Introductions
Hello, and welcome to my first post! For those of you who wonder “Where’s Lori Ann? Who is Rory? Did he resort to foul play to get this gig?” wonder no more. I’ll be posting the last week of every month to take some of the pressure off Lori Ann – but for three weeks of the month, she’ll be here, keeping you up to date on everything new in Shakespeare performance worldwide, as only she can. What differences can you expect from me? Well, I’m posting from Toronto, Canada, so expect a little bit of a regional bias. To help offset that bias please feel free to send me notices of upcoming openings, ongoing shows we’ve somehow missed, calls for auditions or interesting reviews. You can also expect a slightly less polished blogging style (I’m only posting one picture, because doing so was traumatic; I think I know what I am doing now. Maybe. Possibly.), as this is my first post ever on WordPress, so let’s just remember that mercy is “twice blessed.”
Opening
Ann Arbor can see a gender-bent production of Richard III in previews from April 24th (opening night May 2nd). For more information see www.performancenetwork.org. Starting April 25, Jagriti Theatre and the British Council will be putting on a series of events in Bangalore to mark Shakespeare’s birthday, including performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Madhav Sharma’s Bharat, Blighty and The Bard—Shakespeare for everyone, directed by Miranda Lapworth. I promised regional bias, and I promised dance. Crystal Pite’s The Tempest Replica for the Canadian Stage Company opens in Toronto at the Bluma Appel Theatre on May 7.
Continuing
It looks as though tickets are sold out for all remaining performances of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale, at the Royal Opera House in London – but the ballet will screen live in cinemas worldwide on April 28. This is good news whose curiosity has been piqued by very different reviews. Luke Jennings of the Observer was very much taken with the show, while the Economist was decidedly more sceptical. Judge for yourself!
Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Perdita and Vadim Muntagirov as Florizel in Act II of The Winter’s Tale, The Royal Ballet © ROH / Johan Persson 2014.
For video of Wheeldon discussing his work, click here. Director David Hudson and his zany crew continue to bring Drunk Shakespeare to discerning New Yorkers at Quinn’s Bar (356 W. 44th Street). I suspect the audience becomes less discerning as the night progresses. Anyone in West Virginia or southern Pennsylvania may wish to see Sarah Neville’s gender-bending conflation of the two parts of Henry IV, presented by the University of West Virginia. Through to Saturday, April 26th.
Auditions
The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater is seeking non-equity actors for their upcoming productions of Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Henry V. In Toronto, Shakespeare in the Ruff’s Young Ruffians summer program for high school students. Deadline is June 1, with more information here. That’s all for this week. This was my first post, so it might feel a little thin. You know how to remedy that for next month? Send us all your fabulous performance notices, tips, links to reviews, etc. We’d love to hear from you about anything performance-related. Be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and [insert verb] us on [insert title of social media Rory hasn’t heard of yet]. If you really like what you see, you could even consider making a donation.
