The lead producers of Chicago, Fran and Barry Weissler, now make a point of having someone in the cast with a following from outside Broadway — from film, scripted television, or, most recently, reality TV such as The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Vanderpump Rules, and America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. - Billboard
Life on the internet has become, among other things, a test of patience and an experience of gruelling duration; the ad somehow continued for more than three minutes. A captive audience, it turns out, gets crude digital puppetry as its just deserts. - The New Yorker
A researcher has analyzed more than 500 of her “scribal letters” — correspondence from the queen but in the handwriting of her secretaries, notably principal royal secretary Francis Walsingham — and found that they sometimes altered the queen’s own language for strategic reasons, including to make her appear even angrier than she was. - Smithsonian Magazine
The vibes, less pollable but perhaps no less palpable, are noxious. Students boo speakers who extol A.I. in commencement addresses, and consumers deride celebrities and brands that embrace the technology. - The New Yorker
"Our public libraries are public and should stay public. We don't need private corporations coming in and laying people off and censoring material." - ABC Fresno
“Kyle Abraham’s company is now officially the Kyle Abraham Dance Vanguard. It’s not the first time the contemporary troupe has changed names: Abraham launched it in 2005 as Abraham.In.Motion, later revising it to A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2019.” - Dance Magazine
“Why are our playwrights so ill at ease with middle-class educated characters? ... In our contemporary affluent society, with its energetic social mobility, it is the middle class, not the working class, which gives Australia its character and flavour. - The Saturday Paper
The legal fight over Mr. Trump’s takeover of the center has revolved largely around one important statute, first passed by Congress in 1958. It established a National Cultural Center and then was amended in 1964 to dedicate the institution to President Kennedy after his assassination. - The New York Times
The sounds of the city weren’t just decorative, musical — they could define the physical contours of a space as dramatically as a concrete wall or an open door to the street. - Reasons to be Cheerful
“Tashkent is reinventing itself. The Uzbek capital, which is home to 3 million, was once the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union and has long been a cultural hub in Central Asia. … The Center for Contemporary Arts Tashkent has opened. It’s a watershed moment for the nation as it expands its cultural ambitions.” - Artnet
A bipartisan effort to ban the demolition of presidential memorials — including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — was blocked Monday night in the Senate by an objection from Sen.Mike Lee (R-Utah). - Washington Post
Layoffs seem inevitable, considering, again, the amount of debt Paramount has gone into just to acquire Warner Bros. The settlement demands that Paramount contribute $47.5 million to a “workforce fund” over five years to aid those laid off, but giant corporate mergers have a history of massive layoffs whose costs may exceed that sum. - The...
Across millions of math sessions by a group that ranged from fifth graders to college students, the researchers compared performance from before 2022, when ChatGPT first came out, with the work that followed its arrival. - The New York Times
A forward-looking director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art wooed Duchamp, that’s how. Sidney Fiske Kimball “offered what Duchamp wanted: space and control. Lots of it.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
“(Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel) has long been popular in China and was already recommended reading for schoolchildren. But this fall, ninth-grade students across the country are being required to read (it) in full. … One report in an official newspaper held it up as an anti-materialistic love story young people could learn from.” - The New York Times
“On Tuesday, the ax fell. A few hundred employees, mostly in human resources and tech, were laid off, a person familiar with the situation confirms. … The cuts are the fourth round of layoffs this year.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“In the 19 months since President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on condition it never be spent, and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“The staggering amount (pledged by hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin) is the largest-ever gift by an individual in higher education, surpassing Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins in 2018. Griffin’s donation will be split: $1 billion will support CMU’s original campus in Pittsburgh and $2 billion will help launch CMU’s Miami campus.” - CNN
The awardees working in the arts are choreographer Trajal Harrell, poet Layli Long Soldier, jazz saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins, novelists Maaza Mengiste and Bryan Washington, and artists Christine Sun Kim, Chip Thomas, Vincent Valdez and Rodney McMillian. - NPR
Life on the internet has become, among other things, a test of patience and an experience of gruelling duration; the ad somehow continued for more than three minutes. A captive audience, it turns out, gets crude digital puppetry as its just deserts. - The New Yorker
The vibes, less pollable but perhaps no less palpable, are noxious. Students boo speakers who extol A.I. in commencement addresses, and consumers deride celebrities and brands that embrace the technology. - The New Yorker
Across millions of math sessions by a group that ranged from fifth graders to college students, the researchers compared performance from before 2022, when ChatGPT first came out, with the work that followed its arrival. - The New York Times
“When Glass asked one of the kids why they picked this particular podcast, they said, ‘We just, like, looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments.’” Ouch. But also, creative as heck. - The Verge
A culture of creativity is also a culture accepting of failure. Creativity is not a science. You can’t possibly bat 1,000. There are inevitable failures, and it’s really important to know as a culture how to process failure so that when you do, it doesn’t destroy people’s ability to continue to create. - Harvard Business Review
It would be hard to overstate how ignorant the Founders of the United States were about their own country. The main map they’d used to negotiate the postwar peace with Britain was woefully inaccurate. - The New Yorker
The legal fight over Mr. Trump’s takeover of the center has revolved largely around one important statute, first passed by Congress in 1958. It established a National Cultural Center and then was amended in 1964 to dedicate the institution to President Kennedy after his assassination. - The New York Times
A bipartisan effort to ban the demolition of presidential memorials — including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — was blocked Monday night in the Senate by an objection from Sen.Mike Lee (R-Utah). - Washington Post
“In the 19 months since President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on condition it never be spent, and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“The staggering amount (pledged by hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin) is the largest-ever gift by an individual in higher education, surpassing Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins in 2018. Griffin’s donation will be split: $1 billion will support CMU’s original campus in Pittsburgh and $2 billion will help launch CMU’s Miami campus.” - CNN
The law prohibits using software to get around ticket limits, queue and presale restrictions. It restricts websites and ads designed to make resellers look like authorized ticket sources. Sellers in violation could face misdemeanor charges and penalties. - Los Angeles Times
The late 19th century saw a wave of American towns building what they called opera houses. They presented all kinds of entertainment, from plays to vaudeville to lectures to magic shows (and yes, occasionally touring opera and classical music artists). Here are five in Maine which are still thriving. - The New York Times
Mark Cantrell, who began in the job only two months ago, said “The Nashville Symphony's present circumstances demand plain speaking. For years, this institution has operated on a financial foundation that could not sustain it. … The extraordinary generosity of one donor sustained the organization.” - The Tennessean (Yahoo!)
She will be the artistic director, with Matthew Principe as executive director and creative strategist, of VOX Detroit, which will produce concerts of — as Goerke describes it — “opera, cabaret, musical theatre, song, recital, spoken word, and whatever wonderful things happen to fall in between.” - Detroit Free Press
“The Nashville Symphony has declared a state of 'financial emergency,' suspending the 2026-27 season effective Oct. 18, as well as furloughing roughly half their staff and all 77 members of the orchestra. At this time, 29 full-time Symphony staff members remain, while 27 were furloughed.” - The Tennessean (Yahoo!)
The first thing anyone notices about Gould’s playing is the precision of his articulation, and that articulation is so precise that you might—not that you should, but you might—think of him as mechanical, if you didn’t also see him. - Hedgehog Review
The sounds of the city weren’t just decorative, musical — they could define the physical contours of a space as dramatically as a concrete wall or an open door to the street. - Reasons to be Cheerful
“Tashkent is reinventing itself. The Uzbek capital, which is home to 3 million, was once the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union and has long been a cultural hub in Central Asia. … The Center for Contemporary Arts Tashkent has opened. It’s a watershed moment for the nation as it expands its cultural ambitions.” - Artnet
A forward-looking director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art wooed Duchamp, that’s how. Sidney Fiske Kimball “offered what Duchamp wanted: space and control. Lots of it.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Ann Temkin has been a curator at the museum since 2003 and was promoted to chief curator in 2008, becoming the first woman to lead MoMA’s richest and most powerful department. - The New York Times
Drexel says that while it appreciates the William Penn Foundation’s “public suggestion that it assist in temporarily keeping the Academy’s museum open,” they have “not received a formal proposal with a defined level of financial support.” - Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
“Unionized staff at the Whitney Museum of Art will begin striking on Monday, October 5, if they cannot reach a contract agreement with the museum, Local 2110 UAW announced. … (That’s) only three days before member and press previews open for the museum’s major Roy Lichtenstein retrospective (the show opens to the public October 11).” -...
A researcher has analyzed more than 500 of her “scribal letters” — correspondence from the queen but in the handwriting of her secretaries, notably principal royal secretary Francis Walsingham — and found that they sometimes altered the queen’s own language for strategic reasons, including to make her appear even angrier than she was. -...
"Our public libraries are public and should stay public. We don't need private corporations coming in and laying people off and censoring material." - ABC Fresno
“(Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel) has long been popular in China and was already recommended reading for schoolchildren. But this fall, ninth-grade students across the country are being required to read (it) in full. … One report in an official newspaper held it up as an anti-materialistic love story young people could learn from.” - The New...
The award, established by the estate of the silent film stars, is given for “an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Among previous winners are Gustavo Dudamel, Isabelle Allende, Merce Cunningham, Ava DuVernay, Laurie Anderson, Tricia Brown, Maya Lin, and Meredith Monk. - AP
“The presidential security memo issued last year specifically targets what the regime sees as leftist ideas in books, zines, and other publications, which is a major concern for all of us that care about books and freedom of expression.” - LitHub
Layoffs seem inevitable, considering, again, the amount of debt Paramount has gone into just to acquire Warner Bros. The settlement demands that Paramount contribute $47.5 million to a “workforce fund” over five years to aid those laid off, but giant corporate mergers have a history of massive layoffs whose costs may exceed that sum. ...
“On Tuesday, the ax fell. A few hundred employees, mostly in human resources and tech, were laid off, a person familiar with the situation confirms. … The cuts are the fourth round of layoffs this year.” - The Hollywood Reporter
Eline van der Velden said that in response to a question about the AI-generated “actress” suddenly speaking in Cantonese during an interview. About Norwood’s future career, van der Velden said “We get loads of offers in, we’ve said no to anything (like) a traditional film, because that’s not what she’s made for.” - Variety
“It’s not just about a one and done, you know, ask for a payment and be done. We really want to nurture the relationship through the journey from anonymous all the way into a paying subscription, and we know that the majority of people aren’t going to ever come over to a paying subscription."...
It’s no secret that we’re kind of in a content race to the bottom right now. Social media and shortform video have pushed everything from music to documentaries into a race to truncate their lengths and make everything bite-size, in order to bend to the current of algorithm-centric audiences. - Slate
“UTA, which represents the Globe, has been fielding inquiries about potential adaptations for the article” — headlined “A Western Mass. lesbian bar required KN-95 masks. When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose.” — “both in the scripted space and the documentary sphere.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“Kyle Abraham’s company is now officially the Kyle Abraham Dance Vanguard. It’s not the first time the contemporary troupe has changed names: Abraham launched it in 2005 as Abraham.In.Motion, later revising it to A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2019.” - Dance Magazine
A Florence-based nonprofit, the New Generation Foundation, is backing the company, called the Nouveaux Ballets Russes. Parish, a Briton who was until 2022 a principal at Russia's Mariinsky Theater, is artistic director, and he aims, as Diaghilev did, to engage collaborators in the vanguard of art, music, tech, and fashion. - Pointe Magazine
For months, two-thirds of Cuba had no electricity at night. Some neighborhoods in the capital of Havana have been without running water for more than two weeks. Transportation is scarce and eggs, bread and cooking oil are hard to find. - AP News
“This syncopated, jubilant folk music is a melange of European, Caribbean and Indigenous influences. While fandangos — where folks gather to play their instruments, sing and dance — are more than 300 years old, their popularity is now spreading around the world.” - NPR
Members of the pit orchestra protested outside the theater last weekend at performances of the company’s season-opening program, which was danced to recorded music. Atlanta Ballet management says it can afford a live orchestra this season only for its stagings of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. - ArtsATL
The lead producers of Chicago, Fran and Barry Weissler, now make a point of having someone in the cast with a following from outside Broadway — from film, scripted television, or, most recently, reality TV such as The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Vanderpump Rules, and America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. - Billboard
“Why are our playwrights so ill at ease with middle-class educated characters? ... In our contemporary affluent society, with its energetic social mobility, it is the middle class, not the working class, which gives Australia its character and flavour. - The Saturday Paper
The new co-artistic directors are Ericka Ratcliff, most recently literary manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and longtime Lookingglass ensemble member David Catlin. Another longtime member, Philip R. Smith, will be executive director, while Schwimmer takes the new position of producing director, focusing on fundraising, marketing, board development and finding co-producing partners. - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)
“Copley Superintendent Aimee Kirsch said the play was canceled not because of its gay themes but because the proper vetting procedure wasn't followed.” Unh-hunh. The students cast in the canceled She Kills Monsters were offered parts in the newly approved Alice in Wonderland. - Akron Beacon Journal (Yahoo)
To me, Theatre as Public Good argues that the convening power of theatre, and the belonging and connection it creates, is essential, and should therefore be classified as a public good. - Karthik Subramanian
The awardees working in the arts are choreographer Trajal Harrell, poet Layli Long Soldier, jazz saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins, novelists Maaza Mengiste and Bryan Washington, and artists Christine Sun Kim, Chip Thomas, Vincent Valdez and Rodney McMillian. - NPR
“Deniz Göktaş, 32, has been held jailed since July 3 after clips of one of his routines, which included a reference to Erdoğan as a ‘dictator,’ were circulated online. He was convicted Monday …, receiving a combined prison sentence of 19 months and 10 days.” He has been released pending an appeal. - AP
Lola Petticrew wasn’t just in one show about the Troubles before she left Northern Ireland; she starred in - and was acclaimed for - two. “A lot of the questions that were raised were questions that I, as a young adult, have about how we heal and move on,” she said. - The New...
“A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Sparrow — his given name was Slinger Francisco — was renowned for his sonorous voice, unremitting energy and extraordinary command of the verbal prestidigitation and sly double-entendre that are among the hallmarks of calypso lyrics.” - The New York Times
“When I look at that footage, I look distorted. I was gone for a few seconds. Sometimes in acting or painting or writing, you just subliminally lose yourself. You do not know where you are. ... What was that?” - The New York Times
“I’ve done my time, and all that I ask is that people give me the benefit of the doubt. I may not be given a second chance — but at least recognize that I’ve suffered a lot from what happened.” - Artnet
Florida Studio Theatre invites applications for its Managing Director, a role for individuals with strong talent for running complex, multi-venue producing operations.
Build the strategic, business, and leadership skills to shape what’s next across entertainment, media, arts, and culture. Earn your Northwestern Master’s in one year.
Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is seeking a talented theater professional to lead the planning and execution of the organization’s core programming as Artistic Director.
Cantabile Youth Singers seeks a collaborative, relationship-driven executive to expand the reach of its internationally recognized program, known for adventurous programming and exceptional music education.
The TCU School for Classical & Contemporary Dance invites applications for the position of Director and Associate/Full Professor. Review of applications begins November 15, 2026.
The TCU School for Classical & Contemporary Dance invites applications for the position of Assistant Professor of Dance. Review of applications begins November 1, 2026.
“In the 19 months since President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on condition it never be spent, and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“The Nashville Symphony has declared a state of 'financial emergency,' suspending the 2026-27 season effective Oct. 18, as well as furloughing roughly half their staff and all 77 members of the orchestra. At this time, 29 full-time Symphony staff members remain, while 27 were furloughed.” - The Tennessean (Yahoo!)
“In a deal reached late Saturday night and ratified Sunday by the union, the two sides agreed to a three-year contract that includes a 5 percent annual raise for each of the three years, according to the orchestra.” - The New York Times
“When he conducts, he does not think in English or German or Latvian, even if that would be his own. But he thinks directly in music, and this is so direct. … Sometimes in a concert you have suddenly a new gesture never seen before, that everybody understands.” - Boston Globe
“When I look at that footage, I look distorted. I was gone for a few seconds. Sometimes in acting or painting or writing, you just subliminally lose yourself. You do not know where you are. ... What was that?” - The New York Times
“As critics sparred with defenders of Mr. Orélien, who is Black, over whether he was targeted because of his race and his book’s treatment of migrants, he was accused of plagiarism in earlier writings, inflaming the controversy.” - The New York Times
Public parks are widely considered a social good, and we know that because our tax dollars go to maintain them, we don’t have to pay every time we go to a park. What if the same were true for theatre? - American Theatre
“The messages bear the hallmarks of Bernardini’s original scheme: look-alike emails, carefully replicated fonts and signatures, fluency in industry slang and an intimate knowledge of relationships in the book world.” Then there are the poop emojis. - The New York Times
“When I accidentally stumbled into music criticism with an academic penchant for music analysis, my crutches for writing about music were technical and of little use in a newspaper. I had to find a way to simply listen. It gave me new ears, and I was hooked.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The program, which the mayor said would continue indefinitely, will draw from the pool of unsold tickets, which will be distributed by lottery via the Metropolitan Opera app. The catch: you’re not eligible if you’ve bought Met tickets any time since fall 2018. - The New York Times
“Violinist Elayna Duitman, head of the (musicians’ negotiating) committee, said their pay lags both inflation and the other ‘Big Five’ orchestras in Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, while upper management is well-compensated. … Their most recent contract extension expired earlier this week.” - Ideastream Public Media (Cleveland)
Money troubles aren’t new to the orchestra, but in the wake of the recent death of longtime benefactor Martha Ingram, “the organization does not have sufficient cash on hand to sustain operations at its current level. The Symphony's executive committee is developing a restructuring plan designed to stabilize the organization.” - Nashville Scene
