Stories

North America’s Largest Repertory Theatre Company, Stratford Festival, Names New Artistic Director

“Jonathan Church, known for his work as a director and producer on multiple hit shows in London’s West End, and as the leader of several major regional houses in the U.K., will succeed Antoni Cimolino next fall.” - Toronto Star

Syracuse University Pauses Admissions For 20 Undergrad Majors, Most Of Them Arts And Humanities

The decision was made by the institution’s senate in its first meeting of the 2025-26 academic year without faculty input. Among the majors affected are fine arts, music history, classics, digital humanities, African-American and Latino/Latin American Studies, and French, German, Italian, and Russian language and literature. - ARTnews

University Of Oxford To Open New $250 Million Arts Center

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre, opening on October 13 and built for £185 million ($250 million), includes a 500-seat concert hall, a 250-seat theatre, a black box performance space, a dance studio, a cinema, lecture and exhibition halls, a library, and rehearsal rooms. - BBC (Yahoo!)

Why The Latest “Cabaret” Revival Was A Smash In The West End But Crashed On Broadway

The London production of Rebecca Frecknall’s staging, for which the theatre was remodeled into a seedy Kit Kat Club, is going strong after four years and over 1,500 performances. The New York production closed after 18 months at a big loss, and producers are suing each other. Why the difference? - The Observer (UK)

Menand: What, Now, Is This Free Speech Of Which You Speak?

If the Administration’s actions are so blatantly unlawful, why does everyone seem to be caving? Some of it is just cost-benefit analysis. - The New Yorker

San Francisco Contemporary Dance Institution ODC Names New Co-Artistic Director

Mia J. Chong, a choreographer and currently a staging director for ODC, will succeed 83-year-old founder Brenda Way. The 54-year-old dance organization encompasses a dance company which tours domestically and abroad, a school, a theater and a 50,00-square-foot campus in the Mission District. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Big Publishing’s Gambling Problem

Because the majority of books don’t earn out, most people in publishing have the disappointing experience of working on a book they love that, for whatever reason, didn’t hit: “If you’re a fair person, you know it’s not the author’s fault. It’s just the realities of a very difficult market.” - The Walrus

The Strad As Overpriced Object Of Art

The violins may be rare, excellently made, and, to some, worth the money. But none of that is actually worth a fig if their price outshines their purpose: to provide a little ear tickling and make it pleasurable to be inside your own head. - Literary Review of Canada

How Our Screens Are Changing How We Interact With The World

If the reading revolution represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the screen revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history. - Cultural Capital

Oklahoma Eliminates Arts Requirement For High School Students

“Starting with eighth-graders this year, Oklahoma won’t require fine arts credits to earn a high school diploma. ... The decision to offer fine arts curriculum will now be left up to school districts across the state. Advocates worry about the future of drama, art and music opportunities in public schools.” - The Frontier (Tulsa)

Artists Are Projecting Satiric Trump Images On Buildings Around LA

An anonymous street art collective using the moniker Vjaybombs is behind the satirical artworks (which they call “projection bombs” and “guerrilla projections”), broadcasting them to an Instagram following of almost 100,000. - Hyperallergic

The Network TV Model Is Dead. It Won’t Take Much To Topple It

I wonder why Nexstar is even pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal to buy TV stations. Traditionally it's been a great investment. But tradition is all that’s left when it comes to the original broadcast model. The ice cube is out of the freezer. Drip drip drip. - Wired

Critics Slam US Comedians For Participating In Saudi Comedy Festival

In its statement announcing the event, the General Entertainment Authority described the festival as "the largest of its kind globally," adding that it "reflects the efforts to amplify Riyadh's status as a leading destination for major cultural and artistic events." - NPR

Vancouver Art Gallery Selects Architects For Its Second Attempt At A New Building

“After previously picking Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron to design the building, the project was scrapped last year when its budget reportedly ballooned from $400 million to $600 million. (Now the Gallery) has named Formline Architecture and Urbanism + KPMB Architects as the architectural team (to design its first) purpose-built home.” - Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

YouTube Pays Trump $24.5 Million To Settle Lawsuit

YouTube froze Mr. Trump’s account after the riot, blocking him from uploading new videos and arguing that the content could lead to more violence. Mr. Trump sued YouTube in October 2021, claiming that it and other social media firms that removed his accounts had wrongfully censored him. - The New York Times

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