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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Sunday Quickies

The Cape Town Opera Company has a touring production of Porgy and Bess that is set in Soweto. Here is a preview from the Cardiff Centre and here is a review.


Meanwhile Alexander McCall Smith has created The Okavango Macbeth. Maccers as seen through a tribe of baboons. A review is here.

A bit of a retrospective of the work of Neil Simon and just for contrast an article about Throwing Rotten Veggies at the Actors Night


Rethinking arts economies and arts exchange

Some thoughts on Miking Actors in Straight Plays

For the last item I sure am on the fence about using mikes in a straight play. The recent production of Secrets of a Black Boy used them at the Music Hall and I would love to know why that choice was made. It could be that the actors did not have the vocal capacity to fill that space or simply it is an unfillable space without augmentation.
On the other hand I have had trouble hearing actors on the Festival Stage at Stratford. So is vocal training not up to snuff anymore or have we moved to a more naturalistic style of theatre that is better served by mikes.

The debate continues.

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