Author: Laura Collins Hughes

As Waves Of Change Swamp Criticism, Plays Will Endure

“Our time is an exceptionally rough one for criticism. With the dizzying changes in the way we communicate altering the whole fabric of our social life, we are going through a double revolution, and revolutions are never optimal moments for integrity and clarity of thought. The critic–whether viewed by the theater as an enemy, a necessary gadfly, a creative partner, or a poor relation to be tolerated–was never more than a small part of the picture.”

A.S. Byatt: Using Real People In Fiction Invades Privacy

“AS Byatt has launched a vigorous attack on writers who combine biography and fiction, calling it an ‘appropriation of others’ lives and privacy’. Her broadside against authors of ‘faction’, which she describes as ‘mixtures of biography and fiction, journalism and invention’, is particularly startling given that it could be applied to her rival for this year’s Man Booker prize, Hilary Mantel, who is longlisted for her historical novel about the life of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall.”

Toronto’s Koerner Hall Is Looking, And Sounding, Good

“The Royal Conservatory of Music invited a handful of people yesterday to look at – and hear – the results of seven years of planning and construction behind Toronto’s newest cultural landmark…. People attending were instructed to not speak publicly about the quality of the sound, because construction is still not complete and because there wasn’t a real audience there to fill the room. But the initial impressions are so fine that it’s hard to not share the pleasure.”

Man Who Strips On Plinth Is Told To Put His Undies On

“The human form may be a mainstay of art, but that didn’t stop police ordering a nude man intent on becoming a ‘living statue’ from covering up as he took part in Antony Gormley’s fourth plinth art project yesterday morning. The man, known only as Simon, arrived in London’s Trafalgar Square fully-dressed, but once he was safely on the plinth at 1am, he removed his T-shirt, kicked off his trousers and then, after pacing for a few moments, took off his underwear.”

Opera Doesn’t Have To Be Drivel

“[E]ven those who supposedly love the art form, and who are involved in putting it on, are increasingly laboring under the delusion that it is inherently over-the-top, overblown, ridiculous, and, well, drivel.” According to this way of thinking, “opera has to have arias; opera has to have big emotions; therefore, we will have arias and ensembles, because they are the ingredients that make opera, even if it means stopping the action to tell the audience things that we already know.”

The Dopamine Loop: Why We Can’t Stop Seeking Online

“We actually resemble nothing so much as those legendary lab rats that endlessly pressed a lever to give themselves a little electrical jolt to the brain. While we tap, tap away at our search engines, it appears we are stimulating the same system in our brains that scientists accidentally discovered more than 50 years ago when probing rat skulls.”

Govt. Recruits TV Dance Judge To Get Populace Exercising

“For years now, it seems that the Government’s sole interest in dance hasn’t been as a theatrical art form but as a means of preventing obesity in the young and improving the health of the elderly…. Now comes Arlene Phillips, West End choreographer and erstwhile Strictly Come Dancing judge, to join the government-backed crusade to get us all moving.”

Puzo’s Godfather, Still Popular 40 Years On — But Why?

“The reasons for its enduring popularity aren’t easy to pin down. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpieces, ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Godfather, Part II,’ brought a swarm of new readers, but the book had already sold millions of copies before the first film was released in 1972. Those who read the novel today in search of a greater appreciation of the movies are bound to be disappointed; it quickly becomes apparent the book’s success isn’t based on literary merit. “

A New Wing Gets Cleveland Museum Almost Halfway There

The Cleveland Museum of Art “has accomplished Phase I of an eight-year, $350 million renovation and expansion that–if completed as planned in 2013–will be the largest cultural project in Ohio’s history. … Although lack of adequate space for [its] deep Asian collection was a principal motivation for the current building project, the bulk of that collection will be in storage until the Viñoly expansion is completed in 2013.”