If you read one article about the Lord of the Rings musical, make it this one.

The LCT conversation between John Guare and Chris Shinn is very cool, especially if you like Christopher Shinn.

Here's a rather lengthy, though worthwhile, review of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s edition of the collected works of William Shakespeare.

Did you read Mirror Up to Nature's account of The Ford Hall Forum's conversation, "Does the Theatre Have a Future? The Players Look Forward..."? I finally did, and it's great. It includes Ed Siegel, former critic for the Boston Globe, Rick Lombardo, Artistic Director of New Repertory Theatre, and Karen MacDonald, whose home theatre is the ART has appeared in the works of Rinde Eckhart and Edward Bond. And the very special guest, Edward Albee.

Throughout the evening Lombardo seemed to indicate that he thought things are probably going to get worse before they get better. However, he did say, "I can surf the interenet for two hours and I was in control of the experience, but it ultimately proves a hollow experience." This is his hope for live theatre. Is it an authentic expereince and it is more fulfilling than the hollow controlled experience.

The conversation then turned to the question of technology, and Rick Lombardo stated that technical advances should be related to the form, and not be confused with the bedrock of the theatrical experience. "The actor and the language is the bedrock, and that will never change," and should not try be supplanted. However, he does believe that technical advances can enhance the theatrical experience and can help in relating to the younger audiences. Mr. Albee later disagreed with this point, saying that he learned from Samuel Beckett that theatre doesn't need technlogical advances. (Though most of the audience laughed heartily at this, I would have pointed out to Mr. Albee that Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape is still the definitive multimedia play.)

BTW, for RSS/Atom reading, I use Vienna. It's freeware for Mac OS X.