, Our Theatres Can Rise to the Challenge
BY KAREN AZENBERG “The theatre is the only institution in the world which has been dying for 4,000 years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.” ― John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War Those of us who chose theatre as a career did it because the idea of doing […]
The Wisdom of Theater Elders in COVID Time
By Carey Perloff – August 9, 2020 Despite the fact that the adjective most often appended to the COVID-19 crisis is “unprecedented,” the catastrophe it has presented is not the first existential blow to live theater, nor will it be the last. With that in mind, within the first few weeks of the pandemic lockdown, […]
Director Schele Williams on Broadway’s Race Problem
July 23, 2020 6:31pm PT By Jazz Tangcay Broadway actor and director Schele Williams has been having a lot of conversations recently about racism in the industry. The conversations vary from those wanting a knee-jerk, quick-fix reaction to a 100-year problem and those who genuinely want to understand and carefully approach change. Williams appeared in the original […]
Black Choreographer Raja Feather Kelly Uses Dance To Help Playwrights Tell Stories
July 15, 2020 by Alexandra Starr Raja Feather Kelly doesn’t favor high kicks and fancy twirls. Instead, the young Black choreographer uses movement based on the personalities of his dancers and actors to help playwrights tell their stories. Alexandra Starr reports.
ARTIST ACTIVIST VALERIE CURTIS-NEWTON HOLDS SACRED THE COMMUNION OF THEATER
by Beverly Aarons Theater is a communion, a space where difficult but important conversations take place between a diversity of people holding sometimes radically different viewpoints. It’s this paradigm that has driven Valerie Curtis-Newton to walk her journey as an artist-activist, theatre director, instructor, and co-founder and Artistic Director of the Hansberry Project. And it’s what […]
Ten Thousand Things’ Marcela Lorca: ‘Uncertainty is the name of the game’
By Pamela Espeland | 07/09/2020 When Marcela Lorca became artistic director of Ten Thousand Things Theater in 2018, succeeding founding director Michelle Hensley, she had been on staff at the Guthrie for more than 20 years. Born in Chile, trained as a dancer, she came to the United States in the mid-1990s and made a life in theater. A […]
Saheem Ali’s ‘Richard II’: What Does Authority Sound Like?
The director rounds out a stellar season with a radio rendering of a play salvaged from the Public Theater’s canceled Shakespeare in the Park season. BY JUAN MICHAEL PORTER II “I’m of the opinion that we, as artists, especially in America, are allowed to recreate things in our own way to speak to our times,” says Saheem […]
Women of Color in Artistic Leadership: Associate Artistic Directors
https://vimeo.com/434185313?fbclid=IwAR0L2yco_XQx1dlhXriuggfQPMlv3vtoD6c8Xvel3XOKWau3nmeOvem7jJU This conversation was recorded in late May 2020, prior to the murders of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks, and in the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others. We hold their families in our thoughts and wish for swift justice. We’ve attached links in this video […]
Ken-Matt Martin: ‘Rooting For Everybody Black’
Jonathan Norton and Ken-Matt Martin at Pyramid Theatre in 2017. (Photo by Eric Salmon, courtesy of Ken-Matt Martin) JUNE 22, 2020 The Southern-bred director spent his early years breaking down barriers, and he’s now intent on joining a movement for change and inclusivity in the theatre. BY SHAREE TURPIN After he won a Cloris Leachman Award […]
Directors Lab West Connects: Luis Alfaro and Laurie Woolery
An 8-day series of live-streamed conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers May 23–30, 2020 • 11 am pst / 2 pm est / 7 pm gmt — Curated to reflect a wide range of topics, DIRECTORS LAB WEST CONNECTS will reflect upon, explore, and inspire paths forward in the transformed and transforming […]
Directors Lab West Connects: Daniela Atiencia, Gianna Formicone and Makiko Shibuya
An 8-day series of live-streamed conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers May 23–30, 2020 • 11 am pst / 2 pm est / 7 pm gmt — Curated to reflect a wide range of topics, DIRECTORS LAB WEST CONNECTS will reflect upon, explore, and inspire paths forward in the transformed and transforming […]
Directors Lab West Connects: Laurel Lawson and Diana Wyenn
An 8-day series of live-streamed conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers May 23–30, 2020 • 11 am pst / 2 pm est / 7 pm gmt — Curated to reflect a wide range of topics, DIRECTORS LAB WEST CONNECTS will reflect upon, explore, and inspire paths forward in the transformed and transforming […]
Directors Lab West Connects: Anne Bogart and Jessica Hanna
An 8-day series of live-streamed conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers May 23–30, 2020 • 11 am pst / 2 pm est / 7 pm gmt — Curated to reflect a wide range of topics, DIRECTORS LAB WEST CONNECTS will reflect upon, explore, and inspire paths forward in the transformed and transforming […]
Directors Lab West Connects: Anne Cattaneo and Sheldon Epps
An 8-day series of live-streamed conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers May 23–30, 2020 • 11 am pst / 2 pm est / 7 pm gmt — Curated to reflect a wide range of topics, DIRECTORS LAB WEST CONNECTS will reflect upon, explore, and inspire paths forward in the transformed and transforming […]
Three on the Aisle: Tamilla Woodard on Doing the Work
BY AMERICAN THEATRE EDITORS Twice a month, Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal; Elisabeth Vincentelli, contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker; and Peter Marks of the Washington Post get together to talk about what’s going on in the American theatre. Tamilla Woodard. (Photo by Brigitte Jouxtel) Today we talk to Tamilla Woodard, the co-artistic director of Working Theater and […]
BWW Exclusive: The National Black Theatre Team Makes Statement With A SEAT AT OUR TABLE
What’s past is prologue. The United States has never not been on fire for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Never. Not one day. There has always been a foot, a knee, a noose on our necks for every single generation before ours. Without rest, without remorse. The fire has been full blaze. We use […]
Artists First? Charting a Future for the American Theater
By Carey Perloff June 10, 2020 Carey Perloff, Artistic Director Emerita of American Conservatory Theater. Photo: Kevin Berne. The word “essential” was one of the first to enter the lexicon of COVID-19. With great speed, we identified those whose labor was deemed “essential” to the economy and to our well-being: healthcare workers, garbage collectors, grocery store […]
‘Find Joy in the Destruction of the Lie’
BY JAMIL JUDE, KENNY LEON’S TRUE COLORS THEATRE COMPANY, MONIQUE HOLT, NIKKOLE SALTER What We Are Fighting For It’s crazy to me that I have an opportunity to address you all today. When I participated in my first “real” play, 15 years ago, I had no idea TCG, let alone an entity called “the American theatre,” existed. I was […]
Four Black Artists on How Racism Corrodes the Theater World
Clockwise from top left: the playwright Lydia R. Diamond; the actor Jelani Alladin; the director Kenny Leon; and the Penumbra Theater artistic director Sarah Bellamy.Credit…Clockwise from top left: Lawrence Agyei for The New York Times; Idris Solomon for The New York Times; Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times; Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune, via Getty Images […]
BWW Exclusive: Tome’ Cousin Speaks Up About the Lack of Diversity in Theatre
by Tome’ Cousin Jun. 4, 2020 As BroadwayWorld previously reported, our team is committed to to being a substantial part of a collective industry-wide effort to help address racism and white supremacy in the theatre in as many ways as possible; including a number of specific steps […]
SEGAL TALKS: Anne Bogart (New York, USA)
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents SEGAL TALKS: Anne Bogart Anne Bogart is one of the three Co-Artistic Directors of the SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a Professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program. Works with SITI include Falling & Loving; […]
Choreographer Warren Adams Challenges Broadway to Confront Racism
BLACK LIVES MATTER BY RYAN MCPHEE JUN 02, 2020 “We are not looking for empathy. We are not victims. We are only asking for humanity and equality.” Warren Adams As Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S. and beyond demand an end to police brutality and justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black […]
Aida Director and Theatrical Leader Schele Williams Speaks Out Against Racism On Broadway
BLACK LIVES MATTER BY RUTHIE FIERBERG JUN 02, 2020 The Broadway actor raises her voice to call on the theatre industry to stop racism, offer solutions, raise up Black voices, and more. Schele Williams Marc J. Franklin Broadway actor and director Schele Williams spoke out against racism in the Broadway community and the industry at large […]
How an ‘Urban Rez’ Grew Into a ‘Native Nation’
A performance of “Native Nation” in Phoenix. (Photo courtesy of ASU Gammage) ON THE SCENE MAY 21, 2020 0 COMMENTS How an ‘Urban Rez’ Grew Into a ‘Native Nation’ Larissa FastHorse’s Cornerstone piece about L.A. County’s Native peoples wasn’t just adapted for Arizona—it was rebuilt from the ground up. BY JAMES E. GARCIA Sometimes you write one […]
25 top theater minds dream the future: What will the post-pandemic stage look like?
(published by the Los Angeles Times) 25 top theater minds dream the future: What will the post-pandemic stage look like? How might theater be different after COVID-19? Artists offer a wish list for economic, aesthetic, even architectural change. (Steven Banks / Los Angeles Times/Getty ) By CHARLES MCNULTYTHEATER CRITIC MAY 19, 2020 11:21 AM No one […]
SEGAL TALKS: Kelly Copper & Pavol Liska (Nature Theatre of Oklahoma) + Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar (Big Dance Theatre)
SEGAL TALKS: Kelly Copper & Pavol Liska (Nature Theatre of Oklahoma) + Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar (Big Dance Theatre) (NYC, USA) Daily Live Online Conversations with US and Global Theatre Artists Produced With MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER Tuesday 14 April 2020 [youtube url=”https://youtu.be/lEMEGta5jQY” width=”500″ height=”200″ full=”no” ] The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL […]
SEGAL TALKS: Oskar Eustis and Tony Torn
SEGAL TALKS: Oskar Eustis and Tony Torn An update on the situation for theatre artists in New York City Produced With MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER Friday 1 May 2020 [youtube url=”https://youtu.be/iK5JUL-2jXc” width=”500″ height=”200″ full=”no” ] The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented SEGAL TALKS: Oskar Eustis and Tony Torn (USA) live-streaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound […]
Webinar Recap: Engaging with Audiences During Closure and Beyond
(posted on https://www.advisoryboardarts.com/april-7-engaging-audiences-during-closure-and-beyond) [youtube url=”https://youtu.be/chllOlOs5Bs” width=”500″ height=”200″ full=”no” ] On April 7th, the Advisory Board for the Arts hosted a webinar to highlight innovative ways arts organizations have been engaging their audiences since having to close their doors. Our research shows that arts organizations have found a range of creative ways to serve audiences […]
‘I Made What I Could With What I Had’
(Published in American Theatre Magazine: DISPATCHES FROM QUARANTINE) The 24 Hour Plays, a theatremaking model founded on rapid creation and collaboration, is doubling down on a core strength: the relationship between writers and actors. BY MARK ARMSTRONG Marshall W. Mason was my teacher. By the time I studied with him, he had scaled the highest heights of […]
‘I Can’t Imagine Not Having Live Theater’: Local Theaters Chart Plans for Survival Amid COVID-19
(Produced by PRX and WNYC) COVID-19 has forced performing arts theaters across the country to halt productions and close their doors. And the communities that depend on these theaters have, at least temporarily, lost essential spaces to come together and interact with one another. Most theaters don’t know when they’ll be able to reopen to audiences. Many […]
Guthrie Theater: A Message From Artistic Director Joseph Haj
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Has Anyone Asked Artists What They Need?
Courtesy Kelly (published in Dance Magazine) Raja Feather Kelly May 11, 2020 It’s Monday, May 4, 2020 at 6:20 pm and I start a text chain with 10 artists I find in my phone. I’m at home, I am bored, and I am in this sort of limbo with myself. Dusty Springfield has been on […]