Abramovic’s performances have always been about generating a kind of catharsis for herself, then for the rest of us, pushing people’s buttons, their limits, as she has her own. All to a particular transformative end. “I am one of the few people who don’t have secrets,” she says. “All of my secrets, I made performances out of them, or theater pieces.”
Diversity In Theatre Isn’t About Telling “Black” Stories
“In fact, to be a black writer is one of the most liberating things a person can be. I am black and I write about whatever I want – I always have and I always will. The only thing that makes a black writer feel limited is if others try to force their own definition of what it means to be black and a writer.”
Painter David Salle Turns Art Critic
“Look, art doesn’t have to be daunting. It’s helpful to think of works of art in ways similar to how we think about other people in our lives. Some people are harder to get to know. Some are more open and accessible and we feel we know them straight off. Other people, we feel as though their essence is more guarded.”
Even The Philadelphia Orchestra Can’t Improve The Lot Of The Professional Choral Singer
“New, entirely professional, and a child of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir would seem to be much-needed good news on the choral landscape. But so far in its formation, some Philadelphia vocal freelancers are experiencing consternation or even heartbreak at how it’s being handled.”
Nobels For Literature Are A Ridiculous Idea. But This Year’s Award Makes Them Relevant!
“I have to admit that the judges have done something remarkable. And you have to say, chapeau! For they have thrown the cat among the pigeons in a most delightful manner. First they have given the prize to someone who wasn’t courting it in any way, and that in itself is cheering. Second, in provoking the backlash of the purists who demand that the Nobel go to a novelist or poet, and the diehard fans who feel their literary hero has been short changed, they have revealed the pettiness, and boundary drawing that infests literary discourse. Why can’t these people understand? Art is simply not about a solemn attachment to this or that form. The judge’s decision to celebrate a greatness that also involves writing is a welcome invitation to move away from wearisome rivalries and simply take pleasure in contemplating one man’s awesome achievement.”
How Artist Feuds Fueled The Progress Of Visual Art
“One artist always seems to have been methodical and technically gifted, the other impulsive and instinctive; one artist tends to have been socially adept, the other rather reticent; one artist seems to have been senior while the other played catch-up… before the rubbing off on (and up against) each other began in earnest.”
Cameron Mackintosh Declares War On Theatre’s Secondary Ticket Market
He’s bringing “Hamilton” To his London theatre. “I’m putting all my efforts into finding a better way of ensuring that the price originally set for a ticket remains the price you actually do pay. We’re going to stop resale except in genuine circumstances where someone is ill or can’t come and the only permitted resale will then be via the theatre.”
Most Depressing Meeting Ever? The Empty Corcoran Hosts A Summit To Talk About Where It All Went Wrong
“The bare walls of the gallery — where priceless American paintings were long displayed — reflected the mournful tone of the discussion about the museum and school. In 2014, a District judge approved a deal that gave the National Gallery of Art custody of the museum’s 17,000-piece collection and George Washington University control of its renowned art school.”
A Composer’s Signal, 20 Years After His Death, In The Hall Named For Him
“Who was Takemitsu? He was a largely self-taught composer whose career followed a vague trajectory from the avant garde of the 1960s to a French period of ethereally moody music influenced by Debussy and Messiaen, winding up in a more Romantic, even nostalgic, style. But that’s leaving out one of his key innovations, combining traditional Japanese music with Western music. It is leaving out his love for pop music. (His Beatles arrangements for solo guitar have never been bettered.) It is leaving out his more than 90 film scores.”
Salt Lake City Gets A Pretty, And Well-Researched, New Theatre
“After years in the planning stages, next weekend’s grand opening gala will inaugurate the $119 million addition to downtown’s cultural core. It’s the second of three major theater openings in Utah planned this year, a building boom that’s unprecedented in the country.”
Food And The Life Of A Touring Piano Star
“My mother’s dumplings – with a secret ingredient that makes them so juicy yet so clean – are the best in the world and knowing I would have her food as a reward always gave me great energy at the keyboard.”
What’s The Ideal Theatre Like? This Architect Has Some Ideas
“A theatre should behave like a good host. It needs to have eyes in the back of its head, to pull people in and diminish divisions. These should be spaces where you feel at home at any time of the day.”
The Founder Of The International Contemporary Ensemble Has Decided To Step Down
“The ensemble has performed hundreds of new works, staking a strong claim as the nation’s pre-eminent new-music group in the process. Its annual budget has grown from $603 — her holiday catering tips underwrote that first year — to north of $2 million. Ms. Chase won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. And ICE now moves seamlessly among small nightclubs, schools and some of the nation’s premier stages.”
Behind The Scenes In Bollywood
“Bollywood is known for its sumptuous costumes, elaborate dances, and catchy songs. Mark Bennington was interested in something else: What did the Indian acting community look like off the screen?”
Playwrights Are Often Impoverished, But They *Need* To See Plays So They Can Do Their Own Work
“Some of the nation’s leading regional theaters, saying it is essential to the art form that writers see work by their colleagues and predecessors, have a solution: They will offer free last-minute seats to their shows. Theaters from Atlanta to Seattle have signed on.”
A Behind-The-Scenes Mover And Shaker Bringing The Art Of The African Diaspora With Her
“‘It’s no less ambitious than an effort to reframe art history,’ said Ms. Joyner, who sees herself as righting a wrong. ‘First, to include more broadly those who have been overlooked — and, for those with visibility, to steward and contextualize those careers.'”
Four Trends In Understanding Audience: Measurement, Streaming and Politics
This Week: Is there a correlation between value and attention in the arts?… Data’s in: the plus/minuses of live-streaming… Some ideas from a researcher on measuring aesthetic experience… How might the arts weigh in on politics without being dismissed?
The Bigger Picture: Making Sense Of Last Week’s Trending ArtsJournal Stories
This Week: Did Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for literature expand the category to songwriting?… Artists protest against gentrification… We’re deeply conflicted about the value of creativity… Is Google rewiring our brains so they don’t work so well?… Are we all living in a giant computer simulation? (don’t laugh)
Top Posts From AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 10.16.16
Four Trends In Understanding Audience: Measurement, Streaming and Politics This Week: Is there a correlation between value and attention in the arts?… Data’s in: the plus/minuses of live-streaming… Some ideas from a researcher on measuring aesthetic experience… How might the arts weigh in … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-10-16
People will talk In today’s Wall Street Journal I review an off-Broadway revival of Horton Foote’sThe Roads to Home and the Broadway premiere of Simon Stephens’Heisenberg. Here’s an excerpt. * * * It’s no surprise that … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-10-14
Rejoicing Well, I think it’s thrilling that Bob Dylan won his Nobel prize. One of the most profound artists alive today. Someone who goes very deep in me. dylan-blog And I’m also thrilled because by choosing … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-10-13
Colliding Ideas Tere O’Connor Dance appears at the Joyce Theater in the second week of NY Quadrille. The Joyce Theater reconfigured for the NY Quadrille performances. Photo: Billy Zavelson/courtesy of Richard Kornberg Associates It’s no secret that … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-10-13
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-10-13
Now That Dylan Has Been ‘Nobelized’ … it’s worth recalling this post about poetry, fakery, cultural theft, and stolen identity. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-10-13
Kathleen Turner On Playing Joan Didion For 80 Long, Word-Filled Minutes
“This isn’t about imitating Didion. This is about portraying a woman who is dealing with grief, and grasping for life. Facing unimaginable loss, she’s strong, vulnerable and fierce as she struggles to banish self-pity.”
Ang Lee Pleads With Critics – And The Audience – To Give High-Frame Movie A Chance
“It felt different than a movie. … It felt like a kind of virtual reality.”
How Important Is Childhood Dreaming? Ask An Award-Winning Illustrator
“You mustn’t be fearful of being imaginative. You might seem foolish in the eyes of many, but you mustn’t be fearful of it, because it’s the thing that’s going to get you through all the times that are not so good.”
He’s A Ballet Star, A Drag Queen, And A Pop Singer
“Pushing boundaries is something of a habit for [James] Whiteside, 32, who joined American Ballet [Theater] as a soloist in 2012 and became a principal a year later. Yes, he professionally plays Prince Charmings, but he also leads alternative artistic lives: as a pop singer, JbDubs, and drag queen, Uhu Betch.”
When I Started My Own Theater Company At Age Eight
Actor Finn Whitrock writes about the summers he spent with his parents at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts, and his he and his friends “would arrange five or six scenes from Shakespeare, rehearse them on our own time in the sun-drenched Berkshire afternoons and perform them for the adult company after one of their Mainstage shows.”
They’re Remaking ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ – Can They Even *Do* That?
This new Rocky Horror, airing Oct. 20 on Fox, “is its own strange experiment. It will test whether a decades-old musical about science-fiction B-movies and all kinds of sexual awakenings is still relevant or has grown quaint, and whether a Rocky Horror movie made with some polish and preparation is still Rocky Horror at all.”