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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 12, 2024 19:22:55 GMT
I hope that any other venues, who have booked this particular person, are urgently reviewing whether is is appropriate to allow him to perform again
Hate speech isn't part of comedy. You can't excuse away this sort of behaviour.
Soho Theatre could have done nothing to prevent this. But other venues can decide whether they want to platform such a person
But it is worrying how easily antisemitic behaviour is just accepted.
Rochdale by election Apprentice candidate This
Three examples from the past few days alone.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 8, 2024 11:19:03 GMT
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 8, 2024 11:10:59 GMT
Spanish person here, the song is intended as empowering and it has a feminist message. It is ridiculing the fact that women get called "zorras" (b*tches) for being too independent, sexually active, assertive and/or successful. It is a reclamation of the word. Clearly, the author of the article couldn't read between the lines, but if one reads the lyrics of the song the message it's pretty straightforward. There is no controversy here, the song is becoming a feminist anthem and a hit in Spain, it's only controversial for people who don't understand the song. Spanish people don't get to vote for the song. So the lyrics need to appeal to voters round Europe. Reading them in translation is how people will encounter the words and that comes over as potentially offensive. If you have to explain your song, it has failed.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 7, 2024 23:55:50 GMT
Given issues around misogyny in Spain over recent years, you would have thought they might be a little more sensitive.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 6, 2024 11:15:29 GMT
Awful image. 3 mins on Photoshop max!
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 6, 2024 11:08:01 GMT
Are there no other employable directors out there?
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 4, 2024 23:31:21 GMT
Just finished season 2. Cried lots.
The final episode was very cleverly pitched. Very cathartic
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 4, 2024 21:15:30 GMT
I know there are local papers who won't publish negative reviews of local theatres for fear of losing advertising revenue. I have only written for them once and wasn't edited.
Similarly when I was part of the WoS team, there was never any pressure to tailor reviews to suit advertisers. That may have changed in recent years but I doubt it.
But the idea of charging for a review is utterly wrong.
I must admit I would love to be able to claim travel/parking expenses but that just has never been an option.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 4, 2024 15:54:45 GMT
Oxford Operatic are doing Funny Girl at the Oxford Playhouse 8 to 13 July.
They are also scheduled to do Cinderella (R&H version) at the New Theatre in January 2025
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 4, 2024 1:23:40 GMT
Perhaps I should offer to reprise my iconic doubling of Charles and Theo.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 3, 2024 2:45:30 GMT
I was at a show this week and I was behind a middle aged man and his mother. He had Down's syndrome and was clearly very excited at being in a theatre.
He started conducting along with the overture and his mother did seek to calm him as best she could. He continued to be physical with his enjoyment of everything.
This could have been disruptive but actually his love for the music and the story was so palpable that I was completely able to overlook it.
Sometimes what might appear to be bad behaviour is just enthusiasm and passion that just can't be controlled as easily.
It wasn't a relaxed performance (that wasn't an option) but it didn't really disrupt in any serious way and made me realise that I can be too intolerant at times.
I was thrilled he loved the show so much. He was conducting in time with the music. He was living his best life. Long may he continue to enjoy theatre like that.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 2, 2024 17:40:16 GMT
Perhaps it is a matter of spreading himself too thin. Running a three space venue should be a full time job. There shouldn't really be time to direct films or develop a Disney musical in the US.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 1, 2024 21:18:27 GMT
The idea that Richard III is a study in realism and psychological truth is just misunderstanding the play. It is not a representation of Elizabethan attitudes towards disability.
It is a piece of populist propaganda.
I don't understand what the cry for authenticity in casting leads anyone to think that this character can only be played by someone with any physical disability. True authenticity would suggest only actors with an serious but not massively impairing form of scoliosis may apply.
There are some productions that will wish to place a focus on disability and others that won't. Both are legitimate routes to take.
But we cannot start accepting casting limits being imposed by vocal lobby groups.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 1, 2024 16:28:13 GMT
Much will depend on the adaptation of Strangelove. If they retain the original tripling of roles, then there will be less pressure to ensure that Strangelove be played by an actor with a disability.
But if they split out the roles, then they should face the same questions.
Strangelove as a character has a very clearly identified condition - alien hand syndrome. It is absolutely there is the writing. It cannot easily be ignored.
However with Shakespeare, you have far greater freedom to reshape the text to suit each production.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 20:24:50 GMT
I guess it is a good sign that the new season is popular enough to generate queues.
But this has happened enough times in the past for them to have better anticipated likely IT demands!
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 19:28:30 GMT
Mack and Mabel has a great score but an almost unworkable book. The revival not so long ago showed that it is hard to bring it properly to life on stage.
Perhaps there is a producer willing to negotiate the rights to radically reshape the material but it is always going to be a risk.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 15:27:00 GMT
That is a story from 2022. It didn't get any other coverage other than that article (which I can't read due to the pay wall)
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 14:39:02 GMT
I haven't heard of an amateur company not doing R3 because they couldn't find an actor with a disability.
But I do know of a company that decided not to stage Priscilla because they were not certain of being able to cast a trans performer as Bernadette.
So the thought processes are already in place.
And whilst it is good to have authenticity in mind when it comes to repertoire selection and casting, you can end up overthinking things
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 11:59:28 GMT
This is what should have been ready immediately the casting was announced. They got a predictable and understandable response.
Personally that statement is full of self important buzz speak that sounds impressive but is fundamentally empty of any real meaning.
The important bit is the intention not to play the character with a physical disability. The rest is just noise.
It is important that they have stood up and finally made clear their intentions and are not bowing to external pressure.
It is also right that they have been subject to scrutiny.
They should have done better from the outset.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 11:31:00 GMT
Looking at the recent production history, actors with a disability have been cast as Richard on at least three occasions in the past couple of years or so.
So it is not right to say that disabled actors are being excluded from the role in professional theatre in the UK.
It is right to fight for representation and visibility.
But seeking to limit casting is not the right way to go about it.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2024 1:03:54 GMT
I have huge sympathy for their position but it is predicated on one interpretation of the script and character. And on the idea that an actor must have lived experience of a particular characteristic in order to portray it on stage or screen.
Whilst I often much prefer to see gay actors play gay characters, I would never seek to insist on that.
Acting is not being. And it never should be.
I do not view having any physical disability to be a qualification to play Richard III. There isn't an actor alive today who can truly know what living with a severe form of scoliosis in 15th century Britain would have been like for a man born into the nobility.
We do, however, know that the historical Richard was a formidable warrior. We know that the historical image of him was created by Tudor propagandists and amplified by Shakespeare.
There is certainly a view that says physical disability is an integral part of the play. There are absolutely other perspectives on the character that can be theatrically interesting to explore.
There is space for both approaches (and many more)
But at heart of this is the fact that acting is acting.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 30, 2024 23:28:08 GMT
That is a real end of an era.
She was never less than magnificent
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 29, 2024 23:07:53 GMT
Isn't the Palladium just a bit on the large size for a chamber sized show?
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 27, 2024 23:22:58 GMT
The advertising blurb is a very specific about the summer of 1976.
I remember walking across a dried up reservoir. It was a hot, dry summer with drought conditions over most of the UK
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 27, 2024 22:49:20 GMT
I don't get the hair choice for Ivana as Jamie.
I understand he would not necessarily want to cut his hair short for the role. But it just doesn't work for the character as it is.
And yes, his voice isn't strong enough.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 27, 2024 21:22:41 GMT
The sound balance was better than previous broadcasts
Didn't think much of Hadestown. The track made v little sense out of context and so I couldn't engage with it
I liked the Pure Imagination collage. That had a certain charm.
Rocking the Boat didn't land for me because of the riffing. It detracted rather than adding to it.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 25, 2024 22:56:18 GMT
Yeah I'm not sure what the difference is here with her acting instead of directing. She's an actor, so rather than directing a show a year, she stars in one. Would we be having the conversation if she was directing shows on a yearly basis? If that was depriving others of that opportunity, I would say so. If you are AD, that it your primary focus. Directing or acting should happen only very occasionally.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 25, 2024 17:59:30 GMT
If they want to avoid internet pile ones, they need to have a media strategy in place.
I don't think they have done anything worthy of a backlash but they should have anticipated one and prepared a better statement than the one issued
I always oppose nepotistic casting but it is just too ingrained in arts culture I fear. Doran and Terry are both guilty of it.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 25, 2024 14:47:26 GMT
Terry and the rest of the management team should have been better prepared for this sort of reaction. I think the casting is wrong but only because Terry keeps giving herself these high profile roles and I am never comfortable with ADs doing that. As I said earlier, the Globe has a decent track record of inclusive casting. I don't know how Francesca Mills views her achondrophasia but the recent announcement of her casting as the title character in The Duchess of Malfi is a significant milestone for inclusive casting. Arthur Hughes is also in that cast. The casting of three d/Deaf actors in the forthcoming A&C is similarly significant. The Globe should have had better answers ready for why Terry is taking on this role than they have done this far. Its probably something which is going to effect all productions of Richard 3rd going forwards and which will have to be taken into account tbf to Terry, she hasnt taken a lot of major roles at the globe, mainly seems to be supporting parts as part of a ensemble Hamlet, Viola, Titania, Hotspur, Lady Macbeth These are all major parts
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 25, 2024 14:43:27 GMT
There is always a conflict when staging R3 and that is how far you take account of the historical character when tackling a script which is very much rooted in Tudor anti-Richard propaganda.
I directed the piece before the bones were found in the carpark and I looked at the historical record that highlighted how unencumbered the real Richard was when in battle, how the famous portrait had been modified to exaggerate the visual presentation of the scoliosis. I genuinely do not believed that the real Richard would have viewed himself as being disabled. He just got on and did what he needed to do. The research that followed the Leicester discovery shows how the historical Richard could have lead a full and active life.
My approach was to focus on his psychological issues which are very much at the heart of Shakespeare's characterisation and are the ones that draw in the audience and make them complicit with his villainy.
There are few actors who can truly capture the essence of the character that Shakespeare created and imposing limits as to who can be considered for the role is problematic.
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