By Karen McKevitt on the Berkeley Rep Blog:

At a company meeting this fall, Artistic Director Tony Taccone declared, “Artists are moving away from the three-act structure. Not because it is a trend, but because the three-act no longer reflects how people think and feel.” …When I posted this quote onto my Facebook wall, it attracted a whopping 82 comments, and an incredibly vibrant dialogue about the possibilities of new theatre. I thought I’d share a few of those thoughts here.

(by Rebecca Bromels on My Extra Hour)

(by Guy Patrick Cunningham on The Millions)

On 2AMt, Travis Bedard spins a story of a theater system where fringe festivals do the raw research, indie theaters do the development, large local theaters handle the trial level, and large regionals are the product level:

There is no system in the theatre ecosystem. Every branch of this ungainly beast is trying to perform every function. Without enough resources to go around we need to improve communication and eliminate redundancies….My platonic ideal of this system rests on a foundation of dynamic local creation.The larger theatres in a given town, having a relationship with the local creators, curate their second spaces with shows that they love. The indie and fringe companies get a longer run to bash out problems in the text or production, broader exposure and they get to build a following of their own. The audience gets a chance to see more locally created theatre. The larger theatre get a low cost production in their second space that didn’t eat up all the available man hours of their staff. And the world gets a play with a history, ready for bigger things.

(by Laura Axelrod on 2AMt)

Playwright Rajiv Joseph has won the prestigious Will Glickman Award for “The North Pool,” which received its world premiere with TheatreWorks in March 2011. Joseph and TheatreWorks will receive awards as part of Theatre Bay Area’s 35th Anniversary “35 Years, 35 Faces” event on April 30, 2012 at Z Space in San Francisco. In addition, Joseph will receive the award’s $4,000 purse.

(by Craig Lambert on Harvard Magazine)

(by David Dower on HowlRound)

HowlRound has kicked off their City Series — exploring theater scenes in cities around the country — with San Francisco. You can read articles and blog posts from:

• Deborah Cullinan
• Octavio Solis
• Sean San José
• Brad Erickson
• Dan Wolf
• Rebecca Novick
• Carey Perloff

(by Aditi Kapil on HowlRound)