Month: March 2006

Famous Last Words

The just-resigned executive director of the Louisville Orchestra acknowledges that he may have been in over his head in the job, but says that “I gave it my absolutely best shot.” Scott Provancher had only run a small, part-time orchestra in Illinois before taking the Louisville job, but it appears that he may already have another job lined up – the orchestra’s board president says that he was contacted by a headhunter recently about Provancher.

“Smoking Gun” Unveiled At True Trial

Prosecutors at the trial of former Getty curator Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht have entered into evidence photos that they say prove their claim that the Getty was knowingly trafficking in stolen antiquities. “Prosecutors also called on Italy’s art theft police to explain the web that they say links the defendants to tomb robbers and unscrupulous dealers.”

Crash Suit May Have Wider Implications

The lawsuit over producer credits for the Oscar-winning film, Crash, may seem like nothing more than a lot of Hollywood insider bickering. But there are a number of underlying issues at stake, and not all of them have to do with the vanity of movie people. Among other things, “[the] suit has raised a real issue for debate within Hollywood about the confidential arbitration process.”

That’s Ridiculous

“Ridicule is a distinct kind of expression; its substance cannot be repackaged in a less offensive rhetorical form without expressing something very different from what was intended. That is why cartoons and other forms of ridicule have for centuries, even when illegal, been among the most important weapons of both noble and wicked political movements.”

When The Government Spies On Its Own People

Thirty-five years ago, a midnight break-in at an FBI office revealed “years of systematic wiretapping, infiltration and media manipulation designed to suppress dissent. Underground newspapers were targeted. Students (and their professors) were targeted. Celebrities were targeted. The Communist Party of the U.S.A., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Non-Violent Organizing Committee, the Black Panther Party, the Women’s Strike for Peace — all were targeted.” That was supposed to be the break-in to end all break-ins…

The End Of The English Arts Council?

There’s about to be a big shakeup of the UK culture-funding system. “Abolition of the Arts Council is no longer a question of whether, but when – and how soon, this government or the next. The 60th anniversary of its foundation by royal charter will fall in August, by which time every colour of the political spectrum will have accepted that the system by which public money is fed into arts has outlived its usefulness to such an extent that it constricts art and contradicts its founding purpose.”

The “Corrie” Case – Big Disappointment

New York Theatre Workshop’s decision to back down from presenting “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” says something about the current state of New York’s theatre scene. “We have reached the unacceptable face of the New York arts scene when the theater that produced the original Rent—and, more to the point, the conscience plays of Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill—should cave in like this to peculiar, unspecific pressure.”

Where Are The Right-Wing Playwrights?

Oscar winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes says there’s a problem with today’s theatre. What? There’s a shortage of right-wing playwrights. “There are all sorts of interesting areas for the right wing playwright to get into – the subversion of parliament, the intrusion of government into every day life. You could write a play about any of these things and technically it would be a right wing play but the phrase ‘right wing’ has now been kind of cast out into the shadows.”