Wasn’t it just yesterday the press was beating up on Trevor Nunn and his choices running London’s National Theatre? Well, his successor hasn’t wasted any time signaling his split from the past. Jerry Springer – The Opera, a cheeky, irreverent, and joyously filthy musical theatre satire on the TV chat show no one likes to admit to watching, will be Nicholas Hytner’s first big production when his reign begins in April. As a first choice it sends an unmistakable message that the years ahead are likely not only to be risky and exciting but revolutionary in a way that Sir Trevor Nunn’s were not.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Scottish Actors Heading South?
Is Scottish theatre underfunded? The union Actors Equity says yes, theatre people are paid better in England than in Scotland. “This is going to mean a serious talent drain. Scottish theatres are not going to be competitive enough to retain the best actors or the best directors, technical staff and administrators. Theatres across the Border will be able to offer better resources and working conditions.”
Theatre Drain
Is it just coincidence or is something deeper going on here? Many of Scotland’s best theatre and artistic directors are leaving their jobs. “Within the next few months, every rep theatre in Scotland save the Byre in St Andrews will have a new artistic director.”
NY Dance Builds Up
New York dance companies are in a building boom. Alvin Ailey and Trisha Brown are both building new homes, and Mark Morris built one last year. “It speaks to their ability to reach an audience that they are stable enough to afford their own homes. There’s a moment in the development of nonprofits where they institutionalize. It’s wonderful to know where your next rehearsal space is and what kind of amenities—showers and lockers—you’re going to have.”
How To Build A Company From Scratch
Want to start a dance company? Former Martha Graham company principal dancer Jeanne Ruddy is doing it in Philadelphia. She’s building a company, a home and a school. All for $3.5 million. And an aggressive entrepreneurial business plan…
The Miracle-Of-Technology Problem
“As moviemaking becomes increasingly high-tech, Hollywood film crews are finding themselves at odds with the technology that permeates everyday life. They sit on the cutting edge of a global laboratory in which millions of computer chips, hordes of wireless devices and even ordinary contraptions can wreak havoc on their productions.” But it’s not like the old days when if a mechanical camera broke, you got inside and fixed it…
Made In Afghanistan
The first movie to be made in Afghanistan since the Taliban is being made by an Iranian woman. “People here don’t understand the meaning of real cinema. They think it’s all like Indian movies: musicals, love stories, fighting and action. If we can make a film here and show them it’s something of a mirror, we can put the mirror of cinema in front of the people’s souls so little by little they can change themselves.”
How Do You Build An Orchestra When The Top Guy Doesn’t Stay?
The Melbourne Orchestra has had something of an indifferent past, attended to by a series of guest conductors and maestros who never seemed to stay for long. The absence of a continuous guiding hand made for years of rough and unsteady concerts. All the same, this turnover of visitors kept audience numbers high, and supplemented a sense of cultural inferiority.” Now the orchestra has appointed a new chief conductor. “Oleg Caetani will take over the chief conductor’s position in 2005 and should make a significant impact on the city’s musical life.”
Celestial Sounds (As Music)
When the Voyager space probes shot past Saturn, Uranus and Neptune on their 25-year journey into deep space, machines in the probe captured the whistles and chirrups the probes encountered, and transmitted them back to earth. Now composer Terry Riley has written a piece incorporating the sounds into a piece for the Kronos String Quartet and a 60-voice choir. “The string quartet was NASA’s idea, the product of an arts programme that, over the past 30 years, has commissioned work from artists including Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.”
A Remaster On The Future
The hot new trend for recording buyers this Holiday season? “Music marketers are using new technology to remaster albums to their original form after selling us sonically sweetened versions for ages. With the success of historical and theme compilations, they’ve figured out these carefully made reproductions – with a few add-ons – will entice us anew.”