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-PLAYWRIGHT-
MICHAEL DAVID
Theatre Trends
stop treating theatre audiences like children
Trigger warning: This post may piss you off.
Theatre should make us uncomfortable. That discomfort is not a flaw to be mitigated but the point: a live encounter with ideas, bodies and emotions we’d rather avoid. Trigger warnings, when they pre-emptively sanitize experience, risk training audiences to manage their feelings instead of confronting them. [more]
2 days ago1 min read
the rise of very short and very long plays in modern theatre
Yeah, it’s a real pendulum moment in new-play land: a lot of writers (and theaters) are clustering around ~70–90 minutes or swinging to three-hour epics — with less interest in the old “two acts + intermission = 2:15” default. [more]
Jan 122 min read
is an intermission necessary to the audience experience?
Short answer: no. An intermission is never necessary when writing a play. It’s a choice, and often a practical one rather than an artistic requirement. Historically, intermissions existed for very concrete reasons. Candles needed trimming, audiences needed to be refreshed, scenery had to be reset, and theaters were social spaces as much as artistic ones. [more]
Jan 12 min read
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