“Ballet Master Peter Martins, who kept the New York City Ballet in front of audiences as its Lincoln Center home was being renovated, earned $699,000 in pay and benefits for the year ending in June 2008, according to the company’s tax return. The Danish-born dancer and choreographer took a 1 percent cut from the previous year’s $706,000.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Guthrie Reports First Deficit In 14 Years (But It’s Slight)
“Despite increases in ticket revenue and contributions, the Guthrie Theater reported a small budget deficit — its first in 14 years — for the fiscal period that ended March 31. The deficit was $67,898 on expenses of $27.88 million, and the organization will cover that with funds from prior surpluses.” Ticket sales were strong until September, when they “headed south and never recovered.”
Skylight Soap Opera: Performers Fired, Former A.D. Quits
William Theisen, the former artistic director of Skylight Opera Theatre whose June firing ignited controversy and protests, has canceled his agreement to direct four shows in the company’s upcoming season. “Theisen backed out because the company’s managing director, Eric Dillner, fired two of his cast members,” who had “supported Theisen and criticized Dillner in comments on Facebook and on blogs.” Theisen’s withdrawal was followed by a cascade of artist departures.
The Addictiveness Of U.S. TV: Bet You Can’t Watch Just One
“American television series are more addictive than British ones, according to a poll of British viewers. … [B]y and large, they’re right. American series are more addictive. But that’s because, for commercial reasons, they have to be. American television bosses are much more ruthless than ours.”
Maestro Downes’ Daughter On Supporting Parents’ Suicide
“Sitting last week in the London house in which she grew up surrounded by shelves lined with thousands of her father’s books, Boudicca took a deep breath and began to explain why she had supported her parents; why she had backed not just her mother, who had only a few, painful months left, but also her father, who may have lived for a decade or more.”
Plummer Tempest? Stratford Eyes Toronto Co-Production
“The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has been in discussion with Toronto’s annual Luminato arts festival to bring The Tempest – starring Christopher Plummer – to the stage next year, a source close to the talks says. … At first glance, it might not make much sense for Stratford to cannibalize its own audience by staging a play in Toronto,” but the festival has been strapped for cash lately, and Luminato has plenty.
The City As Stage Set: Why We Still Crave Urban Centers
“The physical need to occupy a specific patch of earth has never been less important to one’s success. Everything we might acquire can be tracked down online; most culture we seek can be procured through a handheld device. … All this should signal a death knell to the traditional core. Instead – recession aside – marquee hubs such as San Francisco stand more desirable than ever.”
Pittsburgh Opera Aims To Have Green-Certified Home
“After redding up the George Westinghouse Air Brake factory in the Strip District for its new headquarters, the Pittsburgh Opera today will announce plans to ‘green’ its new home enough that it be considered for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Operations and Maintenance Certification.”
Connecting With Community Is Museums’ New Priority
“The graying of the traditional museum patron, the shifting global demographic mix, and the new cultural consumption habits of a younger generation are forcing most museums to make fundamental and not always comfortable changes – refashioning themselves from bastions of remote culture into social centers and community hubs.”
Is Philly’s Museum Landscape About To Get Too Crowded?
“Museums eat money. They need operating revenue, development funds, an endowment. They crave donors. They compete for visitors, which makes them hunger for blockbuster shows to keep attendance high. There’s concern that with so many big museums charging admission in a withering economy, some organizations will suffer.” Is the addition of two more museums in Philadelphia a good thing?