The incomparable Elaine Stritch is doing Beckett’s Endgame in New York:
I always remember the story of the woman who understudied Lena Horne in some Broadway musical. And she was told she was going to go on that night because Lena had lost her voice. And the understudy said, “Oh, wonderful!” She said she just needed a certain kind of eye shadow she had to pick out herself. And she was going to go out to one of the drugstores on Eighth Avenue and she’d be right back. And she went to Philadelphia instead. Isn’t that a great story? And it’s true. I understand it perfectly. I love the fact that she went to Philadelphia. What a story. And that’s an example of Beckett’s unhappiness being the funniest thing in the world.
[via Gothamist]
Gene Sobczak, executive director of Denver’s Arvada Centre on their 30% drop in attendance last year (follow-up quote from artistic director Rod Lansberry):
“In our line of work, everything we do loses money,” Sobczak said. “It’s the nature of professional theater and nonprofits.” Or, as Lansberry puts it: “If theaters made money, they would be on every corner, like Starbucks.”
So the more theater you do, Sobczak said, “The more money you lose. Part of our expense equation is we’re losing more money by doing more.”
[Denver Post online]
Legendary quote from Australian producer Justin Macdonnell:
Who has not been told that they need to get more people with ‘business skills’ on their board, more people with financial, legal, marketing prowess to guide and restrain the wilful artist - as though it were the arts that regularly had the corporate crashes, bankruptcies and shady dealings?
No further comment required.
[via a comment at Theatreview by Zia Lopez]
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