The Stage‘s anonymous West End Producer, in response to a reader request, lays out “the cardinal sins of auditioning.” For instance: “Avoid slagging off other directors or performers. We will usually know the people involved, and my casting director will often have slept with them – so they will be personal friends.”
A 25-Year Search For The Secrets Of Gaga
“The film director Tomer Heymann entered – or barged – into the life of the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin 25 years ago, first as his waiter at a cafe and then as the boyfriend of one of his dancers.”
Behold The Awesome Power Of The People’s Liberation Army’s Rooster Dance
A little gift for the Year of the Rooster. (video)
What London’s National Gallery Learned Giving Live-Streaming Gallery Tours
“Though we have seen uplifts in ticket sales during the days following broadcasts, it quickly became clear that the segment of our audience who have been most enthusiastic about the broadcasts are those who are not able to come to the National Gallery in person.”
Report On The State Of British Orchestras: Playing More, Earning Less
“The total number of concerts and performances staged by these organisations increased by 7% between 2013 and 2016, and audiences grew by 3%. Outreach programmes for children and young people saw a 35% increase in participation… Despite the growth in performances, total income among the group studied fell by 5%, with earned income, contributed income and public funding all showing decreases. Earned income continues to account for 48% of all income, while the proportion raised from public funding fell by one percentage point to 34%.”
For Philip Glass’ 80th Birthday, An 11th Symphony
Glass, responding to a question: “I’ve done quite a few operas, and probably close to a third to a half of them have political themes. It’s only really in the opera house, or in the theater, and sometimes in the dance hall, that the composer can initiate a discussion about social justice and politics. Mostly, we’re just writing. Symphony No. 11 doesn’t have any of that: It’s just about music.”
Tania Bruguera Pulls Work From Bronx Museum, Claiming It’s Complicit In Cuban Censorship
The artist, who has been detained and also jailed in Cuba, says, “There is a long tradition of artists withdrawing art [from exhibits] for moral reasons.” Now she’s going to join them.
Now, Conservatories Need To Train Students To Speak As Well As They Sing
As composers embrace a wide variety of vocal styles, “introducing budding opera singers to the experimental side of the genre isn’t necessarily a fool’s errand.”
The Black Women Who Made New York – And Reshaped The World
Women like Audre Lorde and Clara Hale didn’t just affect New York; they “likewise reshaped the ways in which nearly all members of society think about our relationships to one another. The legacy of these pioneers was on display last weekend all over the world, where humans of every gender, age and persuasion took to the streets.”
Magazines Submitted Little Fiction To The Contest, So A Prize Fades Away
Author Anthony Marra: “Writing, editing, and publishing short stories in literary magazines is a labor of love for all involved. … They aren’t clickbait. They don’t make much noise or much money. And yet the best of them long outlast the paper on which they were first printed.”
Mary Zimmerman Tries A Fourth Time At The Met With ‘Rusalka’
This opera might be the one that works for her: “If she never quite found her footing in the rigid conventions of bel canto, there is more in common with her theater work in the later, dreamier, more epic ‘Rusalka.'”
You Thought Sundance Might Be An Escape From Politics? Ha!
Founder Robert Redford: “We try to stay away from politics, per se. We stay focused on what are the stories being told by artists.” The stories being told, though, could easily be seen as political.
Anthony Goldstone, Pianist Who Recorded CDs At A Record Pace, Dies At 72
Goldstone recorded prolifically – and, with his wife Caroline Clemmow, produced recordings of hundreds of works for four hands. “He also delighted in excavating unpublished or unfinished pieces which he would complete himself and record. A disc of Mozart, for example, featured a number of works left unfinished at the composer’s death – including a D minor Fantasy and a Präludium in C – fragments which were reconstructed and completed with skill and sensitivity.”
This 1956 Opera About Courageous And Doomed French Nuns Could Not Be More Relevant
To draw the connection between Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites” and this very moment: “When mosques have been burned in Florida and Washington State, when a Muslim can be removed from a plane for reading or speaking in Arabic, when a registry for U.S. Muslims is being discussed as a real possibility, it’s worth looking back at the anti-religious hysterias of earlier times. The intolerance is the same; only the clothes and the book are different.”
These People Built A Ponzi Scheme Around ‘Hamilton’ Tickets – And Got Caught
They “raised about $81 million from at least 125 investors in 13 states who were told their money was being pooled to buy large blocks of tickets to be resold for a profit.” Instead, the guys spent the money on private school tuition, jewelry, and casinos.
Yes, 1984 Relates To Us *Right Now*
Oh heck, let’s read a few pages: “Where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed — if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth.”
Why 1984 Keeps Needing New Print Runs And Everyone Is Tagging Margaret Atwood On Twitter
Because we’re suddenly living in a dystopian novel, or something like it, we keep wanting to read more and more of them.
When Sartre And Camus Lost Their Friendship Arguing How To Be Free
Newspapers sold out across France when Camus’ book The Rebel was published – and Sartre’s newspaper trashed it. “The split between the two friends was a media sensation. … It’s hard to imagine an intellectual feud capturing that degree of public attention today, but, in this disagreement, many readers saw the political crises of the times reflected back at them. … If you are thoroughly committed to an idea, are you compelled to kill for it? What price for justice? What price for freedom?”
Sure, It’s Nostalgic, But People Love Film For A Lot Of Other Reasons
A visit to new, state-of-the-art projection booths proves that film – unlike digital – has an ineffable quality that seems to capture the soul, or at least the devotion, of those who know anything about the subject.
Absurdist Theatre Serves The Resistance To Any Regime
After the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, absurd theatre fell out of fashion. Then came 9/11. “Absurdism is about facing a world in which nothing seems to make sense. It is about accepting that deeply tragic events happen sometimes without much or any warning. It is about the realization that our understanding of the universe is limited and flawed. It is about the embracing the fact that our lives can be both terrifying and ridiculous, indeed the more terrifying, the more ridiculous. And it is about resistance.”
Barbara Hale, The Actress Who Played Perry Mason’s Secretary And Won An Emmy For It, Has Died At 94
Hale played Della Street over, and over, and over, and over again – and even helped revive the character in the 1980s. “She never seemed unhappy about being identified with one character throughout her career. In 1993 she told The Chicago Tribune that Della Street was ‘a woman who knew what everybody was thinking.'”
Critical Consensus: Here’s The Best Movie At This Year’s Sundance Festival
“It’s easy to caricature the festival — earnest docs, white-people-problem ensemble dramedies and the like — yet Sundance often proves itself capable not just of launching interesting careers, but also of nudging the needle forward when it comes to onscreen diversity and representation.”
LA’s Hammer Museum To Build A Major Expansion
“This transformation will provide 60 percent more exhibition space including collection galleries and a works on paper gallery to highlight our growing collection of photographs and drawings,” Ann Philbin, the Hammer’s director, said in a statement.
Why Isn’t The White House Petition To Save The NEA Collecting Signatures?
“The petition, entitled ‘Preserve the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ has received hundreds of tweets from proud signees but the official count (at the time of writing) reads: ’27 signed’.”
Comcast Defies Cable Industry Trend And Adds Customers
“The Philadelphia cable giant achieved a milestone in a sea of industry turbulence, adding a net 80,000 cable TV subscribers in the fourth quarter and 161,000 for the full year — defying the trend of customer cord-cutting that has concerned Wall Street. Comcast now has nearly 23 million cable TV subscribers, gaining on rival AT&T.”