“An evening exploring the controversy surrounding Jeremy Piven’s surprise departure from the recent Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow will be presented at Joe’s Pub next month. … The evening was created by Alena Smith (Public Emerging Writers Group 2009) with Jordan Seavey (EWG ’09) and Anna O’Donoghue.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In Drabinsky Sentencing, The Would-Be Drama That Wasn’t
“Granted, it took a decade to arrive at this point and, granted, the world looks askance on this country’s lack of zeal in prosecuting white-collar crime. But still, the moment seemed such muted theatre, so dissonant for the Ziegfeld-like producer of Phantom of the Opera and Showboat and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
Drabinsky Sentenced To 7 Years For Livent Fraud
“Livent founder Garth Drabinsky has been sentenced to seven years in prison for an accounting fraud that propelled the theatre company onto the global stage before leading to its collapse. Drabinsky’s business partner and co-defendant Myron Gottlieb was sentenced to six years. … Prosecutor Alex Hrybinsky had asked for prison terms of eight to 10 years, noting that neither man has shown remorse.”
To Convey A Serious Message, Al Franken Taps The Brakes
When you’re a smart person who’s made a high-profile career as a funny, caustic performer, how do you recalibrate your tone for a serious setting? It’s a question celebrities have long confronted, and Al Franken faces the same problem as he gears up for his maiden speech in the Senate. The issue isn’t only what he says; it’s that his audience has been conditioned over decades to expect humor from him.
Suspect In La Guardia Bomb Scare Is A Classical Pianist
The man arrested in Saturday’s bomb scare at La Guardia Airport “was a regular at Beethoven Pianos on W. 58th St., turning up weekly over the last year to rent one of the $15-an-hour instruments, according to shop employees. ‘He’s always welcome here,’ said Perry Fellwock, marketing manager at the store. ‘His piano playing is brilliant. He plays mostly classical music.'”
In Copyright Battle, Canadian Writers Land A Powerful Ally
“With the issue of copyright reform at the forefront of the federal government’s agenda once again, the Writers’ Union of Canada has scored a major coup by enlisting Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff as its newest member. ‘I’ve been a working writer since I got out of university and earned my living as a freelance writer for 18 years … so I have a strong identification with the struggles of writers,’ said Ignatieff, who has been a member of the union in the past.”
Will Publishers Start Enforcing Deadlines To Save $$$?
“[A]s book sales fall and publishing houses look for ways to cut costs, many literary agents are growing increasingly worried that publishers looking to trim their lists will start holding authors to deadlines and using lateness as an occasion to renegotiate advances and, in some cases, terminate contracts altogether.”
Belfast Taxi Makes A Cramped But Mobile Stage
“Two Roads West is set in a most unusual theatrical setting – the inside of a Belfast black taxi cab. For just over an hour an audience of up to five people travel around in a theatre-on-wheels as the taxi criss-crosses the Falls and Shankill Roads and tells the story of one woman’s journey home after 40 years in exile outside Northern Ireland.”
Arts TV At A Crossroads
“While big broadcasters mutter about public service remit and top-slicing the licence fee, the tiniest galleries and dance companies are producing videos of their own. … Channel Five may have ditched its last arts programme in 2008 (Tim Marlow On . . . ), but does this matter when orchestras, theatres, even newspaper arts desks now make their own web TV? Are we witnessing the end of an era, or the birth of a new one?”
Britney Spears, Slowed Down And Turned Into Opera
Composer Jacob Cooper’s opera, “Timberbrit” — “as in Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears” — is “a tragic tale that imagines Spears’ last concert, in the final hours of her life. … Cooper began work on the opera by experimenting with a technique called time-stretching. Using digital audio software, he slowed down Spears’ songs — and suddenly the light pop tunes seemed hauntingly tragic.”