“Having problems hearing the play these days? You are not alone. Directors of Canada’s larger theatres say their audiences increasingly complain they just can’t hear the actors speaking. Is it a case of collective deafness? Are modern theatres poorly designed for acoustics? Have actors lost the art of projecting a whisper back to the rear balcony? Or have theatregoers lost the art of listening?” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Author: Douglas McLennan
TICKET INCOME BY ANY OTHER NAME …
Three years ago Jujamcyn, the third-largest theatre producer on Broadway, began a $1 surcharge on all the tickets it sold. The company called the fee a “restoration” charge to fund restoration of its theatres. But it refused to include the fee’s income when calculating royalty payments to its directors and choreographers. This week an arbitrator ruled Jujamcyn must include the charge and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back payments. – New York Post
THE DECLINING YEARS (EARLIER THAN YOU THINK?)
Does intellectual ability decline with age? Does our brain begin to lose its tone after the age of 30? That’s the age when physicists and mathematicians are thought to have passed their prime. On the other hand, historians often don’t make their best contributions until they’ve reached their 60s. – Feed 10/12/00
LAS VEGAS, CITY OF EXILES?
Las Vegas, hungry to prove that it has a sophisticated side, is the first American city to join an international program for writers escaping terror or turmoil. – Los Angeles Times 10/12/00
MAJOR SUPPORT
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has awarded $250,000 to a young Singaporean violinist to further her career. The award is the first of the bank’s Youth Excellence Initiatives. “To aspirants, she will show that there will be support if you have the talent.” – The Straits Times (Singapore) 10/12/00
SHOCK OF THE SAME OLD SAME OLD
A new book charges that the contemporary art world has become far too narrow-minded. “Shock art is the safest kind of art that an artist can go into the business of making today. The real mavericks of our time have been working quietly and carefully for years in their studios producing wonderful work few people have seen. And that even though the NEA is not the cause of the various ills we’ve seen, it is to a great degree an embodiment of the problem.” – Salon 10/12/00
SHOULD ALL ARTWORK BE RETURNED?
At a time when returning cultural artifacts to their countries of origin has become a goal, “the most distinguished specialist on Nigerian antiquities is now urging that looted and stolen artefacts should no longer be returned to Nigeria, because of endemic corruption in the country.” – The Art Newspaper
RUSSIAN BUILDINGS IN DANGER
“Russia boasts a staggering 90,000 official architectural landmarks, including churches and palaces from every era in its history, according to the Culture Ministry – and many are in danger of extinction. New-York based World Monuments Watch named seven Russian sites in this year’s list of the world’s 100 most endangered landmarks – more than any other country.” – CNN (AP)
SEA BOUNTY
New technologies make exploring the deep oceans easier and bring thousands of previously inaccessible shipwrecks within the reach of explorers. “While various nations have taken steps to protect, preserve and manage historic shipwrecks within their territorial waters, the same has not been the case for shipwrecks in international waters where there is no comprehensive legal regime that protects underwater sites and little or no sovereign jurisdiction.” – The Art Newspaper
A TRUST BETRAYED?
When Rev. William Wolcott died in 1911 he donated his art collection – including a Monet and two Pissarros – to Boston’s Museum of Fine Art. Though three of the paintings have been on continuous display in the museum ever since, much of the rest of the collection has lived in storage. So the trustees of Wolcott’s trust sued the museum to get the paintings back so they could sell them and establish education projects in Wolcott’s home town. Yesterday a judge said no. – Boston Herald