LOCAL

Piano man on Fountain Avenue

We put an old piano out front on the sidewalk hoping someone would take it. Instead, people in the neighborhood are playing it. This guy from NY was driving by, saw the piano on the sidewalk, got out of his car, and began to boogie.

Stage Raw Announces its 2018 Theater Awards Nominees

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition includes productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018. read more here

Photo by Monique A. LeBleu ~ Richard Lucas of Bono and The Edge Waiting for Godominos, West Hollywood, California, July 3, 2018

PODCAST: An Interview with Richard Lucas of ‘Bono and The Edge Waiting for Godominos’

Actor, writer and director Richard Lucas of “Bono and The Edge Waiting For Godominos” discusses the inception of the idea for the show, its fruition fueled by the ongoing “Serial Killers” serial show series at Broadwater (formerly known as Sacred Fools), their successful run in various venues throughout California, his new book “The Dog Log,” and the future of “Bono and The Edge Waiting For Godominos.” read more here

Audio Interview: The cast of “Dead Boys” at Celebration Theatre

Dead Boys – 2017 Best of Fringe award winner comes to Celebration! It’s the end of the world. Two millennials trapped in the basement of their old high school. The only gay kid in school. And the guy who used to beat him up. Provocative, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Dead Boys is about two modern American young men who have no choice but to face fate, race, sexuality – and each other. read and listen here

An interview with Ben Benjamins of “Buzz’d Out! Live!”

An interview with Ben Benjamins, show creator, animator, and host of “Buzz’d Out! Live!“, an immersive one-hour game show at the Studio/Stage for the Hollywood Fringe Festival and at Pasadena Media, with extended shows this weekend at the Studio/Stage Friday, July 6, 2018, at 9 p.m. and Sunday, July 8, 2018, at 7 p.m. read and listen here

NATIONAL

D.C. Council Creates Sales Tax to Support the Arts

The new tax is expected to generate $30 million per year to fund local theatre productions and the arts.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: In its last legislative meeting in June, the Council of the District of Columbia approved a sales tax to fund local professional theatre and the arts throughout D.C.

The tax was created because of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Dedicated Funding Amendment Act of 2018, which dedicates a quarter of a percent of existing sales and use tax to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. It is expected to benefit the entire District of Columbia and allow theatres to obtain matching grants that the commission will manage. D.C. sales tax rate was 5.75 percent and it will be raised to 6 percent. read more here

8 New Theatre Books You Need to Read This Summer

Whether you’re hitting the beach or beating the heat indoors, these Summer 2018 theatre reads will keep you satisfied.

Looking for a theatrical summer title? We’ve got you covered with these theatre books coming out this summer. read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Ruth Negga will play Hamlet at the Gate Theatre. Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPA

Theatres agree to ‘gender-blind casting’ and more female playwrights

Ten of the country’s leading theatres, drama festivals and theatre companies have agreed to a range of gender equality policies, which in some cases will see “gender-blind casting” or ensuring that half of new shows will be written by women.

The gender equality policy for the theatre sector, to be launched by Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan on Monday, arose from the Waking the Feminists campaign that ran in 2015 and 2016 to address the under-representation of women, including writers and directors, in Irish theatre. read more here

Anne-Marie Duff, who comes from a working-class background, and Rory Kinnear in the National Theatre’s production of Macbeth. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Observer

Why does British theatre leave working-class actors in the wings?

Poorer drama students face an uphill struggle, with funding cuts and rising fees. But British theatre may be the loser unless more actors from a range of backgrounds take centre stage

When Irfan Shamji was growing up in Ladbroke Grove, west London, a career on stage seemed “a pretty outlandish idea”. His parents – a mother from Zambia and a father from India – had come to Britain together in 1996 and they did not go to the theatre. “I didn’t think it was a possibility for me. And then at school I realised I had a taste for it,” he remembers. The drama teacher at his comprehensive began to notice his interest and the decisive moment came when she put a simple question to him: Irfan, is this something you would like to do for a living? read more here

Ayaş Antique Theatre in Turkey’s south raises curtains after 2,000 years

A theatre festival will bring together art lovers in the ancient city of Ayaş (also called Aegea), a part of the southern province of Mersin‘s Erdemli district, between Aug. 3 and 8.

The ancient city‘s theatre will raise its curtains next month, after 2,000 years, and stage various plays and art performances. read more here