Modern Commedia Workshop & Performance

The Internationalists is proud to welcome Teatro Punto (Carlos Garcia Estevez and Katrien van Beurden) to New York to host a Modern Commedia dell’ Arte workshop and performance on August 5^th and 6^th, 2009.

Contemporary Commedia Workshop

Dates: August 5^th, 2009 from 3:30-9:30pm; August 6^th, 2009 from 3:30-6:30pm

Fee: $150 (includes the ‘Solo dell’Arte’ performance on August 6^th at 8pm)

Experience Level: Appropriate for all levels

Location: LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, 31-10 Thompson Ave, LIC (7,E,V,R,G trains nearby)

Tickets for the workshop may be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/71880 or 1-800-838-3006.

Teatro Punto makes theater where the actor is the author of the story. As the actor on stage is stripped of supports such as extended settings and a fixed script, he can become the author of a tragicomic show. He does this through movement, text, techniques and imagination. Carlos and Katrien’s main source of inspiration is Commedia dell'Arte. Employing their training, imagination, intellect and a great deal of hard work and experimentation they have taken Commedia to new heights. Their storytelling takes the masks into new territory. They have discovered ways to make the life within each mask not only amuse and engage the audience, but take them to the dark side. A theater form full of acting possibilities; it is precise and vulnerable, yet above all else it is alive. Previous U.S. workshops have been given at: Brown University, NYU, Wagner College, Sarah Lawrence, UMass, Trinity College, Tufts, and Williams & Mary.

The Workshop consists of:

• Movement analysis
• Physical transformation/metamorphoses
• From Tragedy to Comedy
• Musicality and timing
• Mask and archetypical characters
• Improvisation and scene composition - Canovaccio
• Study of interaction between actor and audience

‘Solo dell’Arte’ Performance

Date: August 6^th, 2009 at 8:00pm

Admission: $15

‘Solo dell’Arte’ is an introduction to the audience of one of the most ancient types of theatre, Commedia dell’Arte, and the presence of this Art into our days. In this show/conference there is only an empty space, masks, an actor without costumes and the audience. Carlos Garcia Estevez will perform a collection of stories under the theme of love (tragic love, infidel love, casual love). He will be aided by his own techniques, movements, gestures, texts, imagination and the spirit of performing for and with an audience. During the performance, the actor will present the historical and contemporary context of this type of theatre and he will explain to the audience some of the mechanisms of how this theatre is made (the metamorphosis of the actor, the use of the mask and the grommellot).

For more information, visit www.theinternationalists.org/commedia or email info@theinternationalists.org

International Physical Theatre Lab in Austria

International Physical Theatre Laboratory

October 25-31, 2009
Retzhof Castle, Leitring bei Leibnitz
Austria

PARTICIPANTS:
Actors of physical, dramatic, dance and musical theatres, dancers, choreographers, circus performers, directors.

PROGRAM:
The programme includes intensive training, lectures and discussions. The Lab is open to performers from different creative genres and techniques inspired by Physical Theatre as a bold, vibrant and multidimensional approach to contemporary theatre performance. Practical physical training is the core of the Lab programme. Participants will explore physicality as the key to form, style, atmosphere and emotional palette in contemporary performance. Practical sessions develop in the form of various exercises which progress from simple to compound. Gradually the group is proceeding to group improvisations and structures. Every day is setting advanced creative tasks, developing the preceding steps. Through the system of consecutive exercises the group is growing common language and trust, ability to collaborate and create together.

STRUCTURE OF THE DAY:
Each day begins with morning warm-up which combines breathing, movement and imagination. It will help participants to wake up and to prepare for the intensive practical process during the day.

Practical training. Part I. Training by method of improvisation.

Practical training. Part II. Structural Improvisation. From exercises to performance.

Practical training. Part III. Principles of Biomechanics. Meyerhold's etudes.

Lectures & Discussions: Performer's Physicality in the methods of Meyerhold, M.Chekhov and Stanislavsky.

VENUE:
The Lab will take place in Leitring bei Leibnitz, the beautiful town located within 30 min from Graz Thalerhof Airport, 2.5h from Vienna by car, 40 min from Graz by car, and 20 minutes from the Slovenian border. The public transportation to the venue is easy. The programme will take place in the historic castle of the 16th century. Accommodation and meals are organized for the group.

PROGRAM & REGISTRATION DETAILS:
http://www.iugte.com/projects/PhysicalTheatre.php

Havel to Direct his First Film

Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright and former president, will direct his first movie based on his most recent play, 'Leaving'. His first new script in twenty years, the story is about a politician's adjustment to normal life after leaving politics. Sources predict his wife, Dagmar, for whom he wrote the script, will play the female lead. The play premiered in May 2008 at the Archa Theatre in Prague.

Performing Revolution - Arts Under Communism

"A performing arts festival marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with key New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, November 2009–March 2010." Read about it here.

It's Me Down There

The Internationalists and IPAN present

An English Language Reading of

It’s me down there (En bas c’est moi)

Written by Sébastien Joanniez

Translated by Simon Pare

Performed by Doug Howe

Thursday 18 June 2009 at 18:30

Le Cavern Club (Downstairs)

21 rue Dauphine Paris 6éme

Métro : Odéon / Pont Neuf

Submissions for The Madness & Arts Festival

The Madness & Arts Festival (MAF) is an international and interdisciplinary festival on arts and madness, to be held in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2010. You are kindly invited to submit your projects for consideration of the programme committee. The MAF is specifically looking for music, theatre and dance performances for the festival venues and smaller events/performances/presentations for the festival camp.

What = MAF
The Madness & Arts Festival (MAF) is a reoccurring international and interdisciplinary manifestation about art and madness, which will be held in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2010, after Toronto, Canada (2003) and Münster, Germany (2006). The festival focuses on the interaction between art and madness, through presentation of high quality art with an international appeal. MAF gives stage to different perspectives from people with and without a psychiatric background, artists, scientists and the public. With an ambitious and inspiring programme of nationally and internationally renowned artists and projects, MAF aims to bridge the gap between art and its traditional audience, and various aspects of psychiatry. MAF will be a compact, high quality festival with international appeal.

MAF will take place from September 24th until October 3rd, 2010. 

New Immigration Rules Threat to British Arts

Read this article about the new immigration rules in the UK that pose a tremendous threat to international touring arts in the country.  

"The visa controls are part of the new points-based system for immigration. The rules for touring artists, which came into force in November, include a requirement for each artist to show £800 of savings, and financial support and constant monitoring by a “sponsor” to make sure that they do not abscond during their visit. Artists must apply for the visa in person, supplying biometric data and a digital picture. That has proved difficult in Africa in particular, with artists being told to travel to countries where biometric equipment is available to obtain their visas."

Transmediale & Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2010

Deadline: July 31, 2009
Info & submission: www.transmediale.de/en/call2010-main
Transmediale and CTM (club transmediale) are inviting submissions to the "Transmediale Award Competition 2010" and the "Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2010". Invited are art works, projects and positions that respond to the challenges of our rapidly changing digital, technological and networkred cultures. The "transmediale Award" seeks innovative, experimental and visionary works across a wide scope of form, process and practice that embrace, question and enrich our understanding and relationship to our immersed media and technologically driven society. Entries that exemplify new and critical forms of digital expression and interaction are encouraged, as are works from countries and regions in which digital art and culture are emergent.

Cabaret Without Borders - London

London, UK 
"Cabaret Without Borders" - Talks and Performances for Free Movement
Date: June 3, 2009 
Location: Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
Info: www.manifestoclub.com
The Manifesto Club, Artsadmin and A Foundation present: "Cabaret Without Borders" - talks and performances against the Home Office’s new controls on visiting artists and academics to the UK. This is part of the Manifesto Club's summer events series, Freedom Summer. This will be a convivial evening of satirical artistic interventions, passionate political rhetoric and personal testimonies at the East London gallery, Rochelle School, celebrating free movement for all and opposition to the Home Office's new Visa controls for visiting artists and academics. 
Participating artists: Harold Offeh, Susannah Hewlett, Mark McGowan, Cyril Lepetit, chanson diva Barb Jungr, author Maureen Duffy, poet and performance artist Anthony Howell, theatre director Tim Supple, activists/free thinkers Josie Appleton and Christian Michel and many more. Including testimonials and videos from invited artists who have felt the brunt of these regulations or were refused visas: Dmitri Vilensky (Russia), Poshya Kakil (Kurdistan-Iraq), Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)

Untitled (sans titre)

Check out this new network 'Untitled (sans titre)'.  

From their website, "Untitled (sans titre) is an association that aims to promote art and artists.  Twice a year, in Spring and Autumn, Untitled (sans titre) will organise stimulating meetings in some of Brussels most beautiful private residences, between artists and high level personalities in the worlds of politics, education and thought, business and science to discuss contemporary issues. Through their work and approaches, artists will provoke debate and “lateral thinking” on issues such as environment and sustainability, economic and social progress, mobility, education, intercultural dialogue.  Untitled (sans titre) is about mingling and networking at the highest level, bringing artistic creativity to influence thinking processes; it aims to provide the intellectual nourishment that we all need in order to face our daily decision-making with a depth of understanding."

Benigni's Dante on US Tour

Oscar winning actor and Italian comedian Roberto Benigni will be coming to America with his one-man monologue based on Dante's 'Inferno'.   Stopping in San Francisco and New York, 'TuttoDante' is Benigni's contemporary take on the classic text, mixed with off-the-cuff political jokes.  He has been performing the show in Italy for the last three years to over a million people.  Though known primarily as a clown, Benigni showcased his intellectual side.  In each performance he recites a canto in Italian of the 'Inferno' from memory and provides detailed explanations of the history and poetry in English.  Benigni still sees himself as more of a entertainer than scholar, and manages to slip in a bucket load of jokes about his nemesis, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, sending him to the deepest of Dante's depths.  As Benigni says, “Only comedians can talk about death, life, God and Virgin Mary.  If was a tragic actor, I couldn’t allow myself. But with this accent I can do it. I can talk with death in person because I am a clown. Yes. And I am proud to be a clown — very much.”

IPAN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP EXCHANGE 2009

20 hr IPAN Weekend Exchange: 2, 3 May - 10:00-21:00

The IPAN Weekend Workshop is a 20 hour Intensive Theatre Program. Ten Workshop leaders will be gathered from around the globe to exchange specialized techniques in the form of 2 hour workshops. This Event will be open to a limited number of participants interested in taking these workshops & sharing in an Intercultural Theatre Exchange. 

Sat 2 May 

1 hr IPAN Introduction: Sama Ky Balson - 10:00- 11:00 

An introduction to the aims of the International Performing Arts Network (IPAN). We will discuss the creation & continuation of Intercultural theatre and meet all international workshop guests.

1 hr Sohum Yoga Warm Up: Michelle Timmins - 11:00-12:00

The first workshop will be a yoga warm up. We will enter simple yogic postures to connect us with breath and movement, to ground ourselves and arrive in a space of growth and openness. http://www.sohum-yoga.com

2 hr i.Q-Quantum Theatre: Ira Seidenstein - 12:00-14:00 

i.Q - Quantum Theatre applies a specific set of techniques based on a unique blend of Eastern & Western theatre practices, enabling the actor to clarify universal principles of acting regardless of previous training. http://www.iraseidenstein.com/

2 hr Psychophysical Training: Sajeev Purushothama - 14:30-16:30  

Psychophysical Image training is a combination of theatre actor training systems drawn from Kalarippayatt, Kathakali, Kootiyattam, Noh theatre and meditational practices.This workshop introduces physical exercises invoking awareness that produce a qualitative state of readiness.

2 hr Rhythm/ Voice: Johannes Steiner - 16:30-18:30 

We will learn to control our breath and resonance, find correct body posture while singing and speaking and play with rhythm patterns based on body percussion.

2 hr Comedia Del Arte/ Mask: Carlos Garcia - 19:00- 21:00 

Take mask play to new heights by exploring movement, metamorphoses and timing. By bringing life to each mask, we will discover the mask’s archetypal characters through improvisation and the interaction between actor and audience. http://www.solodellarte.blogspot.com http://www.teatropunto.net  

Sun 3 May

2 hr Extended Voice: Harlan Chambers - 10:00-12:00 

Explore the heights and the depths of your voice during this Roy Hart Voice Workshop. Search for the delicate balance between solid technique and imagination by grounding our breath and opening our bodies.

2 hr Improvisation: Caspar Schjelbred - 12:00-14:00 

In improvisation we plunge into the unknown and create drama from seemingly nothing . Explore how to create meaningful change on stage by drawing on character archetypes that we encounter on the Hero's journey of classic mythology. hhtp://www.improacademy.com

2 hr The Present Moment: Doug Howe - 14:30-16:30 

Through a series of physical and psychological exercises, this workshop will explore ways to become more present and ‘sense’itive to the moment. Combining various training methods from Grotowski to Bogart, participants will discover how to release expectation and embrace the present moment. http://www.theinternationalists.org

2 hr Red Nose Clown: John Beale - 16:30-18:30 

This workshop begins with exercises and games to wake up our child-like play pleasure. Then, graduate to Red Nose - the smallest mask in the world. The purpose of the nose is not to hide you but to reveal you.  http://www.rednoseclown.net

2 hr Bouffon: Eric Davis - 19:00-21:00 

In the world of Bouffon, the audience is the joke. Bouffons rejoice in making a parody of the audience’s values and flaws. Explore connecting with the audience, create complex physical characters, play upon contrasts of theme & rhythm, and be present & captivating. http://www.redbastard.com

THEATRE WORKSHOPS: PROGRAM WEEK 2- 10 MAY 

The Workshop program offers you a list of possibilities. Take individual workshops and select your theatre program “A la Carte” or the “Theatre Menu” options. See above for workshop descriptions.  

THEATRE A LA CARTE 

20 hr IPAN International Workshop Exchange 2, 3 May- 10:00-21:00 - 200€

03 hr Extended Voice: Harlan Chambers - 5 May- 10:00-13:00 - 50€

 

03 hr Rhythm/ Voice: Johannes Steiner - 5 May - 14:00-17:00 - 50€

 

03 hr Red Nose Clown: John Beale - 8 May - 10:00-13:00 - 50€ 

06 hr Commedia/ Mask: Carlos Garcia - 4 May - 10:00- 17:00 - 100€

15 hr Quantum: Ira Seidenstein - 4 May - 17:00-20:00 & 5, 6, 7, 8 May- 18:00- 21:00 - 250€

15 hr Bouffon: Eric Davis - 8 May-14:00-17:00 & 9,10 May -10:00-17:00 - 250€

*Please Note: Lunch breaks and pauses during longer workshops are included in time schedules.

THEATRE MENU OPTIONS - PROGRAM WEEK 2- 10 MAY 

Select from Theatre Menu options. Places are limited for these workshops.

MENU 1 - 65 hr PROGRAM - FULL THEATRE INTENSIVE: 650€ (300 € Savings)

Have it all! Book yourself in for all Theatre Workshops: 2-10 May.

1 A: 1 x 20 hr IPAN Weekend Workshops + 2 x 15 hr Workshops + 1 x 6 hr Workshop + 3 x 3 hr Workshops

MENU 2 - 45 hr PROGRAM - WORKSHOP WEEK: 450€ (300€ Savings) 

All the workshops, (excluding the IPAN weekend) 4-10 May.

2A: 2 x 15 hr Workshops + 1 x 6 hr Workshop + 3 x 3 hr Workshops

MENU 3 - 35 hr PROGRAM - IPAN WEEKEND + WORKSHOP(S): 350€ (100€ Savings)

IPAN Weekend Workshop 2,3 May + your choice of 15 hrs of Workshops May 4-10  

3A: IPAN Weekend Workshop + 1 x 15 hr Workshop

3B: IPAN Weekend Workshop + 1 x 6 hr Workshop + 3 x 3 hr Workshops

MENU 4 - 30 hr PROGRAM - WORKSHOP WEEK MIX: 300€ (200€ Savings)

Your choice of 30 hrs of Theatre Workshops. During week 4-10 May.  

4A: 2 x 15 hr Workshops

4B: 1 x 15 hr Workshop + 1 x 6 hr Workshop + 3 x 3 hr Workshops

INFORMATION

VENUE : SUDDEN THEATRE-14 Bis, Rue Sainte Isaure- Paris, 75018, France http://www.suddentheatre.fr/ 

NEAREST METRO: Jules Joffirin ( Line 12) View Map

IPAN CONTACT DETAILS:  

Host: International Performing Arts Network

Contact Name: Sama Ky Balson 

Phone: +33 (0)6 86 24 75 01 

Email: i.p.a.n@live.com

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION: 

Please send attached Registration Form completed with your contact details & workshop selection to email: i.p.a.n@live.com

Once we have received your registration form, you will be sent Workshop Payment Details. Your place in the Workshop Program will be confirmed once full payment has been received.

Please remember to record your Bank Transfer or Cheque Receipt number as proof of payment.

PAYMENT METHODS: Payments can be made by French cheque or by Bank Transfer.

*Please Note: International Bank Transfers carry an extra 20€ bank charge to be paid by participant. We look forward to welcoming you to the IPAN International Theatre Workshops 2009.

Billington Takes On Theatre Auteur-ism

Michael Billington of 'The Guardian' warns against theatre auteurs.

From cinema comes the idea of the auteur: the dominant directorial figure whose individual stamp is on every frame of a piece of film. But although the religious cult of the auteur has been widely attacked – not least by Gore Vidal in a brilliant essay called Who Wrote the Movies? – it is now in danger of spreading to theatre. Certain creative figures, whose endeavours I frequently admire, are in danger of acquiring auteur status. What that means, in effect, is that their individual style and idiosyncratic signature becomes more important than the work itself.

In Britain, the key examples would be Katie Mitchell, Emma Rice of Kneehigh and Simon McBurney of Complicite. Internationally, Robert Wilson also fits the title. And let me say at once that I have often been astounded and impressed by their work. Mitchell did the best production of Ibsen's Ghosts I've ever seen. Rice's famous version of Coward's Brief Encounter shifted the interest away from the tight-lipped lovers to the working-class subplot. And McBurney is a brilliant innovator as proved by Complicite's Mnemonic that explored the nature of memory.

What worries me is the awed reverence of their followers and the tendency of a highly personal style to harden into a rigid mannerism. Katie Mitchell, as anyone who saw Waves, Attempts On Her Life or her recent Dostoyevsky adaptation, ...Some Trace of Her, at the National will know, is fascinated by the interaction between film and live performance: an avenue she'll be exploring again this week in After Dido at the Young Vic. It is right that theatre should acknowledge the existence of cinema. What few people seem to be asking is whether Mitchell's curiosity is turning into an obsession and whether it illuminates the work in question. Rice has also forged a distinct identity by taking musical or movie classics – everything from Tristan and Isolde and Don Juan to A Matter of Life and Death – and jovially deconstructing them. Sometimes it works: sometimes it doesn't. But how much longer, I wonder, can Rice go on feeding off the classical canon?

The danger of the auteur theory is twofold. It creates idols who, to their acolytes, can do no wrong. In cinema this reached the point of absurdity when, as Kenneth Tynan once pointed out, a trivial escapade like Man's Favourite Sport? was treated as a masterpiece simply because it was directed by Howard Hawks. I see the same trend developing in theatre. The other danger is that the interpreter becomes bigger than the thing interpreted. Or, to put it more bluntly, that the director takes precedence over the writer. And, if you want an example of where that can lead, you only have to look at the sterility of post-war German theatre which is dominated by star directors and starved of great dramatists.

All I suggest is that we proceed with caution. In cinema the elevation of the director to cult-status, and the consequent downgrading of the writer, has led, most obviously in Hollywood, to a growing sense of artistic bankruptcy. Theatre, in Britain at least, is more level-headed and still places the dramatist at the heart of the creative process. I just hope that continues and that the director is seen as a necessary interpreter rather than as an icon to be devoutly worshipped.

Year of Grotowski: Lab of Creative Research

Year of Grotowski: Meetings with Remarkable Women

Laboratory of Creative Research

July 7-August 5, 2009 - Grotowski Institute, Poland

Application Deadline: May 15, 2009

UNESCO has designated 2009 as 'A Year of Grotowski' and this month-long intensive training opportunity features five advanced work sessions led by women from different cultures and generations who share a direct connection with Jerzy Grotowski.  The work sessions will take place in Wroclaw and in Brzezinka.  The total cost is 1250 Euros, which includes all work sessions and events.  To apply, email your CV and description of your experience here.

DasArts Master of Theatre Program

As part of the Amsterdam School of Arts (AHK), DasArts has transformed itself into an international Master of Theatre program.  They offer a unique training laboratory for professionals in the performing arts.  The curriculum consists of 4 semesters and defines it as a challenging environment that engages deeply with its students.  The deadline for applications is 17 April for the semester starting in September 2009.  All applications must be submitted in English here.  

Golden Mask 15

Check out John Freedman's article here in 'The Moscow Times' covering the 15th anniversary of Russia's Golden Mask festival.  

Russia's Theatrical Identity Crisis

Noah Birksted-Breen writes in 'The Guardian' about Russia's infighting over Gogol's national identity, and suggests instead of fighting over the who/what/where with the Ukraine, it should instead start promoting some of its virtually unknown classical theatre abroad, such as works by Platonov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Andreyev and Mayakovsky.  Read full commentary here.   

Boys Gone Wilde In Singapore

A current production of The Importance of Being Earnest is causing a bit of a stir in conservative Singapore.  The production has an all-male cast dressed as men, which has led the media regulator to demand an age advisory of '16 and above' on all publicity.  The director, Glen Goei, has said he recast the play to 'celebrate' Wilde, a man who 'dared to be true to himself and his nature' and 'remind people what he stood for'.  Read a full article about the controversy here.

Hamlet: the Musical

Will wonders new cease?  Shakespeare is sure to be rolling in his grave.  Broadway producers are now bringing a version of Hamlet: The Musical to the Great White Way, starring none other than Brad Pitt in the title role.  Other casting includes Robin Williams as Claudius, Goldie Hawn as Gertrude and Sarah Jessica Parker as Ophelia.  Michael Bay, director of Transformers, is set to helm the action packed spectacle, with Jerry Bruckheimer to produce.  

'Black Coffee' a Hit in Cairo

Murder, drowning and solitary death bring lots of laughs in the current production of Q'ahwa Sada playing in Cairo.  The play, which translates to Black Coffee, was supposed to close after 30 days in November, but instead has become a huge hit at the Artistic Creativity Center.  The play is a series of 12 vignettes satirizing the ills of contemporary Egyptian life.  Check out a full article about it here.   

From Paris to Brooklyn

In the current production of Yasmina Reza's Gods of Carnage running on Broadway, starring Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and James Gandolfini, translator Christopher Hampton not only had the task of rendering the text into English, he also had to relocate the setting. A discussion in the play about local parks has transferred from two Parisian parks, Montsouris and Aspirant Dunand, to two Brooklyn parks, Cobble Hill and Whitman. Read the full Times article here.

Culture without Borders

Facinating article in 'The Australian' by David Elliott, artistic director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, about the false division of culture. He writes, "The myth of cultural supremacy and separation is one of the great hoaxes of history, a discipline that until very recently was little more than propaganda, written by victors. The unsettling truth is that people, images and things have always moved vast distances across the world." Click here for the full article.

World Theatre Day 2009

More Money for Street Arts?

Check out this post by Lyn Gardner in 'The Guardian' about the joys of Street Art.  Click here.

Six New Shakespeare Works?

Dr John Casson, an independent researcher and psychotherapist, claims to have discovered Shakespeare's first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham. He also explores the plays Thomas of Woodstock and A Yorkshire Tragedy, and claims to prove that a 'lost play' called Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and fellow playwright John Fletcher. Casson publishes his findings in his new book, Enter Pursued by a Bear. Read more about it here.

Cairo's 'Radio Muezzin' Hits Berlin

Conceived by Swiss director, Stefan Kaegi, Radio Muezzin is a one-act docu-drama performed in Arabic with subtitles. The concept arose after a decision by Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, Egyptian minister of religious endowments in 2004. Zaqzouq announced that the noise disturbance caused by Cairo’s hundreds of muezzins leading the daily calls to prayer at different times and over fuzzy loudspeakers was becoming too much for citizens to bear. It was determined that the ministry would choose the 30 best muezzins to broadcast the call over a radio channel. Read the full article from the NYTimes here.

Das Kapital: The Musical

Just when you thought Broadway couldn't be beat for bad taste, the Chinese show up the Americans once again. The Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre intends to premiere Das Kapital: The Musical next year. The director, He Nian (best known for his martial-arts stage spoofs) promises to combine Broadway musicals and Las Vegas spectacle with his sing-song, dance marathon adaptation. Zhang Jun, an economics professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, has been enlisted to make sure the production is intellectually rigorous. Read more here.

Gov't Promises Abbey Theatre Will Be Completed

In honor of St. Patty's Day, here's a little news about the new Abbey Theatre project. Martin Cullen, the Irish arts minister, promised that, despite the terrible economy, completion of the new Abbey Theatre is a top government priority. The project, which received the official go-ahead back in 2006, has yet to be launched. Cullen was challenged in parliament last week about its lack of progress, and he promised plans would move ahead. Read more here.

Lincoln Center Festival International Line-Up

Lincoln Center Festival: Theatre
July 7 to 26, 2009

“Les Éphémères”; Le Théâtre du Soleil (Ariane Mnouchkine) - France
“Boris Godunov”; Chekhov International Theater Festival (Declan Donnellan) - USA
“Villeggiatura”; Piccolo Teatro di Milano and Teatri Uniti - Italy
“Life and Fate”; Maly Drama Theater - Russia
“Kalkwerk”; Narodowy Stary Teatr - Poland
“Ivanov”; Katona Jozsef Theater - Hungary
“Peasant Opera”; Bela Pinter and Company - Hungary

UK's 33rd Olivier Award Winners

Best Actress: Margaret Tyzack for The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse)
Best Actor: Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night (Donmar at Wyndham's)
Best Performance in a Supporting Role: Patrick Stewart for Hamlet (RSC at the Novello)
Best Company Performance: The Histories, directed by Michael Boyd (RSC at the Roundhouse
Best New Play: Black Watch by Gregory Burke (Barbican Theatre)
Best New Comedy: God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton (Gielgud)
Best Revival: The Histories, directed by Michael Boyd (RSC at the Roundhouse)
Best Entertainment: La Clique (Hippodrome)
Best New Musical: Jersey Boys --The Story Of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons, book by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe (Prince Edward)
Best Musical Revival: La Cage Aux Folles, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, book by Harvey Fierstein, based on the play La Cage Aux Folles by Jean Poiret (Playhouse Theatre)
Best Actress in a Musical: Elena Roger for Piaf (Donmar Warehouse, then Vaudeville)
Best Actor in a Musical: Douglas Hodge for La Cage Aux Folles (Playhouse)
Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Lesli Margherita for Zorro (Garrick)
Best Director: John Tiffany for Black Watch (Barbican Theatre)
Best Theatre Choreographer: Steven Hoggett for Black Watch (Barbican Theatre)
Best Lighting Design: The Chalk Garden designed by Paule Constable (Donmar Warehouse)
Best Set Design: August: Osage County designed by Todd Rosenthal (National's Lyttelton)
Best Costume Design: The Histories designed by Tom Piper and Emma Williams (RSC at Roundhouse)
Best Sound Design: Black Watch designed by Gareth Fry (Barbican Theatre)
Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre: The Royal Court Theatre's production of The Pride (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs)