Ralph Lister, Director of the Somerset-based NPO Take Art, believes that England’s rural arts infrastructure could disappear entirely within the next five years unless ACE takes steps to address the funding imbalance. – Arts Professional
Month: September 2019
Reimagining ‘Giselle’ For The Social Media Age
“Imagine this scenario: Hilarion likes Giselle, but she swipes right on Albrecht, and is smitten. Little does she know, Albrecht is already involved with Bathilde. When Giselle finds out, she livestreams her downward spiral (perhaps her hair even comes down in the midst of her heartbreak?), and enters a realm of women who’ve similarly been ghosted, or otherwise spurned by online relationships. This is the basic premise of Joshua Beamish’s new @giselle.” – Pointe Magazine
Do Transfers Of London Shows To Broadway Say Something About The State Of Broadway?
It is certainly possible to say that roughly a quarter of all the Broadway shows announced have at least one, if not both, feet planted in UK soil. But to those who wield this ‘fact’ to suggest US artists are getting short shrift, I say – with the appropriate eye roll – “Oh, please.” – The Stage
At 93, Betye Saar Is Finally Achieving Mainstream Art-World Stardom
“After a latish start as an artist — she was in her 30s — she made steady initial headway in a male-dominated Black Power movement and a white-dominated feminist movement. And she has held her own in a mainstream art market that has been, until very recently, unwelcoming to African-American art.” Now she has solo shows at flagship museums on both coasts: MoMA and LACMA. Why now? “Because,” she says, “it’s about time!” – The New York Times
Ivan Fischer’s Daughter Got Kicked Out Of Music Conservatory For Exploring Her Range (Turns Out It Works As A Career)
“Classical singing is very beautiful but very specific. I meanwhile was developing an interest in all the other things my voice could do – I felt that I had such a rich instrument and I was only being taught to sing with 15% of it. I was listening to a lot of other styles of music, and what I enjoyed most was the singers who dared to be very raw, like Björk or Thom Yorke, incredible musicians and singers who are not afraid – if the emotion asks them to – to sound really rough and even ugly.” – The Guardian
Making New Theatre From The Messenger Speeches In Greek Tragedies
“Show, don’t tell” is one of the most basic rules of dramatic writing. Yet the ancient Greeks told-rather-than-showing all the time: convention forbid onstage violence, so messengers recounted the tragedies’ grisly denouements. Five years ago, shortly after she had told friends she was giving up theatre, JoAnne Akalaitis got the idea to assemble some of those monologues — describing the sacrificing of Iphigenia, Pentheus being torn to pieces by the Bacchae, the poisoning of Jason’s bride by Medea, the slaughter of the Persian army — into a work called Bad News! I was there. – American Theatre
Theatre Pros Grade Boris Johnson’s First Week
“What we’re watching now is a man realising that the character he invented for himself in order to get something he didn’t want doesn’t work when you’re prime minister. It was fine for panel shows and PR opportunities, and for getting him into No 10, but he didn’t think it through. He failed to write the final act, and now he’s trapped in his own clown, in a costume that doesn’t fit any more, being forced to perform in a circus that’s packing up around him. How funny is that?” – The Guardian
Clora Bryant, Pathbreaking Female Jazz Trumpeter, Dead At 92
“[She] overcame sexist attitudes and outright hostility to earn a place on the bandstand alongside such musical stars as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.” – The Washington Post
LAPD Finds Trove Of Artworks Stolen From Homes 25 Years Ago
In 1993, there was a series of break-ins across the more expensive neighborhoods of Los Angeles in which dozens of paintings, antiques, and historic documents were taken. Two perps were captured year ago, but the art was lost until an auctioneer tipped off police this summer. More than 100 items have been recovered, and the issue now is finding their owners. – Los Angeles Times
Margaret Atwood Talks About ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ And Why She Wrote A Sequel
“Totalitarian systems don’t last, it is my fervent belief. Some of them have lasted longer than others. When they come apart, what is it that causes them to fall apart? … [And] how do you get to be a high-ranking person within a totalitarian dictatorship? Either you’re a true believer from the beginning, at which point you’re probably going to get purged later on, or you’re an opportunist. Or it can be fear … I would put fear as No. 1: If I don’t do this, I will be killed.” – The New York Times