TreePress

'As theatre artists who put ourselves in other’s shoes daily, we are uniquely positioned to take on this challenge. Which is why we must lead the charge....'

Radical Empathy is the Theatre Artist’s New Job Tiffany Antone makes a case for why we have to reconsider how/why we engage audiences, and why it is now every artist’s job to be out on the frontlines, cultivating radical empathy and civil…

“There’s something about everyone being in the same room and having the same experience that is powerful and increasingly rare."
Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda believes theater has a healing effect in a divided country Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda tells Tom Brokaw that in a divided country, there is a place with a healing effect. Don't miss 'Tom Brokaw at NBC News: The First 50 Years' Sunday, January 29, at 9/8c on NBC.

The 2017 Bruntwood Prize is open! 130 days for playwrights to perfect their plays and enter the UK's biggest playwriting competition.

The 2017 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting The Bruntwood prize for playwriting, in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre

'Really good plays pull you into a space where your rational mind is transcended or destabilised’

Joe Hill-Gibbins: 'Theatre can be incredibly real – it’s dangerous' He brought s*x dolls to Measure for Measure and a food fight to The Changeling. As his Midsummer Night’s Dream looms at the Young Vic, the director discusses the dark truth to fairy stories

'Despite the growing number of opportunities for new plays, we struggle to establish, convey, and train others in the “best practices” of new play development. We hope these “Rules of Engagement” will help all of us foster healthier conversations about new plays and new play development'
Tira Palmquist

Rules of Engagement for New Play Development Tira Palmquist, Christy Montour-Larson, Heather Helinsky, and Jeni Mahoney share their insight and lessons learned on new play development.

'It seems that writers are so scared of the backlash of writing a small male-dependent female role (wife/prostitute/boring sister) that they are counteracting with extra strong female characters.'

Creating Complex Female Characters Playwright Catherine Weingarten writes about her fatigue with the Strong Female Character, and pushes playwrights to strive for real nuance.

'Artmakers and storytellers - write books, draw comics, paint paintings, do stand-up, code video games, make movies, become a YouTube sensation, craft poetry, animate short-films, make documentaries, design fashion, sing original songs, choreograph a number, create theatre!'

http://buff.ly/2jyG20B

Some quality (and delicious) insights here for all musical theatre fans! http://buff.ly/2iLenci

Which Broadway Musical Matches Your Food Preferences? Your pre-theatre meal can determine a lot, tbh.

TreePress updated their business hours.

'Diversifying talent pools isn’t just about equality, but about the quality of that organisation and the quality and creativity of the work it produces in every aspect of its operations, from participation to what happens onstage.'

Theatres must act now about gender inequality There’s no shortage of women working in the arts but the organisations taking part in Tonic Theatre’s Advance programme are scrutinising the obstacles facing them – with a focus on freelancers

To keep making theatre relevant and vital, do we have to keep making new theatre?

Where Are All the New Plays? Everywhere! Move over, NYC. From Oregon to Miami, theatres around the country are home to the nation’s most fertile new-play incubators.

Our theatre has never been as strong as it is today. Or…is something else true? Despite being in the 'most vital period in American playwriting history, is our theatre in a moment of peril?'

The State of the Play: A Critic Addresses the Theatre Nation There’s no shortage of exciting new writing for the stage. But are we in a Golden Age of playwriting?

“I think it has become more essential than it has ever been. You come in and you sit next to someone you have never met before, you sit next to a stranger and you share an experience. There is something fundamentally generous about that that I find tremendously moving,”

Simon Stephens: Theatre 'more essential than ever' since EU referendum | News | The Stage Theatre has become "more essential than ever" at bringing people together in the wake of the Brexit vote, playwright Simon Stephens has claimed. Speaking f

'With Black Lives Matter and galvanizing attention; N.F.L. football players stirring controversy by failing to stand for the national anthem, to protest endemic racism; and even Beyoncé taking fierce political stands in her new music, these playwrights are in sync with the national mood, using the tools of theater to bring us face to face with hard facts about the world we live in.'

Black Female Playwrights Want You to Face Facts. The Harsh Ones. Sarah Jones, Anna Deavere Smith and Lynn Nottage all have new works onstage this fall that grapple with the toughest issues in contemporary culture.

Do we want to acknowledge our responsibility as storytellers to harness the truth, even when it hurts?

As a storyteller, to ignore the implications, the beauty, and the difficulty of the cultural background to which a character or story belongs is an injustice to the play, the theatre community, and on some level, the world we live in.

http://howlround.com/learning-to-listen-political-correctness-and-the-question-of-socially-responsible-theatre

Learning to Listen: “Political Correctness” and the Question of Socially Responsible Theatre Playwright Zoe Kamil writes about casting a play of hers, and the difficult conversations that arose because she didn’t specify the race of certain characters.

'Historically, theater works written by men have dominated the theater landscape. The Bridge Initiative works to get more pieces by female playwrights developed, creating a bridge from initial writing to full stage production.'

The Bridge Initiative Gives Women Playwrights a Platform The Bridge Initiative creates opportunities for women playwrights. For its next event, Bridge is partnering with Southwest Shakespeare Company to present the first reading of New York playwright Liz…

Euripides Shakespeare & Ibsen take the first three spots on this list of 12 greatest political plays of all time. What would your list look like? Anything missing? http://buff.ly/2bA5Aqs

The 12 greatest political plays of all time JOHN McGrath's great 1973 political play, The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil is hitting the road again in its first professional tour…

'If you’re feeling depressed watching people on the news who’ve lost everything, imagine how those people feel.

From your position of relative happiness, you owe it to them and to yourself to write something. It doesn’t have to be uplifting, it doesn’t have to move mountains or reshape the political landscape, it just has to acknowledge the fact we’re all human. We’re in this together.'

Pursued By A Bear: “Theatre seems pointless when the world is falling apart” Pursued By A Bear is our weekly advice column with playwright Adam Taylor. He’ll tackle your playwriting questions – from practical issues to existential dilemmas – relying on no…

'Is this a sign that the industry is finally recognising people with disabilities for what they are? Not just a tick in the box on the diversity shopping list, or a subject matter but well-rounded human beings? Just … people?'

I'm a deaf actor. That shouldn't define me – or limit the roles I play For too long, theatre has seen disability as another box to tick. The acting industry should make the casting process fairer for disabled actors

'Theatre, at its best, is a reflection of the culture at hand: a tug-of-war between what the present wants and what stands in its way of becoming the future. As obstacle and solution, cellphones become a narrative gift to playwrights.'

Cellphones in the Theatre May Offer More Than Just Unforgivable Distraction Billy McEntee discusses the use of cellphones in recent Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Would you produce, direct and act in a play you had written?

Should playwrights produce, direct or act in their own work? I get asked this a lot by playwrights at the moment, particularly because I’ve been known to do various combinations of all three. Indeed, in my current pr

What does theater mean if its audience is mostly white, older, wealthy and will be dead in a decade or two? How do theaters get more young people, and more people of color, through their doors? How can they lower ticket prices and become more accessible without going broke?

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/kent-theater-production-draws-a-new-audience/?utm_content=buffer77b56&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Theater crowds in Kent? Young group draws audiences with new plays, low-cost tickets While theaters around the country are scrambling to get new audiences through their doors, especially young people of color, one 25-year-old director has figured out how: staging new, professionally produced plays in a vacant storefront in Kent.

Struggling with playwriting rejection?

Some reflections and revelations into how the world's most frequently rejected playwright survives....

http://www.pdc1.org/viewthisarticle.php?article=8

How the World’s Most Frequently Rejected Playwright Survives Several years ago, I made a profound discovery that has enabled me to weather the storm of criticism, rejection and inevitable, transient depression that is the lot of so many playwrights. What I discovered was how to make rejection work for me. Since playwrights spend far more time dealing with rej...

Euripides, Shakespeare & Ibsen take the top three spots in this list of 12 greatest political plays of all time.

Do you agree? What would your list look like?
http://buff.ly/2bRXMOm

The 12 greatest political plays of all time JOHN McGrath's great 1973 political play, The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil is hitting the road again in its first professional tour…

Despite progress since Shakespeare and Miller, there's still a long way to go for Female playwrights (and female characters!) on our stages. Stats from the Playwrights Guild of Canada shows that 50% of playwrights are women but only about a quarter of the plays produced in Canada are written by women.

What more should we be doing?

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/2016/08/18/three-women-playwrights-talk-drama-at-stratford-festival-forum

Women writers on the rise It took a few hundred years, but plays by women are being produced alongside the likes of William Shakespeare and Arthur Miller.

WOW. Here is one awesome digitisation project. “9,200 books, 290 periodical titles, more than 2,000 audio-visual media, and 3,500 linear feet of manuscript”

Archiving theater for youth: ASU's Katherine Krzys receives national honors Katherine Krzys — an archivist at the Archives & Special Collections at ASU Libraries — received the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America’s Corey Medallion and the Campton Bell Lifetime…

Huge NYC welcome to MTF Musicals, what an exciting time to be joining Playwrights Horizons -- great support for new musical dev!

Musical Theatre Factory Takes Up Residency at Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons today announced Musical Theatre Factory as the second theater company to join its Resident Company Program.

Joe Salvatore is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, director and Professor at New York University. What struck us immediately when we first met him was his infectious energy and generosity. He’s a natural collaborator and the sort of artist who encourages and exalts the work and talents of others. We're looking forward to working with him more this summer! Welcome to Joe!

https://www.treepress.org/blog/joe-salvatore/

on tour! Visiting a city near you 🎉🇺🇸✈️🍎 We're having a blast, meeting loads of playwrights, directors and interesting people. Today, we went to a two hour improv class and there are a few more surprises planned for the team over the next few days. But for now, we're going grab a Gin and Tonic. If you're around, we'd love to see you! ||

11 Shakespeare Tragedies Mapped Out with Network Visualizations Every story has its architecture, its joints and crossbeams, ornaments and deep structure. The boundaries and scope of a story, its built environment, can determine the kind of story it is, tragedy, comedy, or otherwise.

So so good! A very happy birthday Mr Shakespeare!

http://goodticklebrain.com/home/2016/4/18/which-shakespeare-play-should-i-see-an-illustrated-flowchart

Which Shakespeare Play Should I See? An Illustrated Flowchart This coming Saturday is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death! Not sure what Shakespeare play you should see or read to commemorate the occasion? No worries! I've put together a little flowchart to help you make up your mind. HAPPY SHAKESPEARE-ING, EVERYONE! Good Tickle Brain at the Folger L…

A gift for all Shakespeare lovers to celebrate 400 years of his life and work. A hand-illustrated poster and resource packs, full of drama activities and scripts. What a day!

Download here: https://www.theatrelove.com/

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2016/04/19/think-life-crap-this-kid-played-the-role-of-grass-in-his-school-play/

Think your life is crap? This kid played the role of "grass" in his school play Sometimes we all feel that our life isn't as great as it should be, but just remember this kid had the role of "grass boy" in his school's spring parade.