May 2021
07 May - Lloyd Webber: Proposed cuts to higher education arts subjects are idiotic
Andrew Lloyd Webber has led further criticism of plans to cut funding for higher education subjects including drama and music by 50%, labelling the move “idiotic and short-sighted”.
07 May - Decolonising museums isn’t part of a ‘culture war’. It’s about keeping them relevant
Let’s be open to the idea of returning stolen cultural objects, and remaking international relationships with honesty
07 May - Hope must be at the heart of theatre's Covid recovery
There have been times during the past year, when it has been hard to believe theatre could ever bounce back. But amid the fear and uncertainty, there was a sliver of hope that our ecology could grow into a better, healthier landscape after the crisis.
06 May - Seattle’s theater stagehand community, still idled by COVID shutdown, fears a mental health crisis
Cole Guinn, the assistant carpenter with Pacific Northwest Ballet, was setting up for a show in March 2020 when the announcement came — all gatherings of more than 50 people were banned under coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions.
06 May - What happens when a theatre actor loses a year?
The pandemic has given performers a chance to recalibrate ambitions and expectations
06 May - Broadway tickets to go on sale for September reopening
Tickets for Broadway will go on sale this week, although shows will not restart until 14 September.
Theatres will then be allowed to fill 100% of capacity, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced.
06 May - As Brexit bites, the loss of cross-channel cultural exchange is to be lamented
During the past few weeks, with continued cause to be hopeful about the UK arts and entertainment sector’s imminent return, I have found myself thinking about a painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte called Le Retour.
06 May - Plans for 50% funding cut to arts subjects at universities ‘catastrophic’
Artists and musicians have accused the government of neglecting the country’s “cultural national health” by pursuing a “catastrophic” 50% funding cut to arts subjects at universities, which could come into effect from this autumn.
05 May - Royal Albert Hall: James Blunt show to be first full-capacity concert
The Royal Albert Hall is to begin hosting full-capacity concerts again this summer, it has been announced.
The South Kensington venue will reopen from 29 May with a series of limited-capacity shows, before allowing a full house on 6 July for a James Blunt gig.
05 May - The government is the one ‘holding back’ young people
In 2014, then education secretary Nicky Morgan warned young people that choosing to study arts subjects at school could “hold them back for the rest of their lives”. A few months later, she clarified the comments, claiming she only meant to speak in support of STEM subjects such as maths and science. She rejected “any suggestion that I or this government think that arts subjects are in any way less important or less worthy than other subjects for study in school”.
05 May - Oscar and Grammy winners to be offered fast track UK visas
Oscar, Grammy and Nobel Prize-winners will be among those able to get visas to live and work in the UK more easily under point-based immigration reforms.
The Home Office has announced its decision to “fast track” the process for those winning coveted arts awards.
04 May - Impresario Howard Panter Predicts Theater Business Will Boom Again Post-COVID
Sir Howard Panter, one of the leading forces in live theater, is so convinced that Broadway, the West End and other stage hubs are poised to come back in a big way post-pandemic, that he’s been using the last few months to restore old theaters and hunt for new ones.
04 May - Why we must put wellbeing first
Sebastian Cater says cultural sector managers who make mental health a priority aren’t virtue signalling, they’re leading by example.
04 May - More than a quarter of UK music festivals cancelled over insurance fears
More than a quarter of music festivals due to take place in the UK this year have been cancelled as a result of government inaction on event insurance, research has found.
According to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), which has been tracking festivals taking place in Britain this year, 26% of all festivals with a capacity of more than 5,000 people have been cancelled by their organisers
04 May - Plans for 50% cuts to higher-education arts subjects 'horrific', say industry leaders
Government proposals to cut funding for higher education subjects including drama and music by 50% have been labelled “horrific” and “catastrophic” by industry bodies and leaders including actor Samuel West.
04 May - Why the current approach to policy making doesn't work for creative freelancers
On February 10th the House of Commons Treasury Committee published the latest report of their inquiry into the economic impact of coronavirus. Their June 2020 report focused on the gaps in support for workers and highlighted “freelancers and those on short-term contracts” as one of 4 groups at risk of being “unlikely to be eligible for either of the Government’s two principal income support schemes” – the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Their latest publication reiterates the fact that “there are a large number of freelancers who continue to miss out on support”.
03 May - Karen Olivo: ‘My hope for what theatre can be is why I’m speaking out’
The Broadway star has been lauded for their decision to quit Moulin Rouge! in a bold stand against the industry’s ‘unacceptable silence’ following bullying claims against Scott Rudin. Olivo tells Howard Sherman why theatre’s future is at stake in this fight
03 May - COVID-19: Boris Johnson says there is a 'good chance' social distancing can be scrapped next month
“I think we’ve got a good chance, a good chance, of being able to dispense with one-metre plus,” the prime minister says.
03 May - Non-gendered titles in costume would help the fight for pay equity
What’s in a name? It was an agonising decision to change CiTA to CiTEA. Costume in Theatre Association felt too narrow to adequately bring together all costume workers.
03 May - Diversity of storytelling enriches theatre rather than threatens it
If you haven’t seen Radha Blank’s The Forty-Year-Old Version on Netflix, I can recommend it heartily. It may be charting the agonies faced by Blank’s character while trying to get a play staged on Broadway, but its sly nobbling of the prejudices and racism of gatekeepers is as pertinent to British theatre culture as it is to the way theatre operates across the Atlantic. At one point a white producer announces that her play just isn’t “black enough”.
01 May - Audiences given chance to peer behind the curtain as RSC live-streams rehearsals
For the first time in company’s history, public granted backstage pass to watch as actors dissect and deliver Shakepeare’s Henry VI, Part I
01 May - Government proposes to cut funding for subjects such as drama by 50 per cent at higher education level
The Musicians’ Union has reacted in “horror” at the revealed plans to cut government funding to certain subjects at a higher education level by 50 per cent, according to a report by the Office for Students (OFS).