“When the 12 writers left Pushkin Square at lunchtime, they were trailed by a crowd that swelled to an estimated 10,000 people, stopping traffic and filling boulevards for 1.2 miles. Many wore the white ribbons that are a symbol of opposition to Mr. Putin’s government. The police did not interfere, although the organizers had not received a permit to march.”
Month: May 2012
The Education Of Contemporary Composers
“One of the toughest parts of teaching composition–indeed, teaching any artistic medium–is not only teaching the subject, but guiding the implementation and ultimately the transcendence of the subject material; in other words, not only teaching someone how to compose, but how to be a composer.”
Selling Man Ray’s Legacy – From The Auto-Body Shop
“Mr. Browner, now 86 years old, had only met Man Ray once before he and his brothers stepped in three decades ago to help their bereaved sister sort out the artist’s affairs. Today, Mr. Browner manages 15,000 copyrights for the artist and oversees licensing contracts worth roughly $300,000 a year–from Mandarin Hotel headboards embroidered with Man Ray’s images to Zara’s taupe-colored Man Ray shirts. The trust’s proceeds are split among a dozen heirs.”
The Courage To Write (The Damned Stage Directions)
“It took flipping out about stage directions for me to realize how much I have internalized all the various messages I’ve heard and witnessed over the past seven years. And it’s even sadder that I felt the need for permission from others to embrace something that used to be instinctual to my process.”
A Dance To The Music Of Silence (And We Don’t Mean John Cage)
Choreographer Amy O’Neal: “Is music a crutch for me? Why do I have to have it? Why can’t I just be up there alone? There’s an inherent tension and beauty in silence.”
Crap Year For Musicals – Thank The Theatre Gods For Performers
“Does it say something about the state of the American musical theater that the animating incident in the most accomplished new Broadway show of the season is the repairing of a vacuum cleaner?”
Bringing Cinema To Broadway With A New Movies-To-Musicals Fund
“Theater and movie industry execs Jed Bernstein, Bob Israel and Rich Battista have teamed to launch the Broadway and Vine Fund, a new fund for optioning movie titles for musical theater adaptations. First property to be optioned is 1984 Fox pic The Flamingo Kid.“
Snorting Vitamin B And Getting High On Rock Candy – What Onscreen “Drugs” Actually Are
“Movie sets are drug-free environments, at least in theory. Even if an actor is playing a tie-dye-wearing burnout whose best friend is a honey-bear bong, puffing the real thing is strictly verboten.”
Audra McDonald Returns To The Stage – And Garners More Acclaim
“Five years ago she stunned admirers of her luminous soprano by decamping to Los Angeles and the (nonsinging) role of the fertility specialist Naomi Bennett on the ABC series Private Practice. Now she has come back to New York theater, in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and her performance as the wanton, drug-addicted Bess has earned her superlative reviews and a Tony Award nomination, her seventh in 18 years.”
What Do You Do With All Of That Art You’ve Collected? Build A Private Museum, Of Course
“Over the past two years Wang Wei and her husband Liu Yiqian dropped a reported $317 million on their hobby. Now they need somewhere to display the collection they’ve amassed. The solution: a private art museum that Wang hopes will impart some class to China’s flashy nouveau riche.”