The National Endowment for the Arts announced Monday that more than 200 organizations nationwide will receive grants totaling $2.8 million to host “The Big Read,” an initiative meant to restore book reading in American culture.
Month: June 2008
Actors’ Union Proposes Debate About Contract With Fellow Union
SAG and AFTRA have been fighting over issues in their negotiations with Hollywood studios. “The point of the debate would be to clear up conflicting information SAG and AFTRA members are receiving about the tentative agreement and its impact on SAG’s current negotiations with.”
Hollywood Studios Slow Production Schedules In Fear Of Actors’ Strike
“The majors are putting the brakes on production starts for features and TV pilots for fear that the Screen Actors Guild will call a strike following the June 30 expiration date of its feature-primetime deal.”
Suggestion: Children’s Theatre Should Be Free
So thinks playwright David Wood. “Children’s theatre should be getting, if not as much as, more funding than adult theatre. Our seat prices have rightly to be kept low, yet the production values we keep as high as possible, and there is a natural gap there between revenue and expenditure. How do you fill that? We try to get sponsorship, we try to get funding, but small people attract only small funding.”
Opera America’s New Chairman
“Opera America elected Houston Grand Opera General Director and CEO Anthony Freud as its chairman. He succeeds Opera Theater of St. Louis General Director Charles MacKay, who served for two terms, or four years.”
Report: Canadian Arts Revenues Flatten
“Total operating revenues for the performing-arts industry reached $1.2 billion in 2006, almost unchanged from 2005. Statistics Canada says revenues were split almost equally between the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.”
Special Effects Pioneer Stan Winston, 62
“Working with such directors as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Tim Burton in a career spanning four decades, Winston created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history. He helped bring the dinosaurs from “Jurassic Park,” the extraterrestrials from “Aliens, the robots from “Terminator” and even “Edward Scissorhands” to the big screen, and was a pioneer in merging real-world effects with computer imaging.”
Worldwide Movie Box Office Up Slightly In ’07
“Ticket sales rose 2% to 7.25 billion from the previous year and B.O. grosses leapt 10% to $28 billion, helped by falling exchange rates for the U.S. dollar. Research is based on findings from 57 countries, whose 4.5 billion people account for more than 95% of worldwide B.O. grosses.”
Catholic Church Denies Da Vinci Code Sequel Permission To Film
Producers of Angels and Demons were turned down because the film “does not conform to our views”, a spokesman for diocese told AP news agency.
“In” Music But Not “Making” Music
“Apparently 85 percent of music majors end up working “in the field,” although fewer than five percent are full-time professional performers. These are some pretty telling figures: Most music students will be doing something in music–teaching, administration, and so forth–but not what they went to college to do.”