Mary Tyler Moore has quit Neil Simon’s new play while still in rehearsals. “Ms. Moore was seen storming out the backstage door minutes before the 2 p.m. curtain on Wednesday. Several sources close to the production said she had just received a brusque letter written by Mr. Simon and delivered by his wife, the actress Elaine Joyce, reproaching her for not knowing her lines. Ms. Moore had received prompting through a microphone in her ear, the sources said.”
Month: December 2003
Cuban Ballet’s Defecting Dancers
This fall, five dancers from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba leftr the company during an American tour to seek asylum “Since November of last year, they said, a total of 20 dancers have defected in Mexico, Spain, the Dominican Republic and, now, the United States. The troupe had about 90 dancers before the defections. The company and the government have taken steps to stop the exodus. The dancers described a summer meeting in which Abel Prieto, the culture minister, announced that the ministry was considering allowing some dancers to work with foreign companies, which would give them international exposure.”
The Royal’s Bits And Pieces
London’s Royal Ballet has to sell tickets. So it produces mostly programs of full-length ballets. “Since the death of Kenneth MacMillan, the company has not had a resident choreographer, nor a candidate fit for the role, in itself a failing. Instead, bought-in goods, some wonderful, some frightful, papered over the chasms in artistic policy.” This month the company shows off some shorter works…
Dario Fo’s Natural Target
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has an unpleasant habit of burying dissent in the media (of which he controls a fair amount). So who’s ready to skewer him? Playwright Dario Fo, of course. “Thus the time is clearly ripe for Fo to write and perform a commedia dell’arte based on Berlusconi. Fo and, involuntarily, Berlusconi have been building up to the moment for more than 40 years.”
A Screener Issue That Threatens To Engulf The Industry
The Motion Picture Association of America’s new policy of not providing screeners to those voting on various awards is pissing off many in the industry. “The question producers might consider now: How bad a taste will the screener issue leave in the mouths of the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild? Why? Because both these unions are currently in the process of organizing the positions and recommendations they’ll carry into next year’s negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on their feature-film and TV contracts.”
Bringing Multimedia To The Stage
Live theatre offers an audience experience that can’t be duplicated by TV or on film. And yet, “theatre artists are increasingly toying with multimedia, often in commercial settings. Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, is a daring and natural breeding ground for multimedia experimentation.”
Good News Bears
Why does most research on culture end up with a positive spin, asks Andrew Taylor. “Much of the research on the public aspects of the arts is done by advocacy organizations or community coalitions with an admitted bias (of course the arts have a positive impact on city economies, education, at-risk youth, and luring the creative class, and we’ve designed research to prove it). Even at professional conferences, we are more likely to share ‘best practices’ and handy tips to sell tickets quickly, rather than exposing and exploring times we dropped the ball or didn’t even see it. It’s all fine and friendly, but such one-sided and guarded discussions are contrary to learning.”
Is Copyright Killing Culture?
“Culture as we know it is increasingly bound up in the very laws that are supposed to nurture it. Copyright law has gone from promoting creativity to hindering artistic expression, thanks in part to the efforts of a few giant corporations that are sitting on billions of dollars worth of intellectual property. Culture is paying the price for these bad laws. In fact, the labyrinth of copyright has already had a devastating effect on an entire art form.”
Branding For Non-Profits
“Large nonprofit organizations, like their corporate counterparts, have long recognized the value of branding. Now, small local groups are picking up on the importance of standing out from the charitable crowd. Nearly 1.4 million nonprofits are competing for dollars in the United States. Whether they hire a public- relations expert or buy an online-branding kit, they all hope their logos will convey a trustworthy cause to donors – and make it easy to distinguish their envelopes from the daily round of junk mail.”
Mockbee Wins Architecture Gold Medal
“In an era marked by celebrity architects and grand cultural projects, the American Institute of Architects has awarded its 2004 Gold Medal to Samuel Mockbee, a visionary designer and educator who devoted his career to building housing for the rural poor. The award, announced yesterday, is posthumous.”