The divide between liberals and conservatives is not in what we value, but how those values are expressed. So why are there no (or practically no) conservative voices in theater when they are so prominent elsewhere in society? When we say we want diversity in theater, do we really mean it?
Have You Noticed The Odd Reviews Of The New Whitney Museum?
“Critics of the Whitney have made this problem particularly clear by their tendency to heap praise on the galleries while expressing indifference or hostility toward the building as a whole—a schizy split often reflecting a division of editorial labor in which the art critic cheers how great the art looks and then hands off to an architecture critic to trash the structure that houses them.”
Thousands Stand In Line To See ‘China’s Mona Lisa’
“Since an exhibition celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Palace Museum [in Beijing’s Forbidden City] opened in early September, people have been waiting for up to 10 hours to see this 17-foot-long masterpiece attributed to the painter Zhang Zeduan, an intricate ink-on-silk tableau of life in the Northern Song dynasty capital, Kaifeng. The best-known painting in the museum’s vast collection, it has been shown in public only a few times.”
What Man-Against-The-Elements Movies Miss About Death And Dying
“In the midst of the film’s expensively produced spectacle, the gradual loss of a will to live – a subjective experience by nature – resists being rendered onscreen. … There’s no villain, no decisive action, and not much argument – just terrible lassitude and growing mental incapacity.”
Two Leaders Who Are Transforming Opera Philadelphia Extend Contracts
“General director and president David B. Devan and music director Corrado Rovaris have signed contracts that will keep them at the company at least through the end of the 2019-20 season … as the company expands plans for international co-productions, increases relationships with a glittering roster of singers and directors, and continues to blur the line of the opera genre – all while raising extra money to help pay for it all.”
Is Print Theatre Coverage Dead – And If It Is, Should We Be Worried About That?
“It’s sad, but the truth is, it’s not where the audience is. The relationship with the tabloids has been fun and symbiotic, but audiences don’t read papers anymore. We’re pitching online. Even the most unsophisticated Broadway theatergoers are sophisticated online users.”
The High-Wire Walker Who Has A Plan To Take Over The Entertainment World
“He has to pause and kneel on the wire several times, his monitor and headset mic keep slipping off his ear — of all the things that could kill him right now, indulging in light banter has shot to the top of the list.”
The Bizarre, Decaying Postmodern Suburbs Of Eastern Paris
They’re one of the settings for the final installment of The Hunger Games for a reason.
Why ‘Hamilton’ Has Caught Fire At This Historical Moment
“It takes only one listen to figure out that Donald Trump will not be one of the show’s numerous fawning audience members or backstage guests. In fact, I’m convinced that every time you listen to the cast recording straight through, one of Trump’s Horcruxes is destroyed.”
Speaking Of Translation … Women Theatre Critics Get It Way More Than Men
“We need to get to a stage in our theatre when a woman can be allowed to tell her own story, without translation – in all its complexity, and grotesqueness, and ugliness, and non-conformity, and sometimes conformity, and sometimes subversion. Not as a feminist statement. But just ‘coz. Because we are women theatre makers and this is how we see the world, and our view is just as valid as the culturally predominant male lens we’ve spent so much time translating.”
A Dance ‘Telenovela’ Unfolds Across Many Different Neighborhoods In L.A.
“With today’s audiences having Twitter-like attention spans and where dances choreographed for TV shows like ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ generally encompassing about two minutes, Duckler said her goal — and main test — ‘was to make a dance work that lasts for five hours.'”
The Death Of Language In The Global Age Of English
“Much has been said recently about the growth of world literature in the age of globalization, but this has overwhelmingly come from those writing in English and/or dealing with literatures in the Romance languages.”
A New Concert Hall For New Music Opens In Brooklyn
National Sawdust, which opens this week in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, aims to be a trendsetting launchpad for new talent in contemporary music, its organizers said, with a focus on emerging artists, commissions and collaborative projects that cross-pollinate genres and styles.
Switch: Playwright Urges People Not To See His Play
“I literally have had my play stolen from me,” Tommy Smith said in an email sent to colleagues and the press this week.
How Discrimination Works In Publishing
Here is the thing about how discrimination works: No one ever comes right out and says, “We don’t want you.” In the publishing world, they don’t say, “We just don’t want your story.” They say, “We’re not sure you’re relatable” and “You don’t want to exclude anyone with your work.” They say, “We’re not sure who your audience is.”
What’s Wrong With the Group Of Young Choreographers NY City Ballet Is Championing This Fall?
“The problem is far-reaching, especially among companies of NYCB’s scale. And yet, I want to believe that I work in a field that cares about the voices of women and people of color. I want to believe that an art form that fancies itself as progressive, and a company situated in one of the most forward-thinking cities in the world, isn’t complacent about racism and sexism. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any of this yet.”
Finally! Some Real Progress on Arts Education In America (Heh)
“Ms. Alexander is a well-qualified teacher, and we have the utmost confidence that she will provide quality art instruction to our nation’s students as she rotates through each of the 98,000 public schools in this country,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who explained that Alexander will teach a 40-minute studio art course to each of the grade levels at a different school each day, beginning with Colby High School in Denver on Wednesday, until she eventually visits every school in the nation, at which point she will cycle back to the beginning and start again.
First-Ever Nasher Prize For Sculpture – Worth $100,000 – Goes To Doris Salcedo
“A seven-member international jury made up of artists, curators, and museum directors selected Salcedo, a [Colombian] sculptor and installation artist whose politically charged work, in her words, aims to ‘connect worlds that normally are unconnected, like art and politics.'”
‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Has Become A Text For Academics
“Hundreds of scholarly books and articles have been written about Buffy‘s deeper themes, and an entire academic journal and conference series – appropriately called Slayage – is devoted to using the show and other [Joss] Whedon works to discuss subjects such as philosophy and cultural theory.”
Museum Directors Release Plan to Help Provide Safe Havens for Endangered Antiquities
“Under the protocols outlined by the Association of Art Museum Directors, owners whose works are endangered because of terrorism, violent conflict or natural disasters could request that the items be held by a member museum until conditions improved enough for their safe return. Once transferred, these works would be treated as loans, an arrangement that would assuage those concerns that the pieces would never be repatriated.”
Handicapping This Year’s Nobel Prize For Literature
The Journal‘s Speakeasy blog looks at the six contenders currently topping Ladbrokes’s list, five of whom have been mentioned for years and one – the current leader, as it happens – whose name will be unfamiliar to many of us.
The Misty Copeland Effect: Has She Already Helped Change Professional Ballet?
Says Washington Ballet artistic director Septime Webre, “It’s really taken some time for directors to feel comfortable talking about this subject, but now the topic is out in the ether. Misty is a big part of that. And people aren’t just talking now, they’re really trying to find ways to do something about it.”
140 Characters Are More Than Enough
“Twitter’s character limit is more than a pragmatic concern – it’s an aesthetic and cultural one, too, and it defines the tone and nature of the platform itself. Twitter is a thing constantly in motion, and changing the nature of the tweet will correspondingly change the nature of the tweetstream for the worse.”
Tony-Winning Director John Doyle Takes Reins Of Off-Broadway Company
Known for his slimmed-down productions of Sweeney Todd and Company in which the actors doubled as instrumentalists, Doyle will become artistic director of Classic Stage Company next July.
Why I Gave Up E-Books After Four All-Digital Years
For Craig Mod, it isn’t just the tactility of print books that matters (though he loves that quality): “The pile of unread books we have on our bedside tables is often referred to as a graveyard of good intentions. The list of unread books on our Kindles is more of a black hole of fleeting intentions.”