News and Notes: the very brief edition

Hello, friends. It's a busy week here at News and Notes. By now, I'm sure most of you have read the Star Tribune article on the recent cancellation of New Epic Theater's Medea, and I'm sure that most of you have some sort of strong opinions about it. Personally, I felt like there was more to the story than what was presented in the Strib article, so I am working on setting up interviews with some people involved in that project in an effort to get a better handle on what, exactly, went wrong. Please watch Minnesota Playlist for that article, hopefully sometime later this week.

(By the way, if you were involved in the show and would like to contribute, please email me. If you wish, you can remain anonymous in the final article.)

This is all to say that this week's "regular" Tuesday edition of News and Notes will be a lot lighter than normal. It's pretty much all "News" and no "Notes":

Local

-Despite being moved to another location, the rejection of Duck Washington's play from the Ames Center in Burnsville is still generating news. The Burnsville City Council recently discussed the accusations of censorship, and, in a new twist, officials are saying that they did not cancel the play, merely that they refused to promote it. In a Facebook post, Washington stated, "I'll also note that this is the very first time I've heard any mention of being allowed to perform my play in the space without the center's advertisement." (A full transcript of the city council's discussion is available online, if you're an obsessively details-oriented person)

-Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Comedian Maria Bamford gave a recent UofM theater grad $5,000 to help pay for her student loans!

-Over at MinnPost, MN Citizens for the Arts director Sheila Smith wrote about how the recent Creative Minnesota report reinforces just how great Minnesota is at the arts.

-You've been waiting, and now it's here. Ladies and gentlemen, St. Paul's newest venue, the North Garden Theater, is open for bookings.

-Minnesota Playlist (you know, the site you're reading right now) just just inked a deal with TheaterForms.com to provide expanded audition services that will integrate with Playlist's audition postings and talent profiles. One-stop shopping at its finest!

National

-Tony Award nominations were announced recently, and, now that some time has passed, the head critics from the New York Times have had some space to step back, clear their heads, and disagree vociferously about the current Broadway season.

-Speaking of Broadway, this week the Guardian UK examines the question of why Broadway plays are doing so much worse than Broadway musicals.

-Of course, the stats on "how Broadway plays are doing" are about to be monstrously skewed: the new Harry Potter play will be opening in New York in 2018.

-Last Broadway news, I swear: the strange lawsuit over the failed musical adaptation of Rebecca has ended. Nobody really got what they wanted, and, most likely, no one will be able to pay what they're supposed to.

-Put on your tight t-shirt and get ready to scream to the sky: it's the 70th anniversary of A Streetcar Named Desire.

-File this under "That's pretty awesome": the first production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time featuring a lead actor with autism.

-Are you a theater company looking to officially dive into the project of diversifying your programming? Good! Here's some notes from Profile Theater in Portland, Oregon on what worked (and didn't) for them.

-Wow. I could write a whole article about this one: Boston Children's Theatre is mired in controversy over onstage nudity in their production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Boy howdy, there's a lot going on in that one. You should read the whole thing.

International

-A million pounds isn't cool. You know what's cool? $1.2 billion pounds. That's the record-setting box office totals for UK theaters last year.

-As the refugee crisis continues apace, Germany has been taking in more people than just about anyone else. Here's how the crisis is playing out in German theater.

-How to translate Shakespeare into Hindi.

-How Spring Awakening translates into Japanese culture.