Blair Russell @barussell4 is a Tony-nominated producer, developer, supporter, and lover of theatre whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. He specializes in the development of new plays and musicals. As a producer, Blair is most proud of bringing Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris to Broadway. During the pandemic, he lead Out of the Box Theatrics' site-specfic production of The Last Five Years. Some of his other favorite credits include the critically acclaimed immersive Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd at the Greenwich House Theater, and the West End production of Gyspy with Imelda Staunton. He just wrapped producing the residency of Resounding, an immersive theater company, at Radial Park with live, in-person audio plays, including a remount of the company’s popular Treasure Island, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, & a new ghost thriller 'Beyond The Veil'.
His current projects include developing the musicals Hypatia & the Heathens and For Tonight as well as an XR experience series about the Black Imagination. He's a recipient of AKA NYC's Black Producer 500 Hours Initiative.
0:00 - Introduction to Blair
3:00 - Hypatia & The Heathens-New Musical about the First Female Mathematician
7:30 - Theater in South Africa
10:30 - How Do We Make Theatre Global
13:00 - We Need to Change All Theater, Not just Broadway
20:50 - You Don’t Solve a Problem by Trying to Fix All of the Symptoms
22:00 - Expanding Accessibility to All Theatergoers
28:00 - Diverging Consumerism from Broadway To Off-Broadway and Independent Theaters
30:00 - Recalibrating Our Perception of Theatre Producers
33:00 - Different Types of Theater for Different People
33:50 - How Scott Rudin Murdered Beetlejuice
37:30 - Producing Filmed Theatre (The Last Five Years) During the Pandemic
42:00 - Live Theatre in Astoria
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