New York Theater Quiz July 2017

Q.1

No shows opened on Broadway in July.

True
False

Q.2

NYC’s first ever “cultural plan” will link the city’s funding of arts groups to the diversity of their staff and board

True
False

Q.3

Sara Holdren, a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama who identifies as a theater director, was hired to be New York Magazine’s new theater critic in July. True or false: She had written just one professionally published review before she was hired.

True
False

Q.4

Lawyers for the actor James Franco sent a cease and desist letter to shut down a two-character play entitled “James Franco and Me” scheduled to run at People’s Improv Theater. What did its playwright Kevin Broccoli say he will do?

He will stop getting the play produced and move on to other projects.
Since it’s a satire protected by the First Amendment, he will run the play as is and battle Franco in court.
He will rename the play “_____ and Me” and eliminate all mentions of Franco’s name, but otherwise perform it as is.

Q.5

What is not true about the Hamlet that opened at the Public Theater in July?

It has a running time of nearly four hours
Director Sam Gold hired a cast of some two dozen actors to portray each of the characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy, without cutting out any of the characters.
The first scene is performed in the dark
Oscar Isaac, the actor playing Hamlet, runs around in his underpants.
Isaac wears a paper toilet seat cover around his neck like a collar
Peter Friedman as Polonius sits on a toilet in a bathroom built into the upstage wall
Gayle Rankin as Ophelia binge eats from a tray of lasagna
Rankin as Ophelia covers Friedman as Polonius with the dirt from two potted plants, then drowns herself with a garden hose.

Q.6

A theater company from which country created Soulpepper on 42nd Street, taking up residence at the Signature theater for the entire month of July, and offering more than a dozen plays,musical, concerts and cabarets?

Aruba
Canada
Cuba
Jamaica
France
Singapore

Q.8

More than 60 artists, including playwright Annie Baker and director Sam Gold, signed a protest letter to Lincoln Center, trying unsuccessfully to get the cultural institution to cancel a production of the Israeli play “To The End of The Land” as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. What was the protesters’ main objection to the play, according to press reports?

They saw the play as of poor quality.
They thought the play has sexist, racist, homophobic or otherwise bigoted content.
They saw the play as unfair to Arabs
They objected to some funding that Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs in North America gave to this play, an adaptation by two Israeli theater companies of a novel by Israeli novelist David Grossman.

Q.9

Mandy Patinkin, who was to return to Broadway after 17 years to star as Pierre in “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” withdrew from the role two days after the announcement that he would take it. Why?

He saw the musical and decided it was of poor quality
He hadn't realized he would have to learn to play the accordion
He had a sudden scheduling conflict due to a film offer
People expressed outrage on social media that a white actor was replacing black actor Okierete “Oak” Onaodowan in the role