“Stories may make plays, but people make stories. People come first. Why, I wonder, do so many playwrights have such a hard time with this seemingly simple notion? Why do their characters seem an afterthought, making little sense and possessing little substance? Why do writers for the stage persist in putting ideas ahead of people, rather than permitting themes to emerge, peekaboo-style, from the welter of human feelings and behavior?” – Philadelphia Inquirer
Author: Douglas McLennan
COLOR ME DANCE
“The notion of otherness implicit in the term “black dance” insures that it has remained a loaded and highly controversial concept a good two decades or more after it was coined. Is black dance work created by artists who happen to be black? Is dance “black” because it draws from black Caribbean or West African cultural forms and traditions or black American social history?” – New York Times
FRENCH ART APRES LA GUERRE
Given the profound effect the First World War had on the future of French art, it’s curious that so few attempts have been made to explore it. Now a “tentative, ultimately disappointing” show at the Museum of Modern Art. – New York Times
MICKEY MOUSE TO THE RESCUE
London’s Millennium Dome has been ailing – critics have been harsh and the crowds are staying away in droves. So the British government has sacked the Dome’s director and replaced her with a Mouseketeer – a top executive from EuroDisney. – Sunday Times (UK)
- DEPARTURE follows a series of shouting matches between Dome company executives and ministers ordered by the British Prime Minister to rescue the failing project and make it work. Relations between the company and the Government were said to have become untenable, as the Dome has turned into a major embarrassment for Tony Blair’s Labour Party. – The Telegraph (UK)
- Just how did such a project get built? And who’s to blame? (take credit?) – BBC
PAINTING RETURN
“After confirming that one of its most prized paintings had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II from an Austrian Jewish art collector, the North Carolina Museum of Art announced plans this week to give the painting back to its rightful owners, two sisters in Austria.” – New York Times
PLAYING FOR ALL THE MARBLES
Cultural plunder has been going on for centuries. If the Elgin Marbles are finally returned to the Greeks, will the floodgates open with demands for other countries and museums to return what they took? – Salon
MIDI-MOZARTS
New generation of music software effectively allows anyone with a computer to be a musician. “The current technology allows someone without any musical knowledge to effectively collage together music out of other people’s music,” says one software pioneer. “Forget about home studios and samplers. Increasingly sophisticated software and a slew of new beat-generating synthesizers have further democratized music-making, putting professional production tools in the hands of anyone, no formal training required. It doesn’t even cost much: Some of the software can be had for 49 bucks.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
RARE FIRST-EDITION COPERNICUS BOOK —
— stolen from Russian library. – The Times of India (AP)
24-HOUR THEATER
Chicago theater, written, rehearsed and performed in a 24-hour period – theater without a net. – New York Times
REICHSTAG ROW
German conceptual artist’s proposal for a project for the courtyard of the German Reichstag has created a furor. – Die Welt